BODY IDENTIFICATION

EVERY year bodies wash up along South Africa’s shores, and

for many of these dead their final resting place is an unmarked

pauper’s grave.

Identifying those retrieved from the ocean or washed ashore is often difficult, but a team of researchers are working to change that.

The scientists from UCT have launched a pilot study to see if they can successfully extract DNA from corpses retrieved from the sea.

“It is a problem globally and a bigger problem for us in South Africa because of the increase in abalone poaching and drownings,” said Dr Victoria Gibbon, a senior lecturer and biological anthropologist.

The pilot study includes not only Gibbon, but also Belinda Speed, Laura Heathfield and Chandra Finaughty.

The problem that the SAPS and pathologists have is that traditional anthropological methods like the use of fingerprints or visual identification that help in putting a name to a body often don’t work.

The reason is because human remains decompose quickly in a

marine environment.

“In many cases, the remains that are washed ashore usually have little soft tissue present,” said Gibbon.

The researchers have been experimenting with pigs to see if it is possible to extract DNA from

their teeth.

Speed has been working on a research project that studies the decomposition of pigs in the sea.

“We have two cages bolted to the sea floor and Belinda has been doing pig decomposition studies for years in the ocean to understand the different processes,” said Gibbon. Pigs are used as a substitute for

humans.

“What this has shown is that it is very complex,” said Gibbon.

The team found that marine microbes and temperature fluctuations in the sea caused DNA

degradation.

“In this study, nuclear DNA was the main molecular target, as the South African Police Services Forensic Science Laboratories use only nuclear DNA to generate a

forensic DNA profile. “However, in our study, positive results were found for mitochondrial

DNA that displayed better preservation over nuclear DNA in some samples,” said Heathfield.

Many of the human remains that wash up along the beaches of Cape Town end up in the Salt River mortuary, one of 18 that are scattered across the province.

This mortuary, according to Gibbon, handles 4 000 bodies a year and, in 2015, 279 were the result of

water-related deaths.

One in 10 bodies that entered the Salt River mortuary in 2015 was

never identified.

The next phase of the research will involve studying the effects of the ocean on human teeth, which will be placed on the sea floor. If the scientists crack the process of extracting DNA, it will be a technique authorities around the world will be able to use to help families find closure. |