Unidentified Human Remains in Rhode Island

February 19, 2016 9:33 am

By News Staff

Reporting by Mike Lacrosse

mlacrosse@abc6.com

Twenty-Six cases of unidentified human remains are open in the Rhode Island Medical Examiners Office. The cases date back to 1977.

“So the 26 cases we’re talking about are people we don’t know who they are,” said RI Health Dept. Spokesperson Joseph Wendelken.

Bones, bodies complete and incomplete skeletons have been discovered all over the state, with most being pulled from bodies of water.

“In Rhode Island a lot of the unidentified remains that we find come into our possession at here at the Department of Health are actually received by fisherman out to sea, bones get caught in nets and thing like that,” said Wendelken.

The remains are sent to the RI Medical Examiners Office where they’re analyzed then sent to North Texas for a DNA profile before being returned to Rhode Island.

The ME’s Office works with the U.S. Justice Department in trying to identify the remains through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

“The aim is to find out where there is overlap to make a connection between the DNA that’s collected for a missing person and the DNA collected for unidentified remains,” said Wendelken.

The ME Office is hopeful there will be a match someday and are encouraging people to file missing persons reports even if it’s decades after the person has gone missing.