MASS CASUALTY DEATH INVESTIGATION

• Jurisdiction: Australia

[33F.100] Introduction

Natural disasters, acts of terrorism, transportation accidents, major building accidents and warfare result in multiple deaths. With the increase in the movement of people around the world, mass disasters involve individuals from many different countries and jurisdictions. There will be problems identifying large numbers of deceased persons, in part because of the logistics of access to the region in which the deceased lie, the sheer size of the disaster and the manpower required to respond to it and the decomposition changes that may occur rapidly in bodies that have been severely injured.

Disaster victim identification (DVI) combines the resources of disaster combat agencies. These combat agencies include the police, who have a critical coordination role, together with other emergency service providers such as fire brigades and ambulance services. Key human identification specialists include fingerprint...