We Need More DNA
How the community can assist in long term missing persons cases.
10-Minute Read
National Missing Persons Week is an annual week of action that takes place during the first week of August to raise awareness of the significant issues surrounding missing persons. This year’s event runs from 3-9 August 2025, and is used to profile long-term missing persons of which there are an estimated 2,500 across Australia.
National Missing Persons Week 2025 is also an opportunity to reflect on missing persons right here in Victoria. We have hundreds of long-term missing persons (LTMP), and over one hundred cases of unidentified human remains (UHR) – these UHR’s are where human skeletal remains have been found, but the identity of the deceased is still unknown. The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) plays a key role in matching UHRs to long term missing persons.
The impact in resolving these cases, and uncovering just what happened to a missing person is incredibly significant. For each LTMP, there is a family looking for answers and closure. For each unidentified deceased individual, there is a family who don’t have any answers, are unable to grieve, and may think their loved one has been forgotten. At the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, we want to reassure the community that we never give up on the unidentified deceased in our care:
“We never give up trying to identify Victoria’s cases of unidentified human remains, no matter how long it takes, how many methods we need to use, or what advances in technology we have to wait for. They are members of our community and we have a legal and ethical obligation to continue to do everything we can to ensure that they can go home.”
Dr Samantha Rowbotham, Senior Forensic Anthropologist, and Manager – Human ID Services Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
How traditional human identification works
A positive human identification relies on a comparison of identification data between the deceased and a LTMP resulting in a match. This traditional identification data could be fingerprints, dental, implants, anthropology, or circumstantial information. It could also include simple DNA analysis of next of kin.
But for some of VIFM’s cases, there has been no match between our the datasets using these traditional identification methods. This is where human identification becomes a complex process that requires a multiagency and multidisciplinary approach, and moves into more complex DNA sequencing.
From traditional to advanced human identification
When these traditional identification methods have been exhausted, the VIFM has now begun using a highly specialised investigated DNA tool called Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG) as the next step towards identification. FIGG has revolutionised the identification of unknown human remains. The method is a combination of advanced DNA sequencing, traditional genealogical methods and matching with public DNA databases. We now have the forensic science and knowhow to extend our search, but we need access to match to more DNA profiles to look for familial matches. In essence, we need community help in expanding this technology, and it’s as simple as uploading your DNA data to the ancestry databases which we can access.
“The key to FIGG being a helpful tool for identification is increasing the size of our genealogy database, and to do that we need access to more DNA samples. We genuinely believe allowing DNA to be used for this investigative purpose is the caring thing to do. We have seen how grateful families have been when they can finally lay a deceased person to rest, after years and sometimes decades of not knowing where they are or what happened to them,”
Dr Dadna Hartman, Manager Molecular Biology, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
Explaining the science
FIGG starts with the extraction of DNA from the human remains – typically bones, teeth, or soft tissue. This sample is then analysed with DNA analysis techniques that uses SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and not STRs (short tandem repeats), which are traditionally used in DNA analysis from a close relative. SNP analysis allows for the generation of more comprehensive DNA profiles, which can then be used for genealogical purposes enabling the identification of much wider family relationships, such as 3rd, 4th or 5th degree relatives of the DNA donor.
To put that in context, with FIGG , we can use SNP DNA profiles that can compare up to a million DNA markers between individuals, in comparison to traditional DNA analysis that is limited to just 21 markers of an individual’s DNA. Research indicates that a genealogy database consisting of approximately 1.2 million individuals, has proven capable of identifying a 3rd cousin or closer in over 90% of the population. That is a staggering increase in potential matches to missing persons cases. For most ancestry or genealogy databases (such as 23andMe and Ancestry), the data is formatted for compatibility and uploaded to opt-in public genealogy databases, such as GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA. The DNA profiles in these genealogy databases have the potential genetic relatives of the unidentified person.
How does FIGG lead to an identification?
