Australia's first database of unidentified human remains seeks to identify 'needle in

Thanks for posting the link, Toots. Very interesting read.

Coincidentally, I came across this MSM article from 2015 the other day:

EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Bone Room: The hidden collection of human remains in Australia's busiest morgue still baffling police after decades... including three boxes from the forest where Ivan Milat murdered seven backpackers

Excuse the sensationalism of the title but, after all, it is the Daily Mail and it's not known for its subtlety of its headlines.

I never heard of Ivan Milat until now. And thanks for that interesting info.

Body hunter: Human remains expert solving 500 mysteries

Sometimes bones are found by campers and bushwalkers.
Then there is the case of Pakenham Man. While police know exactly how and when he died, they don’t know who he is and no-one has come forward to claim him. Grainy CCTV footage captured the moments before his death in 2008, showing him on a train headed for Melbourne’s outskirts.

He is among the more than 500 sets of individual human remains in mortuaries or burial grounds around Australia that remain nameless.

But that is about to change.

A new initiative will harness modern forensic techniques to allow the advanced DNA profiling and matching of unidentified human remains and missing persons nationally for the first time.

The Australian-first program will run for the next two-and-a-half years, with hopes of it becoming a permanent operation thereafter.

To fund the scheme, $3.594 million has been made available from proceeds of crime – the cashed-in assets of criminals like drug dealers.

Called the National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons, it is an Australian Federal Police (AFP) operation spearheaded by DNA forensic biologist Jodie Ward.

I have friend whose 68 year old father went 500 metres to the newsagent one day, like he did every day and never came home. They have no idea what happened to him. He did not carry money on him and just looked like an elderly man going to buy his newspaper.

Sept 3 2020
Body hunter: Human remains expert solving 500 mysteries
''Then there is the case of Pakenham Man. While police know exactly how and when he died, they don’t know who he is and no-one has come forward to claim him. Grainy CCTV footage captured the moments before his death in 2008, showing him on a train headed for Melbourne’s outskirts.


Still from CCTV of the unidentified ‘Pakenham Man’.Source:Supplied


He appears to adjust a pair of glasses.Source:Supplied

Police released this image of the man who was believed to be of south Asian or subcontinental heritage.Source:Supplied

''It was an evening late in winter and the video shows him wearing baggy jeans with a blue and red jacket on his 170cm tall, slightly portly frame.

The footage shows him watching the doors close as the train pulls out and for a few seconds he looks about the empty carriage, at one point rubbing his face.

He appears to be wearing glasses.

Although a pathologist later estimated his age at between 20 and 30 years, the video shows he is already balding, the spot on the crown of his head visible when he sits down with his back to the camera.

Around 9.15pm, the train arrives at Pakenham, a working class suburb 64km southeast of Melbourne, and he disembarks.

He then enters the railway tracks and is struck by one train, and then by another whose shocked driver calls in police and paramedics.

While his death was not suspicious, the deceased man carried no ID, had no tattoos or distinctive scars.

That was Thursday, August 14, 2008. Twelve years later, police are no closer to identifying him.''

Plants could help investigators find dead bodies. Botanists believe the sudden flush of nutrients into the soil from decomposition may affect nearby foliage. If scientists can understand those changes – for instance, on leaf colour – they may be able to identify where remains are buried simply by studying aerial images.
“If we’re able to use the plants as sensors, at least first as indicators or crude indicators, we can identify whether a missing body may be close by,” says Neal Stewart Jr at the University of Tennessee.

Trees and shrubs might reveal the location of decomposing bodies - In The Loop

How a 'proper warrior' vanished into the bush and was found 11 years later using forensic science

How forensic science solved an outback mystery

It took world-leading forensic techniques to bring Old Man Spider home. Other families with missing loved ones hope a national DNA database can do the same.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised the following story contains images of people who have died

TootsieFootsie said:

Then there is the case of Pakenham Man. While police know exactly how and when he died, they don’t know who he is and no-one has come forward to claim him. Grainy CCTV footage captured the moments before his death in 2008, showing him on a train headed for Melbourne’s outskirts.

Click to expand...

i remember this guy, they even have him on camera walking through the station, i think he committed suicide.. and they have zero idea who he is

*edit* oh the video frames and story is above too lol.. but yeah it was big news here for ages and just no one knows who he is

i think he has to be a international student or refugee or illegal entry refugee

NSW Police Force launches Missing Persons familial DNA collection pilot program

The NSW Police Force will launch a familial DNA collection pilot program on the state’s Mid North Coast next month, which aims to assist detectives with ongoing historic missing persons investigations.

To facilitate the collection of familial DNA, MPR investigators will launch a pilot program on the state’s Mid North Coast to gather DNA samples from biological relatives of missing people across Australia.

The program will include the establishment of two pop-up centres at Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie to capture samples and other data required for upload to the National Missing Persons Victim System database.

Familial DNA samples will be uploaded into the Volunteer Limited Purpose Index (VOLMPU), where they will be searched against the Unidentified Bodies Index. At the same time, interviews will be conducted with family members to capture further information that may assist investigators.

DNA trial raises hope of finding remains 80 years after family surf tragedy

Almost 80 years ago, Norman Weigand went into the surf at Umina on the NSW Central Coast to rescue three teenagers — including his own daughter — but he never came out and his body was never recovered.

Eight decades later, his grandson Paul Fletcher might be able to get some closure.

Mr Fletcher recently gave a sample of DNA as part of a pilot program from the Missing Persons Registry, which collects the genetic markers from relatives of long-term missing people to search against the Unidentified Bodies Index and add to missing persons databases.