When identifying a body, professional investigators and detectives rely on evidence collected in homes, medical records and interviews with family and friends to eliminate mistakes.
In Louisiana, a corps of dedicated volunteers have been reuniting loved ones and identifying thousands of bodies left by Hurricane Katrina in a region where many homes were obliterated, dentists? offices washed away and phone service is still spotty, nearly one year later.
“If they have something that has the person?s DNA on it, a brush or toothbrush, that?s the best thing,” said Jessica Rispoli, instructor with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “The next best thing to do is get DNA from a family member.”
The DNA will provide an imperfect match, but if two or three surviving family members can give a sample, it helps eliminate errors, she said. First-degree relatives ? brothers, sisters, parents, children, provide the best likelihood of a match.
Finding those matches meant ironing out sometimes complicated family histories, and that means a lot of time on the phone making sure someone?s “sister” is not really a step-sister or half-sister.
“You also have to be sensitive, because you?re talking to people who are grieving, and it?s a special kind of grief, because they don?t really know if that person is alive or not,” assistant professor Toni Pollin said.
The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore sent Pollin, Rispoli and two other DNA analysts to Baton Rouge, La., this year, said Mimi Blitzer, head of the school?s department of genetics. They went one at a time, for one week each.
They helped man a phone bank, taking calls from concerned family members, tracking down their loved ones and identifying DNA test candidates, sometimes sending someone to a lab in another state or another country for testing. They also helped find live survivors, including a few people reported missing before the hurricane.
Each time they or any of the volunteers at the Louisiana Family Assistance Center verified the location of a missing person, they got to ring a bell at the front of their office and everyone cheered. Others laboriously cross-referenced master lists of missing persons and those making the requests with new requests to see if they could put people in touch immediately.
Pollin said it was difficult adjusting from her medical work at the university ? where privacy concerns are paramount ? to a law-enforcement mission. The Louisiana Family Assistance Center works under the auspices of the State Police as a formal ongoing missing person investigation.
“It was just very sobering, the whole experience, the whole tour,” Rispoli said, getting suddenly quiet. “We were down there eight months after the hurricane and the amount of devastation that remained …” she trailed off.
But they also received a warm welcome from most people they contacted.
“One person told me ?I?m getting in my car right now. I?m going to drivedown the street and put you on the phone with him,? ” Rispoli said.
By the numbers
» Found alive: 10,694
» Still missing: 163
» Confirmed storm victims: 906
» DNA samples: 575
Source: Louisiana State Police
