Some may have been lost hikers, runaway children, or wanderers.
One thing connects the 58 or so remains at the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office found with no identification card and no next of kin to claim them: They remain nameless.
Forensic pathologists hope advanced DNA testing technology will enable them to attach names to all of the agency’s unidentified people. But for now, 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; and the skeletal remains of an adolescent found mixed with animal bones inside of a vase purchased in Honolulu in 2015.
The medical examiner’s office wouldn’t provide additional details about the cases, but medicolegal investigator Charlotte Carter said each represents a person whose family deserves closure.
The five cases sent to Othram for testing were chosen in part because they are juveniles who DNA experts felt had a good chance of being identified through advanced technology.
One case is connected to a 2014 homicide, so the medical examiners office declined to provide information while the investigation continues.
For the case involving the severed fingers, it’s unclear whether they belong to a child who died or only suffered trauma to their hands. The other cases could be missing children, a possibility that can’t be ruled out until DNA testing is complete.
Carter said she’s committed to resolving the other unidentified cases in Honolulu’s morgue, especially if DNA testing becomes more accessible and affordable.
Honolulu hopes to unravel mysteries of long-unclaimed bodies using advanced DNA testing
