Cold case investigations

There are an estimated 500 sets of unidentified human remains in mortuaries, labs and police stations across Australia, with some unidentified bones from human remains dating back more than 50 years.

Now, the launch of  Australia’s first National DNA Program by The Australian Federal Police (AFP) aims to make it possible for final goodbyes, and for the remains to at last be laid to rest.

The National DNA Program for Unidentified Missing Persons has been granted $3.6m out of Proceeds of Crime Funding and is expected to run for two and a half years.

The program will be directed by one of Australia’s leading unidentified human remains experts, Associate Professor Jodie Ward, a forensic DNA identification specialist from the AFP’s National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre and the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Forensic Science.

Dr Ward said that she had been advocating for the project for about five years, and felt privileged to be able to lead this “unique program”.  She says that “the combination of technological advancements in forensic science, enhanced national databasing capabilities and essential funding” had seen it become a reality.

“In addition to leveraging existing and emerging forensic capabilities at the AFP Forensics Facility in Canberra we’ll engage with other national and international forensic experts to apply other innovative scientific techniques to these challenging bone samples,” she said.

"Together with my team of dedicated forensic scientists I want to assure families and friends of missing persons that we are committed to restoring the names and faces of our unknown Australians," Dr Ward said.

Continue reading at UTS Newsroom: Cold case investigations