DVI News 17 October 2011
17/Oct/2011
7 killed in building fire revealed to be illegal migrants10 October 2011. Turkey.
Police reported on Sunday that seven people who were found dead in a building fire in İstanbul's Sultangazi district at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday were illegal migrants and that their deaths, although caused by smoke inhalation, now look suspicious.
These seven people, who were at first thought to be highway workers according to neighbours' descriptions, were revealed to be illegal migrants, most likely on their way to Europe.
The victims were found by the firefighters stacked on top of each other in the bathroom of the building. Reporters who visited the scene following an investigation by police found two Indian passports and a Pakistani passport inside the building where the migrants were killed.
The reporters informed the police of their findings, and the police returned to the scene to conduct a more detailed second examination.
http://www.todayszaman.com/
13 abducted Chinese sailors confirmed dead, Thai authorities identify killers
10 October 2011
Thai authorities on Monday confirmed all the 13 Chinese crewmen on two hijacked ships were killed and identified the killers as a drug ring on the Mekong River in north Thailand.
Investigators suspected that a drug ring of Shan, or Tai Yai, ethnic group led by Nor Kham was responsible for the incident, Seramsak Seesan, chief of Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen District, where the incident occurred, told Xinhua.
The police found bodies of the Chinese sailors late last week. Three bodies, with hands tied and handcuffed behind their backs, were found on Friday. Another nine bodies were found on Saturday.
Searchers found the body of the last Chinese crewman in nearby Chiang Khong District early on Monday.
The bodies were identified as the crew of Yu Xing 8 Hao and Hua Ping.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Český DVI tým by mohl již příští rok trénovat ve Švýcarsku
Czech DVI Team to train in Switzerland next year
12 October 2011. Czechoslovakia.
A Czech team to identify victims of mass disasters (DVI Team) could be going to Switzerland as early as next year for training under bilateral cooperation it was announced on Wednesday in Prague.
After six years of preparation the Czech DVI Team would probably happen early next year.
Full article at: http://www.mediafax.cz/domaci/
Renewed Effort Aims to Identify Gacy’s Unknown Victims
12 October 2011. USA.
More than 30 years after 33 young men were murdered by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, detectives are relying on advancements in DNA technology in a new effort to identify eight victims who have never been identified, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced on Wednesday.
The eight unidentified victims of Gacy represent the single largest cold case investigation in Cook County Sheriff’s Office history.
In December 1978, Cook County Sheriff’s Police detectives, along with Des Plaines Police detectives, investigated a horrific crime scene under and around Gacy’s home in unincorporated Norwood Park. It was there – and in the Des Plaines River – that Gacy dumped 33 young men he lured into his home between 1972 and 1978, with promises of construction jobs, drugs and alcohol, by posing as a police officer or offering money for sex.
His identified victims disappeared between 1972 and 1978 and were white males between the ages of 14 and 21. They were from Chicago and other parts of the Midwest.
At that time, investigators only had the use of dental records, x-rays, missing persons reports and Gacy’s own confessions to identify victims. Though 25 victims have been identified, eight have continued to remain unidentified. Their race, gender, approximate height, approximate age and approximate time of disappearance are all that is known about them.
http://cookcountysheriff.org/
Border-crosser deaths reach a low, but still 182 people died
12 October 2011. USA.
Deaths along a stretch of Arizona's border with Mexico dropped to an eight-year low in the recently completed fiscal year, but remained within range of the average yearly tally of the last decade.
The 182 bodies of illegal border crossers recovered in fiscal year 2011 from New Mexico to Yuma County are the fewest since fiscal 2003 when 177 bodies were found, the Arizona Daily Star's border death database shows. The database is based on information from Southern Arizona county medical examiners during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The yearly totals don't necessarily reflect the number of people who died in that year because many bodies are found weeks or months later, often badly decomposed and skeletonized.
