Exploring the Kinship Analysis Potential of DBLR Using the Second GHEP-ISFG DVI Exercise

RICARDO WILSON

New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science

The Second GHEP-ISFG exercise for Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) was a compelling interlaboratory exercise based on a simulated plane crash scenario (Vullo, et al, 2021). It involved 66 victims with varying levels of fragmentation, including 21 related individuals. In total, 228 post-mortem samples were provided, along with 128 reference samples from 51 nuclear families (including first- and second-generation relatives). Participating laboratories used various software tools, including Familias, DNA-VIEW, CODIS 7, and M-FISys. The input files provided to laboratories, as well as the collated results, are available in the supplementary material.

DBLR is a powerful investigative tool for evaluating the strength of DNA evidence (Explore Deconvolution) and for rapid database searching (Automated Database Searching and Direct Matching). However, its kinship calculation capabilities (Kinship) are sometimes overlooked or underappreciated. In this presentation, we revisit the Second GHEP-ISFG exercise and demonstrate a different way DBLR can approach this scenario and compare the results from DBLR with the collated results from the GHEP-ISFG exercise. Overall, this aims to highlight DBLR’s utility for investigations, particularly in laboratories where the primary casework focus is not mixtures, but perhaps kinship relationships.

Keywords: DBLR, Kinship, DVI