Denver to get rapid DNA processors to identify the dead

DENVER (KDVR) — New know-how is coming to Colorado that may assist establish victims in mass causality incidents faster.

Denver’s Workplace of the Medical Examiner obtained a federal grant to pay for fast DNA processors. Solely a handful of coroner’s places of work within the nation have the cutting-edge know-how and shortly Denver might be certainly one of them.

The machines considerably pace up the method of figuring out those that have handed away, giving households closure faster.

Three fast DNA processors will quickly be within the Denver lab because of a $386,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Administration Company and the Division of Homeland Safety.

Ian Harwick, the decedent affairs coordinator at Denver’s workplace, was a author for the grant and mentioned the machines are wanted in Colorado for emergency preparedness.

“That is actually a game-changer when it comes to how rapidly we’ll be capable of get outcomes,” Harwick mentioned. “If one thing had been to occur within the area tomorrow, we must name in exterior sources to come back in and supply their know-how or we’d be working with an already backlogged Denver Police Division’s crime lab.”

Speedy DNA know-how provides leads to below 2 hours

The fast know-how makes use of the DNA of a sufferer and attainable relations to establish who the deceased particular person is. The machines produce leads to fewer than two hours in comparison with months at an outdoor facility.

The fast DNA processors minimize down on the lag time throughout tragedy. They’re usually utilized in mass casualty incidents, like final yr’s condominium collapse in Florida that killed 98 individuals and the 2018 Camp Fireplace in California that killed 85 individuals.

“It’s not only a mass taking pictures,” Harwick mentioned. “It may very well be the fireplace hazard that lots of the foothills at the moment are dwelling in.”

Colorado noticed each in current historical past with the mass taking pictures at King Soopers in Boulder and the Marshall Fireplace final yr. Harwick mentioned it may additionally assist in flooding, aircraft crashes and extra. He added that their hope is to make use of the know-how to establish those that have died and are nonetheless unidentified.

“I hope that we’re actually capable of give some individuals some closure,” Harwick mentioned. It’s actually necessary to me to have the ability to do that. I see how many individuals lose contact with their households and it simply makes me unhappy.”

In response to the workplace, there are 17 individuals who stay unidentified in Denver. There are nonetheless a couple of steps the workplace must take, however they’re hoping to have these machines up and operating by the top of the yr or early subsequent yr.