DVI News 15 August 2011
16/Aug/2011
39 years after disappearance, son's ashes are returned6 August 2011. USA.
Erma Sickman was 39 when her son disappeared.
Thirty-nine years later, she found out he was slain by a serial killer in Texas.
On Saturday at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Springfield, Erma was finally able to hold a memorial service to honor him.
But before she was able to honor her only boy's memory, his body was misidentified years ago and given to another family who cremated the remains believing it was their son.
On Aug. 8, 1973, a story broke about a serial killer in Houston.
According to an earlier Associated Press story, police had uncovered 27 bodies (to date, they know of 29), all boys between the ages of 13 and 21. They were all victims of Dean Corll and his two teenage accomplices, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks.
Corll paid Brooks and Henley to kidnap and deliver boys to him.
When Erma heard the news, she thought her son was among the dead. She went directly to the morgue.
But this was before DNA and Steve's body was not identified.
Sharon Derrick, forensic anthropologist with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston, said the best identification at that time was through dental records, radiographs to compare broken bones, clothes and family help.
For years, there was no answer for Erma Sickman.
Once DNA was discovered, she submitted it, but it was later lost.
In 2009, Derrick asked Erma to resubmit DNA, and on March 5 this year, she called and told Sickman her son had been identified.
The problem was his body had been thought to be that of Mark Scott, another boy who disappeared. The body had been given to the Scott family.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/
Missing World War II Army Air Forces soldiers identified
8 August 2011. USA.
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced Aug. 1 that remains of 12 U.S. servicemen, missing in action from World War II, had been identified and would be returned to their families for burial with full military honours.
The 12 airmen were ordered to carry out a reconnaissance mission in their B-24D Liberator, taking off from an airfield near Port Moresby, New Guinea, on Oct. 27, 1943. The crew's assigned area of reconnaissance was the nearby shipping lanes in the Bismarck Sea. But during their mission, they were radioed to land at a friendly air strip nearby due to poor weather conditions. The last radio transmission from the crew did not indicate their location, and in the following weeks, multiple searches over land and sea areas did not locate the aircraft.
Following World War II, the Army Graves Registration Service conducted investigations and searches for 43 missing airmen, including the Airmen, in the area but concluded in June 1949 that they were unrecoverable.
In August 2003, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command received information on a crash site from a citizen in Papua New Guinea. A team was able to successfully excavate the site from January to March 2007 where they found several identification tags from the B-24D crew, as well as human remains.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA, which matched that of some of the crewmembers' families, in the identification of their remains.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.
TRC Exhumation Team in Koleasi, Central Guadalcanal
8 August 2011. Solomon Islands.
Today the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Exhumations Team are in Koleasi Village, Central Guadalcanal to carry out its first exhumation.
The exhumation will be carried out on Koleasi Village on a victim of the recent ethnic crisis who was from South Guadalcanal but was buried there. The exhumation TRC is carrying out is a mandate of the commission under the TRC Act of 2008 which is done to bring a closure and to begin the healing process to families of victims.
The exhumation will proceed at the village by the exhumation Team which comprise of the TRC Exhumation Coordinator Francis Kapini, his two assistants Anna Pitaboe and Betty Luvusia; visiting experts of Forensic Anthropologists and Forensic Archeologists; our local pathologists Dr. Rogers of NRH; and the RSIPF with the support of PPF.
http://www.solomonstarnews.
Nine Die in Nursing Home Fire in Chile
8 August 2011.
Nine people died in a fire early Monday at a nursing home in Cañete, a city in southern Chile, police said.
About 20 people were at the nursing home when the fire started just after midnight.
The blaze, which may have been caused by a problem with a heater, completely destroyed The victims – five women and four men – ranged in age from 70 to 88 and suffered from a variety of health problems that prevented them from getting out of the burning structure.
http://laht.com/article.asp?
Families ID Troops Killed in Chopper Crash
9 August 2011. USA.
Family members and friends have identified a few of the fallen soldiers from the deadly helicopter crash in Afghanistan over the weekend. The Department of Defense has yet to formally release the names of those who died. The Pentagon announced that the remains will be brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday.
Nearly two dozen Navy SEALs are among the 30 Americans who died in action when a Taliban fighter with a rocket-propelled grenade reportedly fired on the chopper. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/
Nine Dead in Brazil Construction Accident
9 August 2011.
Nine people died Tuesday when a construction elevator plunged 20 stories at a building site in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Salvador, fire rescue said.
