Thursday 12 September 2013

First 16 unidentified bodies of the 1953 North Sea Flood (watersnoodramp) exhumed


Sixteen unidentified bodies of the 1953 North Sea Flood (watersnoodramp) have been exhumed in Serooskerke on Tuesday and Thursday. According to Irma Disk, team leader of the National Missing Persons Bureau, DNA has been successfully extracted.

32 unknown people are buried in Schouwen-Duiveland who have died during the flood. Experts from the police and the Netherlands Forensic Institute attempt to identify the unidentified bodies 60 years after the disaster.

Further exhumations will take place in Nieuwerkerk and Ouwerkerk later this month.

Anyone who has lost a family memmber in the Big Flood can submit a DNA sample. The DNA samples extracted from the bones of the unidentified and those obtained from family members will be entered and compared in the DNA database for missing persons at the Dutch Forensic Institute.

The DNA material from the first 16 unknowns is brought to the NFI. The big question is whether there they will be able to obtain a DNA profile. "We can do very much now in terms of DNA analysis. But it happens that it is not possible to get a DNA profile from ancient remains. This has to do with acids are in the ground, or how much salt the ground contains, "explains Irma Disk.

Thursday 12 September 2013

(Original article in Dutch)

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/21885730/__Opgraving__watersnooddoden___.html

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