Geneticists in New York are using DNA science to help find missing people by identifying the remains of discovered dead bodies, easing the pains of those who desperately look for their missing loved ones.
For the past decade, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), led by Dr. Barbara Sampson, has been collecting thousands of DNA donated samples, including those extracted from swabs of saliva from close relatives, or from items used by the missing persons themselves such as toothbrushes, combs, razor blades.
The OCME, which investigates cases of persons who die within New York City from criminal violence, by casualty or by suicide through forensic science, uses the genetic material to find matches for them in unidentified human remains collected by the police.
“People will not rest without answers, at least some answers,” said Sampson, adding that the DNA samples have led to the identification of about 50 missing people each year, all of whom had been found dead.
Figures provided by the FBI's National Crime Information Center show that there are as many as 100,000 active missing-persons cases in the US on any given day.
Although most of these people are eventually found safe and sound, some disappear without any immediate trace, at least for a while. The OCME files cases for people who have been reported to be missing for 60 days or more.
According to Sampson, a considerable advance was made a couple of years ago allowing scientists to learn how to retrieve good genetic material out of bone fragments, compared to the time when DNA testing required a large sample of blood or saliva that was often destroyed in the process.
“Our job is to help identify your loved one and return them to you, no matter where in the United States. They don’t have to have died here in New York City,” said Mark Desire, assistant director of the medical examiner's Department of Forensic Biology.