The accident took place around 7:30 a.m. as the elevator was climbing above the 20th floor of an office building under construction.
None of the occupants survived.
http://laht.com/article.asp?
No survivors of An-12 plane crash
10 August 2011. Russia.
All the eleven people on board the An-12 plane that met with an accident in the Magadan Region on Tuesday, have died, aide to the head of the Rosaviatsiya Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky told Itar-Tass.
The plane was found 70 kilometers southwest of the village of Omsukchan, whereas its beacon's signal was detected 50 kilometers away
"At 12:50, Moscow time, Emergency Situations Ministry personnel arrived at the location where the missing liner was detected during aerial surveillance," an emergency official said.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/
Ariz. family in mix-up case files suit against state
10 August 2011. USA.
The family that planned a funeral only to learn their daughter had survived a horrific car crash has filed suit against the state.
Sergio and Maria Guerra, of Glendale, claim the state Department of Public Safety failed to follow protocols when officers said their daughter, Abby Guerra, 20, died in a crash last July as she returned home after a weekend trip to Disneyland.
Six days after the Guerras were told their daughter had died, officers contacted the family again.
They said Abby's close friend, 21-year-old Marlena Cantu, had actually died in the accident while Abby was in critical condition at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.
The Guerras' suit names DPS Director Robert Halliday, a DPS chaplain and four officers the family said failed to follow department policies.
According to DPS policy, officers must positively identify a deceased person before informing family members.
"If positive identification cannot be accomplished for any of several reasons, dental records, fingerprints, DNA samples or birth certificates may be of value. Alternatively, if positive identification is provided by a third party, all circumstances surrounding the identification should be documented," the DPS policy states.
In reports released last year, officers wrote that a nurse inaccurately identified the badly injured young woman in the hospital bed after officials struggled to identify the young woman dead at the scene of the crash.
The nurse, identified in reports as "Nurse Maria," asked the two women's parents about identifying marks. Guerra's mother said her daughter had a birthmark on her chest. Rather than let the parent look, the nurse checked and didn't notice one, according to the DPS report. She told officers Guerra had died and they informed the young woman's mother.
Days later, a Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office investigator said the dead woman he examined, and had been told was Guerra, had wisdom teeth. Guerra's were removed two months earlier. And there was no birthmark on her chest.
Within hours, the mix-up was confirmed.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/
An example of how visual identification can go wrong.
Death toll from SW China house explosion rises to five
10 August 2011.
The death toll from a house explosion Tuesday in southwest China's Yunnan Province rose to five, said local authorities Wednesday.
The blast occurred in a four-story residential house in the village of Shunhe in Weixin County.
The bodies of the four missing were later recovered, bringing the death toll to five.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
About 60 drown in Comoros shipwreck
11 August 2011.
A Comoran ship sailing from Moroni to Mutsamudu sank on Monday night off the coasts of Dzahadjou, about 20 kilometres south of Moroni, with the loss of 60 lives, according to the public prosecutor, Soilihi Mahamoudou.
Rescue workers mobilised on Tuesday from Chindini, including fishermen, the Comoran Red Crescent and gendarmerie, were retrieving bodies of victims
http://www.afriquejet.com/
Dentist does his part for Justice
11 August 2011. USA.
In nearly three decades, the Florida Association of Medical Examiners has presented the Outstanding Achievement Award to only two of its members.
Through his dedicated and diligent work in forensic odontology, Dr. Philip J. Levine of Pensacola became FAME's third recipient of the prestigious professional award.
The retired dentist earned the honor for his "commitment to the citizens of Florida and dedication to the field of forensic odontology," say the words inscribed on the crystal tear-drop shaped trophy.
For 29 years, Levine has used his dentistry expertise to assist the medical examiner and help law enforcement to solve crimes
He began cutting his teeth on forensic odontology in 1981 when he got a call that changed his life and career path.
Over the years, Levine has conducted hundreds of positive identification cases and bite mark exams
http://www.pnj.com/article/
Dentist Gets Her Fill of Emergency Response
11 August 2011. USA.
During the week, you'll find Dr. Terry Murphy-Swanson at Graceland Prairie Dental in Des Plaines filling cavities. But when the call comes through from DMORT, she's on the first plane to assist at a disaster site.