Of the 176 bodies handled by the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office in Tucson, at least 80 were skeletal remains, shows an unofficial count based on autopsy reports.
http://azstarnet.com/news/
Dead bodies pile up at Kintampo Hospital; mortuary facilities broken down
12 October 2011. Ghana.
Bodies of about 12 person who died from a fatal accident which occurred on the Kintampo road on Saturday have been abandoned at the Kintampo Hospital; worse still, facilities at the hospital’s mortuary have also broken down.
The tragic accident involving an articulated truck and bus claimed 16 lives.
The bodies were conveyed to the Kintampo Hospital but they could not be accommodated because the mortuary is inactive.
Inspector Baba Ayamba said it is difficult identifying the corpses because they had no identity cards. Meanwhile, four bodies from the Kintampo accident have so far been identified with 12 yet to be claimed. The corpses have since been temporarily embalmed awaiting relatives to convey them to proper storage facilities.
http://edition.myjoyonline.
Nepal bus crash kills 43
13 October 2011.
At least 43 people were killed Thursday when a bus veered off a mountain road in eastern Nepal and plunged 300 metres into a river, officials said.
"Forty-three dead bodies have already been recovered and the bus has been destroyed. It is likely that more bodies will be found near the crash site, which is very remote," said said Lokendra Shrestha, a police officer in Sindhuli district.
http://www.ekantipur.com/2011/
28 dead as Airlines PNG Dash 8 burst into flames
14 October 2011. Papua New Guinea.
FOUR crash survivors were last night taken to Yamad clinic near the crash site at Transgogol.
The four are two expatriate pilots, one of whom suffered a broken leg, a cabin crew member and another passenger believed to be an Asian who suffered slight burns.
They were last night being moved to Modilon hospital in Madang.
The 28 other passengers all died in the fiery crash, according to eyewitnesses from Marakum village, about three kilometres from the crash site.
An eyewitness told this paper last night at Marakum that the plane came down on the banks of the Guabe River and burst into flames on impact.
The witness said the passengers were all burnt to death and it appeared a fire in the cabin which started at the back contributed to the crash.
At 12midnight the first of the bodies of the crash victims had been retrieved and brought to the Modilon Hospital. Security was tight around the hospital as many residents had converged on the area after word started getting around of the incident.
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/
Exchange of body triggers tension in hospital
14 October 2011. India.
An exchange of bodies at a private hospital rocked the city on Thursday. Tension mounted at the Vivekananda hospital near Baramunda when family members of Debadutta Pradhan, who died in the hospital after a road accident, learnt that his body was taken away by the family members of Prahlada Sethi, who died in the hospital from some ailment on Thursday morning.
"The confusion took place because the bodies of Sethi and Pradhan were covered with white clothes and kept close to each other in the mortuary" a police officer said.
Pradhanas family members alleged that the hospital authorities did not put stickers, bearing the names of the deceased persons, leading to the confusion. “
The hospital rubbished the charges. "There was no negligence on our part. We had written the names of the deceased persons on the covers. The two family members should have checked the bodies properly," managing director of the hospital Dr Shiba Nandan Pati said.
http://articles.timesofindia.
Orthodontist disputes Gacy body allegation
14 October 2011. USA.
A suburban Chicago orthodontist says he is confident in his identification of a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
A judge last week ruled Sherry Marino may exhume a body found in 1978 inside Gacy's home to determine if it is really her son Michael, who disappeared in 1976 at the age of 14.
Edward Pavlik, a suburban Chicago orthodontist and expert in forensic odontology, told the Chicago Sun-Times that X-rays taken of Michael Marino's mouth before he disappeared show dental fillings that were identical to those found in the body he examined.
"I am a perfectionist," Pavlik told the newspaper. "I would never have signed off on this if it wasn't correct."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/
Asians among the dead.
15 October 2011. Papua New Guinea.
The Asian community in the country fear there could be up to 10 of their nationals involved in the Airlines PNG dash 8 crash on Thursday.
Although the list of casualties is yet to be released by the airline company, a Malaysian businessman based in Port Moresby told the Post Courier last night that many of their citizens living in the country knew of their travel to Madang but they have not yet heard from them since the accident.
