Years later, DNA samples confirm loved ones’ fates

NEW YORK — For families who have searched years for missing loved ones, donating a sample of their DNA is often a last, desperate act to confirm their worst fears.

New York City’s medical examiner is leading a nationwide effort to collect genetic material and match it with unidentified human remains. It’s a way to finally give family members some answers and maybe some solace.

“People will not rest without answers, at least some answers,” said Dr. Barbara Sampson, the city’s chief medical examiner.

Over the past decade, thousands of DNA samples have been donated to the city’s medical examiner’s office. Most include swabs of saliva from close relatives, but also DNA taken from items used by the missing people themselves.

They’ve led to the identification of about 50 missing people each year, all of whom had been found dead. But for many who have submitted samples, the wait continues.

“Part of you hopes they never call you, because if they call, that means it’s over,” said Rose Cobo, who submitted DNA to the program after her adult niece vanished in 2016 after being treated at a Brooklyn hospital for postpartum depression following the birth of a son. Chelsea Cobo’s whereabouts are still unknown.

On any given day, there are as many as 100,000 active missing-persons cases in the U.S., according to the FBI’S National Crime Information Center. Most of those people are eventually found safe.

The New York City medical examiner’s office has been a pioneer in advanced DNA techniques since 9/11, when it was tasked with using genetic evidence to identify and sort tens of thousands of small pieces of human remains found in the rubble of the World Trade Center.