Disaster Victims Identification

In case of mass casualty incident, it means a lot of dead body with unknown identity. Since situation is worse when the incident occurs causing the dead body to unable to be recognized and some of the body may be mutilated and it is impossible to find any personal identification on that body. Interpol has set a guide on how to identify disaster victim. Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team consist of several victim identification unit with  specific duties and responsibilities.

• Recovery and Evidence Collection Team - The Recovery and Evidence Collection Team is responsible for the recovery of bodies at the disaster site and the collection and preservation of evidence and property at the site as well as the personal effects of victims within the extended area around the disaster site.
• Ante Mortem Team - The AM Team collects ante mortem data required for the identification of victims, prepares corresponding missing‐persons files and notifies the relevant authorities regarding completed identifications. 
• Post Mortem Team - The PM Team collects all relevant dental medical and forensic data obtained from the bodies of deceased victims for the purpose of identifying said victims. The team consists of experts in the fields of fingerprint analysis, forensic pathology, forensic odontology and DNA analysis. 
• Reconciliation Team - The Reconciliation Team is responsible for matching AM and PM data records, which ultimately leads to victim identification. In cases in which matches are identified, the Reconciliation Team submits the corresponding documents to the Identification Conference for review and final decision. 
• Care and Counselling Team - The Care and Counselling Team provides medical and psychological care and counselling for personnel in the Recovery, Evidence collection and Victim Identification unit. The team is also the point of contact for relatives of disaster victims within the context of family assistance. The team receives professional support for this difficult work from physicians and trained psychologists. 
• Identification Board - The Identification Board is a group of experts which meets at regular intervals to discuss and verify proposals submitted by the Analysis/Reconciliation Team. The Board makes final decisions regarding the identification of given victims and certifies these decisions on the DVI form.

According to the DVI procedure of Interpol, there are five steps to manage the dead victims of disaster. All the DVI team will be involve in the steps.

1. At the scene of incident
2. Collecting post mortem data
3. Collecting ante mortem data
4. Comparison of ante mortem and post mortem data (Reconsiliation)
5. Identification

At the scene of incident, the recover and evidence collection team will collect the body and make a skectch and photograph the location of body is found. They also need to recover all belonging/goods that surround the dead body and all evidences need to be sent together to the post mortem team for further examination. As the body arrive in the hospital, ante mortem and post mortem data is usually collected parallelly as both data will be needed in the next  reconsilation process. Data collected in this step can be primary or secondary from the body and will be used to identify that victim. As the end result of this whole process, a victim can be identified or not identified with several degree of certainty; possible, indeterminate or inconclusive and positive identification. This degree of certainty is in regard to the data that is being used to identify the patient as DNA comparison, dental record and fingerprint as the highest identification certainty.

INTERPOL Disaster Victims Identification Guide