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/
Disaster team quick to respond.
15 October 2011. Papua New Guinea.
National Disaster and Emergency Service officials in Madang moved quickly when news of the crash reached them, the Director General Martin Mose said yesterday.
“According to the emergency and coordinating team on the ground, as soon as they landed on the site, they started retrieving the bodies,” he said.
He said if the mortuary in Madang was full, they would transfer the bodies to Lae.
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/
The plane that never came
15 October 2011. Papua New Guinea.
At around 4pm on Thursday afternoon, a Divine Word University bus headed out to the airport to await the Airlines PNG plane that would arrive from Lae.
While they were waiting outside, the Air Niugini air traffic officers suddenly rushed out of their offices. They learnt the shocking news that the Airlines PNG flight they were waiting for had crashed. The location was somewhere at Gogol River south of the town.
The students’ first reaction was to get to the site to see for themselves
Madang disaster office, the police, and other relevant officers were eventually informed and they scrambled in the wet evening to ascertain what had happened and how to respond.
Attempts were made to access the area by road. However, the storm that afternoon had caused flooding and the road became impassable.
Several boats, one from the Madang Resort, and a couple of private vessels left in the night with police and rescue people for the site.
Just before midnight, a body was brought in from the crash site and those who could, rushed up to the hospital. The security was tight and no one was allowed into the outpatient area where the body was placed. An identification of the body was made and the relatives of the dead person were informed. However, when the relatives inspected the charred remains, they confirmed it was not the person that was identified. The rest of the night was spent in sorrow and grief until morning.
http://www.postcourier.com.pg/
Report into the death of Private Timothy Aplin and others
15 October 2011. Australia
The Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin AO, today released the Inquiry Officer's report into the death of Private Timothy Aplin, Private Benjamin Chuck and Private Scott Palmer who were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on 21 June 2010.
The Vice Chief of the Defence Force acknowledged the delay in publicly releasing this report.
"The Chief of the Defence Force has apologised to the families for the delay in releasing the inquiry report and I echo his regret for the additional distress this has caused the families of the three commandos killed in the accident," Air Marshal Binskin said.
The Minister for Defence has accepted the Inquiry Officer's recommendations related to improving training and capability support for Disaster Victim Identification, mortuary affairs training and casualty reporting procedures.
The Australian Defence Force Investigative Service is conducting a review into mortuary affairs.
The Inquiry Officer recommended that a Commission of Inquiry into this incident is not warranted
http://www.scoop.co.nz/
If you would like to read the unclassified version at is at: http://www.defence.gov.au/coi/
11 Bodies Found in Southern Mexico
15 October 2011.
The bodies of 10 men and a minor have been found over the past 48 hours in different parts of the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities said.
The corpses, all of which bore gunshot wounds, were found in Acapulco, Huitzuco and Mochitlan, the state’s Public Safety Secretariat said Friday on its Web site.
Eight bodies were discovered in different locations of the resort city of Acapulco, including three in the upscale Costa Azul neighbourhood.
http://laht.com/article.asp?
More Bodies Found in Sirte
15 October 2011.
Libya’s National Transitional Council said on Friday that it had discovered 11 unidentified bodies, some burnt and some that had been run over by vehicles.
The corpses, believed to have been killed by forces loyal to former leader Muammar Qaddafi, were found face down and piled up, in an area in Sirte known as “Dollar Neighborhood”. NTC fighters said they found more bodies in a similar state in other parts of Sirte, Qaddafi’s birthplace, and one of his last remaining strongholds.
Abdel Ati al-Barouni, an NTC commander, said that aid agencies have been unable to recover the bodies from the area due to intense fighting which has been going on for weeks.
http://english.alarabiya.net/
10 killed in bus accident in C China
17 October 2011.
A tourist bus overturned on a highway in the rural area in Hunan province Sunday, killing 10 people and injuring 33 others, local authorities said.
The accident happened at about 3:40 pm on the highway near a village in Yongshun county
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
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