Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine

Identification means determination of individuality of a person, or, in the case of the dead, “individualization by attribution of birth name or other appropriate name to human remains”. Trying to establish the identity of unknown dead bodies always pose a challenge to the police, and taxes the resources of the most experienced forensic experts. The usual reasons of non-identification of the dead body are: no proper history available, body often highly decomposed, face crushed or destroyed, mutilation/dismemberment of body parts either by animals or vultures when disposed in isolated lonely places or when the bodies are recovered in skeletonized form, etc. Mass disasters like Earthquakes, railway accidents, tsunami's, bomb explosions, air-crash, etc. are other common instances where the problem of identification arises. Another important reason for non-identification of the dead body is the lack of interest by the police to properly work out the case. This paper aims at understanding the principles of cadaver identification and the problems faced by the relatives, police and the autopsy surgeon in establishing the identity of the dead, particularly, the unknown/unidentified bodies.