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Establishment of paternity from scalp muscles of burnt unidentified dead body – a case study

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Author Affiliations

  • 1DNA Division, Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Central Range, Mandi – 175002, Himachal Pradesh, India
  • 2Directorate of Forensics Services, Junga, Shimla – 171218, Himachal Pradesh, India

Res. J. Forensic Sci., Volume 9, Issue (2), Pages 6-10, July,29 (2021)

Abstract

Burning cases include homicides, forest fires, vehicles, mass disasters etc. Visual identification of victim’s in such types of cases is difficult. DNA profiling can play important role in the identification of victims. After post-mortem, charred bones are usually received in the forensic laboratories for establishment of identity and paternity/maternity. However, success rates of DNA profiling from these bones are very less. Moreover, contamination of the bones is also a problem. Alternately, burnt scalp muscles can be a good source of DNA for establishment of identity, paternity/maternity of unidenified dead bodies. In this study, DNA profiles were generated from scalp muscles of a burnt deceased person and paternity was established by comparing the DNA profile from blood sample of putative son. DNA from burnt scalp muscles of the deceased person and blood sample of putative son was isolated using magnetic bead based method with Qiagen EZ1 Advanced XL BioRobot. The DNA was subjected to Multiplex PCR amplification using PowerPlex®21 kit (Promega Corporation, U.S.A.). Capillary electrophoresis was done with 3130 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, U.S.A.) and data were analyzed using GeneMapper® ID Software Version 3.2. The autosomal DNA analysis confirmed the deceased person was the biological father of putative son.

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