La Genetica Forense al servizio dell’identificazione delle vittime nei disastri di massa: Risultati preliminari dell’“Experimental Mass Grave Project”

[Machine translation] Forensic Genetics at the service of identifying victims in mass disasters: the preliminary results of the “Experimental Mass Grave Project”, The need to identify victims of mass disasters (Disaster Victim Identification - DVI) represents a challenge for forensic investigations. Developing and validating strategies for DVI is critical for humanitarian, ethical, and legal reasons. Every disaster has its own scenario, and each scenario defines its own methods for identifying bodies. , The use of genetic profiling as the main means of identification was suggested more than twenty years ago, and reinforced following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, since it is not only able to provide precise identification, but also to associate remains. To date, the extraction of DNA from human remains in an advanced state of decay or skeletonized remains is carried out mostly by sampling “hard” tissues such as bones and teeth. , The study presented originates from the Experimental Mass Grave Project (MGP) conducted at the Forensic Anthropology Center of Texas State University (FACTS), a research aimed at studying at a macroscopic, microscopic and biomolecular level the entire process of decomposition of human bodies inside mass graves and single tombs. , In particular, the forensic geneticists involved in the study carried out samples aimed at evaluating the completeness of the genetic information obtained from skin, oral and rectal swabs taken when the donors arrived at FACT and after their freezing, which lasted from 11 to 455 days. Subsequently, the possibility of typing genetic profiles useful for comparison was evaluated starting from soft tissues/biological fluids sampled after 18 months of burial, evaluating even if there was a correlation between the goodness of the genetic profiles obtained and the degree of decomposition, the characteristics of the burial and the position of the donor in the mass grave. , The results of the study highlight a progressive loss of information with the freezing of bodies and their burial. Furthermore, the results obtained from the samples taken at the exhumation do not seem to be influenced by the degree of decomposition of the body and its position inside the mass grave. In the mass grave, phenomena of cross-contamination of biological material, higher levels of preservation of bodies compared to individual graves and lower DNA degradation have been observed. , In conclusion, the study made it possible to understand how freezing and burial can influence the personal identification of corpses in particular contexts such as mass disasters and at the same time emphasizes the importance in these circumstances of sampling as many tissues as possible in order to successfully identify an unknown corpse.