Individual Identification.

Lee, Dong Joo; Lee, Han Young; Lee, Won Tae; Choi, Jong Hoon; Kim, Chong Youl

Original article

Korean Journal of Legal Medicine 1999;23(2):87-92.
Published online October 31, 1999.

Individual Identification.

Dong Joo Lee, Han Young Lee, Won Tae Lee, Jong Hoon Choi, Chong Youl Kim

¹Department of forensic medicine, National Institute of Scientific Investigation, Korea.
²Department of oral medicine, dental college, Yonsei University, Korea.

Abstract

It is noteworthy that most unidentified dead are unnatural and violent deaths. The accurate identification of a decedent permits certification of death and notification of next of kin. Only then may they proceed with the probate of wills, apply for disbursement of benefits and insurance, and begin to work through the grieving process. Law enforcement agencies need positive identification to pick up the leads of investigation to develop suspects, establish the corpus delicti of homicide and reconstruct the sequence of events of a crime. Agencies and a variety of consultants are involved in recognizing and developing the unique features of a decedent that lead to identification. Cooperative working relations with newspaper and other media will help in publicizing the need for persons with information to come forward diagrammatically. In this paper, 5 individual identification cases in unexpected or homicidal deaths are described. The comparison between the postmortem and antemortem records show that the victims are correctly identified.

Key Words: positive identification, unexpected or homicidal deaths