Germany Germany - Ingolstadt/Bavaria, Boy, 5-6,110 cm tall, 15kg, brown hair and blood type O, spent time outside Germany, found in Danube River, May'22

[Nate_Bro]

FBI may be involved because the genetic genealogy result might point to family in USA? (he does look like John Alvin Hollingsworth, among others). Was isotope analysis ever done? What about the stone, when was it first manufactured? The boy could have been frozen, throwing the timelines off. <modsnip - speculation outside the bounds of the known facts of the case>

 

[ZaZara]

FBI may be involved because the genetic genealogy result might point to family in USA? (he does look like John Alvin Hollingsworth, among others). Was isotope analysis ever done? What about the stone, when was it first manufactured? The boy could have been frozen, throwing the timelines off. <modsnip - speculation outside the bounds of the known facts of the case>

Germany has strict privacy laws and German LE is not allowed to use genetic genealogy.

 

[RichardKimble]

Germany has strict privacy laws and German LE is not allowed to use genetic genealogy.

It's but a step up though, DNA was said to be used used in the Bruckener case against Diana Menkes

 

[ZaZara]

It's but a step up though, DNA was said to be used used in the Bruckener case against Diana Menkes

Not quite sure what you mean. The Menkes case happened in Portugal, a member of the EU.
Of course German LE can make use of DNA. What they cannot do is export genetic data to databases like GEDMatch outside the EU.

Meanwhile, everyone is watching what @othram does, breakthrough after breakthrough, and hoping that the EU laws change soon.

 

[RichardKimble]

Not quite sure what you mean. The Menkes case happened in Portugal, a member of the EU.
Of course German LE can make use of DNA. What they cannot do is export genetic data to databases like GEDMatch outside the EU.

Meanwhile, everyone is watching what @othram does, breakthrough after breakthrough, and hoping that the EU laws change soon.

Ah with you now, is it EU law or member states?

 

[ZaZara]

Ah with you now, is it EU law or member states?

A combination of both. EU law is usually fairly general. Member countries can make their own adaptations. And Germany is very strict when it comes to protecting privacy.

In the neighbouring Netherlands, the courts are trying to find a way around the legal obstacles:
Legal Breakthrough: Dutch Court approves use of private DNA databases

 

[ZaZara]

DNA-Analyse: Wie ein Herkunftstest bei Emittlungen helfen könnte

A dead child in the Donau. No identity, no origin, no trace. The police have been searching in vain for three years. DNA analyses to determine the child's origin could help, but they are prohibited in this country. Bavaria is pushing for a change in the law.

Andreas Aichele says in the BR political magazine Kontrovers: ‘There are no leads whatsoever. We have really investigated worldwide. We have made requests for legal assistance. We have contacted colleagues all over the world. Where is a child missing? To date, there have been no results that we could use.’

There is a way to determine where the boy comes from: through his DNA.

But the police are not allowed to analyse it, at least not completely. Genetic fingerprinting is permitted, which can be used to convict perpetrators beyond a doubt. Analyses of hair colour, eye colour, age and gender are also possible.

However, the analysis of so-called biogeographical origin, which could be decisive in this case, is prohibited in Germany. This analysis can be used to make statements about the region from which a person's ancestors originate: for example, Europe, East Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.

This would make it possible to determine on which continent the missing child was born, according to Aichele: ‘Where they actually spent their early years, for example, and that would at least narrow down the global search a little. And we could focus more intensively on that geographical area.’


The same is being demanded by the Ministers of Justice of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Marion Gentges (CDU) and Georg Eisenreich (CSU). They are submitting a motion at the Conference of German Ministers of Justice from 4 to 6 June. According to this motion, biogeographical origin analysis should be possible in future. When asked by Kontrovers, the Hamburg Senator of Justice announced that she did not intend to agree to this. The others are still keeping their cards close to their chest.

BBM


I cannot find a decision about biogeographical origin DNA analysis on the list of the conference.

 

[RichardKimble]

@ZaZara , I've posted the above in the Bruckener/MM case it might explain away any inadmissible dna results if some such were to arise.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I understand they want to be careful but they could create the law to allow this type of DNA analysis in certain types of cases with the approval of a judge, IMO. In a case like this one, it wouldn't harm anyone, except maybe the guilty persons, to allow it.

I wonder the chances that his name is in a database somewhere in Germany, or another EU country, as an asylum seeker or similar, but somehow he hasn't been noticed as missing yet. If they were living in Germany, I speculate his family has fled the country, unfortunately. JMO.