The Presumed Remains of Korean War Casualties Are Back in the U.S. —But They Could Take Months to Identify

Fifty-five caskets containing the presumed remains of U.S. servicemen killed during the Korean War were returned to American soil on Wednesday, marking “a new season of hope for the families of our missing fallen,” in the words of Vice President Mike Pence. But a forensic expert says the task of identifying those remains has only just begun. “I think it’ll be months; it may be many months” before results are determined, says Victor Weedn, a professor of forensic sciences at the George Washington University who established the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Delaware. “But I don’t think you can speed this process more than what the U.S. military will do.” Weedn says identifying the remains, which were returned under a deal struck by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their June meeting, will be a multi-step process involving records review, anthropological analysis and DNA testing, an undertaking led by forensics experts at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s (DPAA) laboratory in Hawaii. DPAA did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment, but the agency’s laboratory director Dr. John Byrd said at a news conference that preliminary review suggests that the remains are from the Korean War, and “are likely to be American remains.” Weedn, who is not involved in the identification efforts, says it will take quite a bit of work to prove that ear...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized forensics onetime Source Type: news