Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T01:24:23.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rapid Disaster Victim Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents: Decision-Support Tool to Facilitate Human Remains Identification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2013

Sergio de Cosmo  and
Joseph A. Barbera
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives: A quantitative decision-support tool (DST), using a combination of selected human physical attributes as identification elements, was developed to facilitate body identification in mass fatality incidents, particularly in settings with limited availability of technological resources and forensic expertise.

Methods: To construct the DST, the external biological attributes of interest were first selected. A process was then developed to guide collection of the selected categories of attributes and record them into objective antemortem (AM) and postmortem (PM) records. Finally, a framework for assessing the similarity between confronting PM-AM attribute records was established. The DST evaluates the similarities between each set of like attributes in the AM and PM records being compared. It then computes an overall similarity score for each evaluated AM record that was compared to a selected PM record. The AM record with the highest score represents the highest probable match, with the PM file selected for the comparison.

Results: Multiple simulations across a range of mass fatality situations demonstrated the effectiveness of the DST in the experimental setting.

Conclusions: The developed DST may provide authorities with a method for expediting body identification without completely eliminating any missing person file from consideration. Under specific circumstances, this method may reduce the need for technologically sophisticated forensic identification techniques (eg, dental records, fingerprints, and DNA). At a minimum, it should facilitate the efficiency of the current technological matching process.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:277–290)

Keywords

mass fatality incidentsidentificationantemortem formspostmortem formsdecision-support system
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , October 2012 , pp. 277 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Morgan, OWSribanditmongkol, PPerera, CSulasmi, YVan Alphen, DSondorp, E.Mass fatality management following the South Asian tsunami disaster: case studies in Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. PLoS Med. 2006;3 (6):e195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations.Washington, DC: Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization; 2004:194. http://www.paho.org/english/dd/ped/deadbodiesbook.pdf. Accessed January 12, 2012.Google Scholar
3.Jensen, RA.Mass Fatality and Casualty Incidents: A Field Guide.Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 1999:245.Google Scholar
4.Disaster Victim Identification Guide. Lyon, France: International Criminal Police Organization; 1997:82. http://www.fbiic.gov/public/2008/apr/Disaster_Victim_ID_Guide.pdf. Accessed January 12, 2012.Google Scholar
5.Fixott, RHArendt, DChrz, BFilippi, J McGivney, JWarnick, A.Role of the dental team in mass fatality incidents. Dent Clin North Am. 2001;45 (2):271–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Mass Fatality Incidents: A Guide for Human Forensic Identification (NCJ 199758).Washington, DC: Dept of Justice (US); 2005:79. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/199758.pdf. Accessed January 12, 2012.Google Scholar
7.Kenyon International Emergency Services. Summary document of identification system and process to return tsunami victims.Houston, TX: Kenyon International Emergency Services website. http://www.kenyoninternational.com. Accessed May 5, 2005.Google Scholar
8.Lain, RGriffiths, CHilton, JM.Forensic dental and medical response to the Bali bombing: a personal perspective. Med J Aust. 2003;179 (7):362–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Keiser-Nielsen, S.Dental identification: certainty V probability. Forensic Sci. 1977;9 (2):87–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Thompson, TJUBlack, SM.Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction.Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press; 2007:518.Google Scholar
11.Brannon, RBMorlang, WM.The crash of LOT flight 007: dental identification. J Forensic Sci. 2002;47 (6):1323–1325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Mühlemann, HRSteiner, EBrandestini, M.Identification of mass disaster victims: the Swiss identification system. J Forensic Sci. 1979;24 (1):173–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13.Warren, CP.Personal identification of human remains: an overview. J Forensic Sci. 1978;23 (2):388–395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14.Farinelli-Fierro, M.Identification of human remains.In: Spitz UW, Fisher RS, eds. Spitz and Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guidelines for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigation. 3rd ed. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas; 1993:829.Google Scholar
15.De Cosmo, S.Decision Support Tool for Mass Fatality Victim Identification [doctoral dissertation].Washington, DC: George Washington University; 2012:225.Google Scholar
16.International Committee of the Red Cross. Human Remains and Forensic sciences, Electronic Workshop, 02.2002 - 03.2002; Human Remains: Law, Politics and Ethics, 23.05.2002 - 24.05.2002 and Human Remains: Management of Remains and of Information on the Dead 10.07.2002 - 12.07.2002, Workshops: Final Report and Outcome (ICRC/TheMissing/10.2002/EN/3).Geneva, Switzerland: International Committee of the Red Cross; 2002.Google Scholar
17.National Association of Medical Examiners Standard Operating Procedures for Mass Fatality ManagementMarceline, MO: National Association of Medical Examiners; 2010.Google Scholar
18.Mass Fatality Management Plan. (Final, July 2008). Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, State of Delaware. http://dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/dph/php/files/mfmplan.pdf. Accessed January 12, 2012.Google Scholar
19.Anderberg, MR.Cluster Analysis for Applications.New York, NY: Academic Press; 1973:359.Google Scholar
20.Andritsos, P.Scalable Clustering of Categorical Data and Applications [doctoral dissertation].Toronto, ON: University of Toronto; 2004:186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Bozdgan, H.Statistical Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.London, England: Chapman & Hall/CRC; 2003:621.Google Scholar
22.Wilson, DR.Advances in Instance-Based Learning Algorithms [doctoral dissertation].Provo, UT: Brigham Young University; 1997:171.Google Scholar
23.Wilson, RDMartinez, TR.Improved heterogeneous distance functions. J Artif Intell Res. 1997;6:1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.Han, JKamber, M.Cluster analysis.In: Han J, Kamber M, eds. Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 2001:550.Google Scholar
25.Galloway, ABirkby, WHJones, AMHenry, TEParks, BO.Decay rates of human remains in an arid environment. J Forensic Sci. 1989;34 (3):607–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.Lumijärvi, JLaurikkala, JJuhola, M.A comparison of different heterogeneous proximity functions and Euclidean distance. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2004;107 (pt 2):1362–1366.Google ScholarPubMed
27.Podani, J.Extending Gower's general coefficient of similarity to ordinal characters. Taxon. 1999;48 (2):331–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28.Kieser, JALaing, WHerbison, P.Lessons learned from large-scale comparative dental analysis following the South Asian tsunami of 2004. J Forensic Sci. 2006;51 (1):109–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29.Komar, D.Lessons from Srebrenica: the contributions and limitations of physical anthropology in identifying victims of war crimes. J Forensic Sci. 2003;48 (4):713–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30.Djuric, MDunjic, DDjonic, DSkinner, M.Identification of victims from two mass-graves in Serbia: a critical evaluation of classical markers of identity. Forensic Sci Int. 2007;172 (2-3):125–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed