- Identifying Victoria’s Victims
19 May 2009
By Judith Martin
Captain Karmel Isa recently spent two weeks assisting with the identification of victims of Melbourne’s devastating bush fires.
It was a task she found immensely satisfying. “It was professionally rewarding, and also good to know I had contributed something meaningful after what has been a huge and distressing tragedy.”
Captain Isa, who is based at Waiouru Army Camp, is a forensic dentist. She, and her dental colleague Colonel Hugh Trengrove, have each spent stints in Melbourne where, along with Australian forensic dentists they have been working to identify the remains of the 173 people who perished in the fires that spread through the state of Victoria in late February.
Teeth are among the hardest parts of the body and using them to identify human remains is usually quick, relatively inexpensive, and very accurate.
In order for forensic dentists to do their work the scene of a death must be found and secured, and remains recovered. A post-mortem is held and the remains identified. Visual identification is often unreliable so other methods are used including dental, fingerprints and DNA. The dental forensic identification process involves conducting a detailed examination of the mouth and facial skeleton with particular reference to the teeth and supporting bone. The information gained from this examination is then compared with the pre-dental records.
“We were given a list of the people who were thought to be missing and where their dental records could possibly be obtained. Dentists work in pairs during the post mortem examination to ensure quality control. A third dentist inputs the data, and yet more dentists look at the records and compare them to ensure we are as accurate as possible.”
About 120 people have been identified so far, most of them by their dental records.
“There will possibly be people who won’t be able to be identified because they were so badly burnt – there was very little left of some people. In some cases we just had a pile of ash with some loose teeth in it.”
Positive identification has been made even more difficult because several families often congregated in one house during the fires. “In one case we had 17 bags of remains which had to be allocated to nine people.”
Captain Isa carried out her work at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne.
“It was very interesting and stimulating work; a change from the daily routine of dentistry which can be a bit negative sometimes as no one likes visiting a dentist, and with forensic dentistry you feel as though you are contributing something positive and meaningful, and you know your efforts will be appreciated by the families of the people you are working to identify. Your work can offer them some closure.”
She doesn’t baulk at that aspect of her career that is not for the squeamish.
“If you sat back and looked at the circumstances which usually precede the need for forensic dentistry, for example, the bush fires, it can be quite personally disturbing. But you can compartmentalise things. Focussing on the narrow issues, for example, sitting down with six teeth and trying to match them up with computer records, allows an element of distance from the emotive aspects of the situation.”
Captain Isa grew up in Auckland and joined the Army immediately after graduating as a dentist in 1993. After three years she left to work in private practice, and also began studying for a law degree, mainly to further her interest in forensic law and dentistry. She was admitted to the Bar after finishing her law degree, and re-enlisted in the Army as a dentist in 2007.
Colonel Hugh Trengrove wears two hats in his role at Joint Force Headquarters New Zealand. He is the Chief Advisor Health (J1 Health), and is also in a non-Defence capacity as the National Advisor to the NZ Police on Forensic Odontology (Dentistry) and is member of the National Disaster Victim Identification Team. Defence Dental Services is required to provide an identification capability within the NZDF.
He, and other forensic dentists, are regularly asked by the police to help identify human remains using forensic dentistry, and to give advice regarding, for example, bite marks, oral and facial trauma, assaults, and on anthropological remains. Colonel Trengrove has also worked on identifying soldiers killed behind enemy lines in the first Gulf War, and in Phuket, Thailand after the Boxing Day tsunami.
Dental identification should, he believes, be a first resort.
“Primary identifiers of human remains are fingerprints, DNA, and dental. DNA analysis is expensive and there are long waiting times for the results (in New Zealand). Fingerprint identification is often only viable if a person has a police record and their prints have been taken previously or if the police can obtain ‘latent’ prints (fingerprints left by the individual before death) from, for example, their home. In the case of a fire there are often no fingerprints left. But virtually everyone has a dental record and a great degree of accuracy is ensured because there are so many checks and balances when ante-mortem and post-mortem records are compared.
“It is demanding and can be unpleasant work, but it is very rewarding and a stimulating change from day to day dentistry. I always feel privileged to be given the opportunity to help resolve a situation for a grieving family."