By Erin Parke.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) are creating the nation’s first database of unidentified bodies, revealing there are 500 sets of human remains currently languishing in morgues and laboratories.
AFP victim-based crime coordinator Marina Simoncini said the remains, some only a fragment of bone, were found scattered across Australia before being put in the care of state and territory police.
“When you do have unidentified human remains it’s like looking at a needle in the haystack,” she said.
“You can take DNA from the bone for instance, but what do you actually match it to know who that person may have been?
“So this year the National Missing Persons Victim System went live, which will allow us to cross-match unidentified human remains with long-term missing persons at a state by state level, as well as at a national level.”
The details of 1,600 long-term missing persons files have been entered into the new database.
In January, state and territory police will begin uploading details of the unidentified remains, in a process expected to take about six months.
Police investigators, pathologists and others involved in solving cases will have access to the information, some of which may eventually become accessible to the public.
The hope is the database will help match long-term missing persons with remains found in different state or territories, solving cold-cases and providing some resolution for families left wondering what happened to a loved one.
Stephanie Fielding’s been grief-stricken ever since her brother Rigby disappeared after visiting friends in East Perth 18 months ago.
“It’s terrible not knowing what could have happened to him, or where he might be now,” Ms Fielding said.
“It’s affected all of us in the family in different ways, but they’ve all been bad, not having him to be able to have a funeral for or grieve over prolongs it, so it’s a perpetual state of grief.”
She said families would be closely watching the progress of the database.
“I was really shocked that this hasn’t been done before, but hopefully there’s 500 families out there that may get some sort of closure for their missing people,” Ms Fielding said.
“I think when people go missing this long you’ve already come to the realisation that they’re not around and that something bad has happened to them, but having that closure and knowing where they are and what’s happened, I think people can move forward from that and get on with their lives.”