Source: WISH-TV
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Advances in DNA technology are helping to more quickly identify alleged serial killer Herb Baumeister’s victims.
Dr. Krista Latham, director of the University of Indianapolis’ Human Identification Center, told I-Team 8 the work will be slow because they want to be 100% certain that all of the bodies are identified.
Latham was still in high school when investigators discovered thousands of bone fragments at Fox Hollow Farm in 1996.
In 2016, she became director of the Center for Human Identification.
Latham has been tracking advances in DNA technology, and “there’s not technology that exists now that didn’t exist in the past, it’s just that it’s more sensitive. Because we can see the DNA, we can create a DNA profile from a sample that we couldn’t do in the past,” she said.
To date, 100 bone fragments have been submitted for DNA testing, with 50 having been completed. Seven victims have been identified, but only three of them have names that have been matched.
“This is going to take some time because we have several thousand more that need to be tested,” Latham said.
Not all of the pieces will be submitted for testing at once, as some of the pieces are as small as a thumbnail, and the testing process itself involves partial destruction of each piece, as the pieces have been significantly damaged by exposure to the elements and fire.
“If we attempt to perform a DNA test on a sample and it is unsuccessful, there is a risk that we may never get a DNA result from that sample, and that sample may be all that remains of a Fox Hollow Farm victim,” Latham said.
That’s why their work is slow and methodical, to ensure that no victim goes unidentified.
“This is to ensure that they get the respect and dignity after death that they were deprived of while they were alive,” she said.
Technological advances are making it easier to identify remains, but what’s needed more than ever is for next of kin of people who went missing in the 1980s and 1990s to come forward and provide police with DNA samples to be matched with the remains.