"In 1994, I became a forensic dentist and in 1995 I joined DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team). I went to Loyola Dental School in Maywood and I've been practicing dentistry since 1987. I'm also a member of the Cook County Disaster Team with the Cook County Medical Examiner's office."
Murphy-Swanson's first deployment was the World Trade Centre during 9-11.
The DMORT team is composed of medical examiners/coroners, forensic pathologists, forensic anthropologists, fingerprint specialists, forensic dentists and dental assistants, x-ray technologists, mental health, DNA, computer, security and evidence specialists.
"I do it because the families need closure. If I had lost a child or a mother, I would want them back. It's all for the family."
http://www.journal-topics.com/
Medical Examiners Identify Deceased in Chinook Crash
12 August 2011. USA.
All 30 Americans killed in the Aug. 6 crash of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in eastern Afghanistan have been identified, officials at the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System in Rockville, Md., said today.
Medical examiners were able to identify two of the eight Afghans killed in the crash, said Paul Stone, a spokesman for the medical examiner system. The identification work took place at the port mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
The remains could not be identified in theatre.
At Dover, the medical examiner system mobilized all members to aid in identifying the remains, Stone said, and the scientists and doctors in the system used multiple means to ascertain identities.
“The medical examiner’s office used the full complement of forensic techniques to obtain the identifications, to include fingerprint matching, dental examination, radiology and DNA matching,” Stone said. The identification process took about 48 hours.
The identification team consisted of 10 forensic pathologists, two forensic anthropologists, six odontologists and dentists, three FBI fingerprint experts, three forensic investigators, two histology technicians, and a three-person DNA team, Stone said.
Medical examiners also called on forensic photographers from the Army’s Medical Material Readiness Command and other personnel from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
http://www.defense.gov/news/
Six Die in Colombia Bus Crash
12 August 2011.
At least six people died and another 27 were injured Friday when the bus they were traveling in collided with another vehicle and ran off the road in north-eastern Colombia.
The bus slammed head-on into a truck coming the other way and then plunged into a ravine.
http://laht.com/article.asp?
Three suspects accused of "burying people alive"
12 August 2011. Hungary.
Two Hungarian citizens and one foreigner have been arrested for robbing and burying several people alive in Hungary, according to reports.
According to Hungarian state television MTV, the crime happened in the woods at the southern outskirts of Budapest. The police found three bodies and three human skulls that had been buried several months earlier.
The announcement said that the monstrous crime was revealed by one of the victims, a young man of Romanian descent, who managed to dig himself out of the hole, go home and notify the police
The mass grave indicates that the same method was used on several occasions.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/
Captain among seven killed in ship blast
13 August 2011. Oman.
A Pakistani country craft (a small wooden dhow) reportedly exploded off the coast of Salalah on Friday, killing seven, including the captain.
The explosion occurred near the one of the five Khuriya Muriya Islands.
Nine on board the ship were rescued by a ship and were being transported to the Sultanate.
http://www.timesofoman.com/
The truth is in there — FBI taking part in Dundee University skeleton studies
13 August 2011. Scotland.
But they are not in the city on a case — they are involved in a course that uses a unique collection at Dundee University's centre for anatomy and human identification (CAHID).
The two-week course has also attracted staff from the Netherlands Forensic Institute, and students from the UK, USA, Sweden and Finland.
The university holds the Scheuer Collection, the world's only active repository for juvenile skeletal remains.
It is being used to help improve techniques for identifying the remains of children.
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/
Death toll could rise from Sugarland concert accident
14 August 2011. USA.
Officials in Indianapolis said early Sunday that the toll could rise beyond the four confirmed dead after rigging and scaffolding collapsed onto a crowd waiting for the country band Sugarland to perform at the Indiana State Fair.
In the chaos afterward, scores of concertgoers rushed to the stage to lift broken scaffolding and equipment off people.
Although there were no accounts of missing people, authorities were searching the fairgrounds early Sunday for possible victims
http://latimesblogs.latimes.
Expert at Search Scene
14 August 2011.
Regional Forensic Pathologist at Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services Peter Ellis has arrived at the scene of the search for Daniel Morcombe.
Professor Ellis arrived about 3.30pm and was seen walking with two police officers towards the swampy area.
He was part of the team sent to PNG to identify those killed in the August 2009 Kokoda plane crash, and was involved in identifying victims of the Bali bombings and the 2004 Asian tsunami.
He is part of a team of Australian forensic specialists on call for Disaster Victim Identification nationally and internationally.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/
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