DNA Identification of “Earthquake McGoon” 50 Years Postmortem

Abstract

This report describes the genetic identification of James "Earthquake McGoon" McGovern, a WWII fighter ace who perished in Laos while providing supplies to French troops during the French Indochina war. Because reference samples were unavailable for all of the potential casualties, testing of the entire mitochondrial genome, autosomal STRs and Y-chromosomal STRs was performed to increase the genetic information available for analysis. Kinship analyses performed on the evidentiary data and numerous indirect family references for McGovern excluded other possible casualties and definitively established McGovern's identity. This particular case demonstrates the practical utility of novel research technologies and aggressive genetic typing protocols in the identification of aged, degraded remains.

Molecular genetic identification of skeletal remains from the Second World War Konfin I mass grave in Slovenia

“…Of the total 36 possible identifications (of the 88 victims, reference samples were obtained for 36 massacre victims only), we matched 28 victims to living relatives with high confidence of correct identification (PP ranged from 99.9% to more than 99.999999%). Similar to the experience of Irwin et al [6], our experience shows that a combination of a higher number of genetic markers provides extremely high LRs that support the hypothesis that individuals' bones are related to the family references, rather than unrelated individuals. If we had analyzed only autosomal STR loci, we would have been able to identify only 12 victims with a high confidence of correct identification.…”

“…MtDNA testing is regularly employed in forensic identification of aged skeletal remains [2–4], but mtDNA typing alone is often insufficient for identification, and the analysis of nuclear short tandem repeat (STR) loci is required [5]. The identification of the 50-year-old skeletal remains of pilot James B. McGovern [6] serves as a good example, because the presence of a common mtDNA control region type limited the discriminatory power of the mtDNA data, and it was only after analyses of autosomal STR loci and Y chromosomal STR loci (Y-STRs) were performed that the likelihood ratio (LR) reached a value that supported the hypothesis that the bone was from an individual related to the family references, rather than from an unrelated individual. However, due to the rather long time span since the Second World War massacres, it is difficult to find living relatives to identify the victims in mass graves.…”

Massively parallel sequencing of complete mitochondrial genomes from hair shaft samples

“…With complete mtGenome data, the most common U.S. Caucasian, African American and Hispanic HVS-I/HVS-II types can be reduced from, in turn, 7 to 2%, 3.6 to 1% and 2.3 to 0.5%, respectively [4,5]. In addition, mtDNA coding region SNPs have been useful for resolving missing persons cases in which more than one reference family share the same CR haplotype [5,6], the sorting and re-association of commingled skeletal remains [5], and increasing statistical support when exclusionary references are unavailable [7]. Though shed hairs are one of the most commonly encountered evidence types, they are among the most limited in terms of DNA quantity and quality.…”

Highly efficient nuclear DNA typing of the World War II skeletal remains using three new autosomal short tandem repeat amplification kits with the extended European Standard Set of loci

“…Mitochondrial DNA testing has been regularly employed in the forensic identification of aged skeletal remains (7-10). Recently, some articles have reported a successful typing of nuclear short tandem repeats (STR) from ancient material using an increased number of cycles (11-18). In 2009 and 2010, new amplification kits were developed to meet the European Network of Forensic Institutes and the European DNA Profiling group recommendations for increasing the European Standard Set (ESS) of loci to improve its discrimination power and to fulfill the increasing requirements regarding sensitivity and reproducibility for the analysis of minute amounts of DNA by adopting five additional mini-STRs: D2S441, D10S1248, D22S1045, D1S1656, and D12S391 (19,20).…”