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Honolulu hopes to unravel mysteries of long-unclaimed bodies using advanced DNA testing

CBS News
Summary
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88% Informative

Forensic pathologists hope advanced DNA testing technology will enable them to attach names to all of the agency's unidentified people.

Five cases - all children and teens - have been sent for additional testing thanks to a $ 50,000 grant from Texas -based cold case resolution company Othram .

They include the partial skeleton of a teenager found in Keehi Lagoon near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in 2002 ; parts of the body of a 7- to 10-year-old boy discovered in Waianae in 2000 ; six fingers of a girl under the age of 4 who was found in Honolulu in 2012 .

The 58 unidentified cases at the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office date back to about 1966.

Each case costs about $10,000 , and NamUs pays for Honolulu to send around five cases per year for testing.

Lack of funds is the main obstacle to more intensive screening and forensic genetic genealogy on cold cases.

VR Score

93

Informative language

95

Neutral language

73

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

59

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short-lived

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