Austrian forensics experts will need at least two months to see if they can identify the victims of an apparent massacre in Mexico, they said Tuesday.
Mexico has said mounting evidence and initial DNA tests showed that the bodies of 43 trainee teachers abducted by corrupt police officers 10 weeks ago were incinerated at a dump by drug gang members.
One student’s remains were identified from samples sent to Innsbruck’s Medical University.
The remaining ones, however, are in such a bad state that even specialist analysis focusing on mitochondrial DNA might take months, if it yields any good data at all.
Walther Parson, a molecular biologist in Innsbruck who is working on the case, said, “The chances for useful results, even with mitochondrial DNA, are very slim, but we will try everything to create more potential DNA profiles.”
At least one of 43 Mexican students who went missing in Guerrero state has been identified from charred remains.
A family member of one of the students, Alexander Mora, confirmed that the remains identified were his.
The relative said the family had received the information from a team of forensic experts.
The students were allegedly seized by local police in the town of Iguala in September and given to a criminal gang.
Prosecutors say the gang killed them and burned their bodies at a rubbish dump near the town of Cocula before scattered their ashes in a river.
The students' disappearance has triggered widespread protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.
Wednesday 17 December 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/world/europe/austria-laboratory-sees-slim-chance-of-identifying-mexican-victims.html?_r=0 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-30365680
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