In 2020 the Australian Federal Police (AFP) established the National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons (DNA Program) in a dedicated effort to identify some of the 750 unidentified human remains (UHR) in Australia and scientifically link these individuals to long term missing persons (LTMP). With four years of dedicated funding, the DNA Program optimised, validated and accredited an enhanced DNA analysis workflow, giving Australian law enforcement agencies the opportunity to have unresolved UHR cases examined, or re-examined, with a suite of forensic genetic capabilities. The UHR cases submitted to the DNA Program typically included skeletonised and/or fragmented individuals, often severely compromised by a vast range of environmental insults. To overcome some of the challenges associated with the DNA analysis of these specimens, the DNA Program conducted an extensive assessment of current DNA analysis techniques before operationalising bespoke sample preparation, DNA extraction, short tandem repeat (STR) amplification and interpretation protocols at the AFP. For cases where the optimised STR workflow and direct or kinship database searches failed to achieve an identification, mitochondrial DNA whole genome sequence analysis, single nucleotide polymorphism analysis (including identity-, kinship-, phenotype- and ancestry-informative markers) and/or forensic investigative genetic genealogy were applied to generate new investigative leads. In total, the DNA Program conducted forensic testing for 99 UHR cases, with one or more forms of advanced DNA analysis being applied to 74 of these cases. This testing assisted to identify 22 UHRs. This presentation will review the DNA Program’s case and capability statistics, including the presentation of case studies to demonstrate the DNA Program’s successful DNA profiling results and DNA identification rates. The DNA Program metrics discussed will demonstrate the benefits of a dedicated forensic human identification facility with centralised forensic genetics expertise, technology and procedures to address the unique characteristics, complexities and challenges of examining and DNA testing human skeletal remains on a large scale.
In 2020 the Australian Federal Police (AFP) established the National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons (DNA Program) in a dedicated effort to identify some of the 750 unidentified human remains (UHR) in Australia and scientifically link these individuals to long term missing persons (LTMP). With four years of dedicated funding, the DNA Program optimised, validated and accredited an enhanced DNA analysis workflow, giving Australian law enforcement agencies the opportunity to have unresolved UHR cases examined, or re-examined, with a suite of forensic genetic capabilities. The UHR cases submitted to the DNA Program typically included skeletonised and/or fragmented individuals, often severely compromised by a vast range of environmental insults. To overcome some of the challenges associated with the DNA analysis of these specimens, the DNA Program conducted an extensive assessment of current DNA analysis techniques before operationalising bespoke sample preparation, DNA extraction, short tandem repeat (STR) amplification and interpretation protocols at the AFP. For cases where the optimised STR workflow and direct or kinship database searches failed to achieve an identification, mitochondrial DNA whole genome sequence analysis, single nucleotide polymorphism analysis (including identity-, kinship-, phenotype- and ancestry-informative markers) and/or forensic investigative genetic genealogy were applied to generate new investigative leads. In total, the DNA Program conducted forensic testing for 99 UHR cases, with one or more forms of advanced DNA analysis being applied to 74 of these cases. This testing assisted to identify 22 UHRs. This presentation will review the DNA Program’s case and capability statistics, including the presentation of case studies to demonstrate the DNA Program’s successful DNA profiling results and DNA identification rates. The DNA Program metrics discussed will demonstrate the benefits of a dedicated forensic human identification facility with centralised forensic genetics expertise, technology and procedures to address the unique characteristics, complexities and challenges of examining and DNA testing human skeletal remains on a large scale.
Workshop currently at capacity. A waitlist is available to join on our registration page.
Team Leader, Human Remains Identification Team, Australian Federal Police (AFP)
Dr. Kelly Grisedale is the Team Leader of the Human Remains Identification Team at the Australian Federal Police (AFP). She is passionate about human remains and missing persons identification, with a focus on the development, optimisation and evaluation of new technologies to improve the analysis of challenging forensic samples.
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