Reliable genetic identification of burnt human remains

Schwark, Thorsten; Heinrich, A.; Preusse-Prange, A.; Wurmb‐Schwark, Nicole von

doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2010.08.008

Cited by 58 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…If the strength of the fire has been increased using fire accelerants or perhaps by the combustion of some highly combustible material in the vicinity and the bodies of the deceased have been carbonized, the soft tissue may have been destroyed and the bones severely burnt and moreor-less disintegrated. In this case, genetic analysis may be possible using the lesser burned areas and/or better preserved bones or teeth, although it is important to take into consideration during the sample-gathering process for nuclear or mitochondrial DNA analysis [39][40][41], the avoidance of areas of potential contamination which could preclude successful genetic examination, e.g., areas burnt with an accelerant, as well as to specifically locate gathering areas which may potentially contain usable information that is difficult or near impossible to visually detect.…”

Section: Burnt Human Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Most Common Medico-Legal Autopsy-Related Human and Nonhuman Biological Samples for DNA Analysis

Pádár¹,

Zenke²,

Kozma³

2018

Post Mortem Examination and Autopsy - Current Issues From Death to Laboratory Analysis

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The identification and individualization of biological evidences is crucial to actual criminal investigations. In spite of the differences at the national level, all the legal processes attribute particular importance to forensic DNA analysis. However, none of the qualified results from any professional laboratory can produce substantive, valuable evidence with insufficient quality of samples and/or problems with provision of a pristine and controlled environment. The methodology and efficiency of sampling are distinct in case of living persons and in medico-legal autopsy and crime scenes. This chapter is a short overview from the basic introductory information up to ongoing research, and in accordance with constraints on the chapter size, it briefly discusses the important topics of sample collection at medico-legal autopsy for DNA analysis. The content sorts the major types of samples, reviews the common methods of sampling and the potential risk of poor sampling or contamination transfer. The corpses can be more or less degraded, which in special cases (e.g., paraffin embedded tissues, drowned, burning and/or buried cadaver) allow only for analysis of highly degraded samples. The samples can be associated with tissues of a corpse (e.g., blood, soft tissues, bone, tooth, hair) and/or additional extraneous tissues and remains, which are often mixed (e.g., blood, saliva, semen, vaginal fluid, debris of fingernails) on the corpse.

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Section: Burnt Human Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Most Common Medico-Legal Autopsy-Related Human and Nonhuman Biological Samples for DNA Analysis

Pádár¹,

Zenke²,

Kozma³

2018

Post Mortem Examination and Autopsy - Current Issues From Death to Laboratory Analysis

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“…Moreover, it is the method of choice in routine forensic case work when, e.g., putrefied, skeletonized, or severely burned corpses have to be identified and no other method such as comparison of dental records, fingerprints, or identification by tattoos is applicable. There have been several studies published on improving DNA extraction and/or STR analysis especially for highly degraded tissues from putrefied tissues or severely burned bodies so that a kinship analysis is possible [1,2]. STR results from the deceased can be compared to data from living offsprings or from parents Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00414-015-1252-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

About the power of biostatistics in sibling analysis—comparison of empirical and simulated data

et al. 2015

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The determination of potential sibship is a common task in routine kinship analysis, but often the putative parents are not available for analysis anymore. Then, a sibling analysis has to be conducted investigating only the potential siblings, thus reducing the power of the conclusion. In an attempt to determine meaningfulness of biostatistical calculations, 346 dizygotic twin pairs, 30 confirmed half siblings, and 112 unrelated people (to generate 6216 pair comparisons) were studied, all genetically typed using at least the Powerplex® 16 STRs. From every pair, the probabilities for a full sibship (identical parents) and half sibship (different fathers) were calculated using a commercially available computer program. Additionally, we simulated marker data for one million pairs of full sibs, half sibs, and unrelated persons each. Ninety-five percent of full sibling pairs demonstrated a likelihood ratio (LR) > 9 (W-value > 90 %) and less than 4% of these showed a LR < 3 (W-value < 75%) for full sibship after analysis of 15 STRs. The results for half siblings are less unambiguous. Here, only 57% achieved a LR > 9 and 23% a LR < 3. Regarding the unrelated pairs, more than 90% had a LR < 1/9 and only 2% reached a LR > 9. All in all, our results show that 15 to 20 STRs have sufficient power for analyses in kinship. Moreover, our data provide a statistical basis for the determination of the information content of a LR/W-value in a sibship case. Investigating an identical number of full siblings and unrelated pairs, it could be shown that 92% of pairs with a LR > 9 for full sibship probability really are full siblings. So, setting a cutoff level for full sibship at LR > 9, less than 10% of pairs will be wrongly assumed as full siblings even though they are unrelated.

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“…This has resulted in an increasing number of studies concentrating on the effect of heat treatment on bone mineral, allowing cooking practices and funeral practices of our ancestors to be further understood . Burnt bone is often rejected as suitable material for isotope and DNA analysis due to the changes in composition during heating . The potential for obtaining an isotopic or DNA profile from burnt bone material has also recently been investigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial observations of dynamically heated bone

Greenwood

Rogers

Beckett

et al. 2013

Crystal Research and Technology

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dynamically heated bone, lattice parameters.Understanding the chemical changes within bone during heat treatment has become essential within many fields including biomaterials, archaeology and forensic science. All current approaches report the systematic heating and cooling of bone specimens (a 'static' approach). These provide information on modifications to mineral structure and chemistry including recrystallisation and thermal decomposition from bone specimens cooled to room temperature. In order to understand these fundamental processes further, we adopted, for the first time, a dynamic heating protocol coupled to an X-ray diffraction probe, which provides in situ analysis at temperature. This approach allows physico-chemical processes to be observed at elevated temperatures for five different bone types: bovine, porcine, human, rostrum and red deer antler. The results, when compared to static heating studies, illustrate individually the effects of heating and cooling upon bone mineral. On heating, the onset of recrystallisation occurs rapidly over a short temperature range for all bone types. It is proposed the continued growth of the hydroxyapatite crystals is limited by the mineral to organic ratio. Investigation of the lattice parameters has also indicated significant differences between the bone types, suggesting species differentiation is possible using X-ray diffraction analysis. Statistical analysis of the 'a' axis lattice parameter data revealed human bone is distinguishable from the other bone types.

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Reliable genetic identification of burnt human remains

Cited by 58 publications

References 26 publications

Most Common Medico-Legal Autopsy-Related Human and Nonhuman Biological Samples for DNA Analysis

Most Common Medico-Legal Autopsy-Related Human and Nonhuman Biological Samples for DNA Analysis

About the power of biostatistics in sibling analysis—comparison of empirical and simulated data

Initial observations of dynamically heated bone

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