title: The strategies to DVI challenges in Typhoon Morakot.
abstract: Small village populations in which there is a high amount of kinship can cause complications in cases of disaster victim identification. This problem was highlighted by the loss of life after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan where over 500 people from small isolated communities lost their lives. Most of the victims were buried by landslides in the remote mountainous areas of southern Taiwan. Only 146 pieces of human remains were recovered after searching for 4 months. Most of the human remains were received for examination as severely damaged fragments prevented possible identification by morphological features. DNA testing using the traditional duo parent/child or sibling screening by STR data opens the possibility of including not only the actual victim but also false positives. Variable likelihood ratios were obtained when comparing DNA types from human remains to those from potential relatives; however, with the DNA typing of numerous members of the same living family, multiple matches to potential families were avoided. Of the 146 samples obtained and collapsed to 130 victims, they were linked to 124 individuals resulting in their identification when compared to a pool of 588 potential relatives. Six of the human remains could not be linked to any living relative and remain unknown.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, No. 166-1 Keelung Road Section 2, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chun-Yen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Tsun-Ying
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hsuan-Cheng
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Chiao-Hsuan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Liang-Ju
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hua-Sheng
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Chih-Hsin
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Hui-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Hsin-Lin
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wen-Chi
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Kun-Tien
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chi-Hsiang
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: Nu-En
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Kun-Da
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hsing-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Li-Chin
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Linacre
authors.forename: Yu-Jen
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yen-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Pao-Ching
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: James Chun-I
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004190:Disasters; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005787:Gene Frequency; D056426:Genetic Loci / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D054527:Mass Casualty Incidents / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D010334:Paternity; D010375:Pedigree; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011336:Probability; D013624:Taiwan