ID of 17 people in morgues unknown

THERE are 17 unidentified bodies lying in morgues across Ireland and, under Irish law, they can remain there until they are identified.

This week gardaí called in Interpol in a bid to identify the remains of one foreigner who has been in the mortuary at University Hospital Limerick since 2012. The remains of a woman, also unidentifiable, have also been there since August 2016. A UHL spokesmann said: ‘Interpol has been advised in relation to the remains of a male who has been in the mortuary for five years. It is understood that he is a non-Irish national.’ They added: ‘Under Irish law, there is no specific timeframe regarding how long remains can be held without relatives claiming them, or in the case of remains being unidentifiable. This is at the discretion of the Coroner’s Office. In circumstances where a body cannot be identified and no family or next-of-kin are known, this can result in bodies being held in the UHL mortuary until such time as we are otherwise instructed.’ DNA samples in both those cases have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Dublin’s Phoenix Park for analysis. It is understood neither was from Limerick. The Department of Justice has confirmed that profiles from 17 unidentified bodies in the State are now on the DNA database, which contains just under 11,000 DNA profiles. The DNA database was introduced in November 2015 under the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2015. It is predominantly used to link suspects to crime scenes but it also contains DNA of missing people and their blood relatives.