Firstly, FIGG identifies potential genetic relatives (close or distant) to the unknown human remains. Second, genealogy tools are then used to build family trees of those potential relatives, with the hope that they will generate an ‘Identity Lead’ as to who the unknown human remains are. The lead generated is then assessed as ‘possible’ or ‘not possible’ through a multidisciplinary approach, where the anthropology, odontology, context of disappearance, historical records and other generic markers of the UHR are reviewed to see if they support (or refute) the identity lead. Once we have confidence in an identity lead, our experts at the VIFM can then re-employ routine identification process and undertake a scientific identification (i.e. a direct comparison of the UHR with the person of interest through odontology or DNA).
Why we need more DNA and how it works
The VIFM’s Molecular Biology Laboratory need access to as many DNA profiles for comparison as possible, as this can increase the opportunities to link our unknown cases to family members. You can help by increasing the size of the genealogy databases, GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, which we can access for the identification of unknown human remains.
The simplest way to do this is by downloading your DNA data from an ancestry website database you may have used, or plan to use (such as 23andme and Ancestry) and uploading this to GEDmatch. You do not have to “opt-in” for law enforcement use, as accessing the DNA profiles in GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA for the identification of human remains is allowed across all DNA profiles, both “opted-in” and “opted-out.”
So the difference is that GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA allow searching against your DNA profile by law enforcement agencies, such as the VIFM, to assist missing person and unidentified deceased cases. (Note: they do not give law enforcement access to DNA to identify the perpetrators of serious crime, which is not VIFMs work, unless you “opt-in”.)
There is also an additional benefit: adding your DNA profile to GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA also has the advantage of expanding your potential match list beyond the database you originally tested with – thus expanding your family list.
And of course, you may well have the extra satisfaction of helping the VIFM solve more of our unidentified human remains cases.
Has the VIFM successfully applied FIGG?
The VIFM successfully applied FIGG in the case of skeletal remains found submerged in the bay at Sandy Point on Christmas day in 2017 (known as Sandy Point Man – see the full story here.) Admitted to VIFM as an unidentified human remain case, anthropology, odontology, DNA and radiocarbon dating were done, but resulted in no identification lead. Having exhausted routine avenues for identification, a sample of DNA was analysed to generate a SNP profile and subsequently uploaded GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA. This showed several possible distant family matches and, upon building back those family trees, a person called Christopher Luke Moore became an identity lead.
The location where the UHR had been found; the age, sex, ancestry, stature and dental work of the UHR, as well as the era in which the UHR lived (through radiocarbon testing) all supported the hypothesis that the remains were likely Christopher Luke Moore. As such, a direct DNA comparison with a living descent of Mr Moore provided a formal scientific identification for the coroner that the remains were those of Christopher Luke Moore; a World War I veteran who had died by drowning in 1928.
The identification of Mr Moore was only made possible because his descendants — from both his mother’s side of the family, and from his father’s — had uploaded their DNA to genealogical databases, giving VIFM researchers an opportunity to build an extensive family tree, and to piece together the story.
“Being able to learn about his story, his family, how grateful they were, and to be able to reunite them is why I get up every morning.”
Dr Dadna Hartman, Manager Molecular Biology at VIFM.
The next chapter
Following the success of Sandy Point Man, the VIFM has been actively reviewing unknown human remains cases, where all avenues for identification have been exhausted, and where FIGG may prove to be the best hope for identification. The first step in to work out if we have any available sample for SNP analysis, if so, can we develop a SNP profile from this, if that works, does the SNP profile match any relatives in the genealogy database we can access, and if so, will there be sufficient historical records to enable the building of the family tree(s) that could ultimately provide the identity lead needed. A lot of things have to go right in order to get a successful outcome, but we are nothing if not persistent. We never give up.
“Every deceased individual has a right to their identity, and every family of a missing person needs to know what has happened to their loved one. Sometimes, for various, complex reasons, we might not have the tools or databases to identify someone and return them to their family immediately, but with novel technologies like FIGG now available, we are hopeful some of our most challenging cases can be resolved. We will continue to seek the community’s assistance and we encourage everyone to upload their DNA to the public genealogy databases GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.”
Dr Samantha Rowbotham, Senior Forensic Anthropologist, and Manager – Human ID Services, VIFM.