Disaster victim identification Flashcards
What is a disaster?
A disaster is an unexpected event causing the death or injuring many people.
What is disaster victim identification?
A method used to identify victims of mass casualty incidents, either man-made or natural.
What are the different examples of disasters?
- Road traffic collisions
- Natural disasters
- Technical accidents (fires and explosions)
- Terrorist attacks
What is an open disaster?
A major catastrophic event resulting in the death of a number of unknown individuals for whom no prior records or descriptive data are available
What is a closed disaster?
A major catastrophic event resulting in the death of a number of individuals belonging to a fixed, identifiable group.
What is the DVI process?
Phase 1: Scene
Phase 2: Post-mortem
Phase 3: Ante-mortem
Phase 4: Reconcilliation
What is phase 1?
Phase 1: Scene
As a general principle, the scene should be treated as a crime scene and all human remains, exhibits and property left in situ until the arrival of Crime Scene Examiners and DVI Specialist Teams, in accordance with jurisdictional policies and procedures
What extra steps should be taken in phase 1 for mass graves?
- Locating the grave
- Delineation of the grave
- Grave excavation
- Body removal
- Evidence management
What should you do in phase 2 of DVI?
Phase 2: Post-Mortem
All human remains recovered from the scene are to be processed, examined and stored at a mortuary which has been selected for the operation, pending formal identification and release by the Coroner or legal authority. This mortuary may be an established mortuary or one which has been constructed temporarily for the operation.
What should you do in phase 2 of DVI? (Recovery of bodies)
- Localisation of all bodies
- Exposure of bodies
- Mark with evidence plates
- Assign URN to each body/part
- Document discovery size and body position
- Photograph
- Place body in a body bag and transport it.
What should you do in Phase 3?
In order to collect missing person data to match against victim data, an ante-mortem collection process needs to be established. This process can involve many complex dimensions as the task involves interviewing families, relatives or friends to obtain sufficient facts on a potentially deceased loved one.”
What steps should be taken in phase 3?
- Develop missing person list
- Interviews
- Files assessed for matching threshold
What happens in phase 4 of DVI?
The function of the Reconciliation Centre is to match post mortem data with ante-mortem data with the view to identifying the deceased.
