Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy
<b>Background:</b> The identification of victims in mass disasters is a challenging task, particularly when forensic teams must address fragmented human remains. <b>Objectives:</b> This article reports two necropsy cases from the 2019 collapse of the Brumadinho mine tailing d...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Forensic Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/4/4/48 |
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| author | Alexandre Neves Furtado Alexander Santos Dionísio Ricardo Moreira Araújo Yara Vieira Lemos |
| author_facet | Alexandre Neves Furtado Alexander Santos Dionísio Ricardo Moreira Araújo Yara Vieira Lemos |
| author_sort | Alexandre Neves Furtado |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <b>Background:</b> The identification of victims in mass disasters is a challenging task, particularly when forensic teams must address fragmented human remains. <b>Objectives:</b> This article reports two necropsy cases from the 2019 collapse of the Brumadinho mine tailing dam, the largest humanitarian disaster in Brazilian history. <b>Results:</b> In both cases, identification was achieved through comparative anthropological analysis of complex tattoos. Positive identification was based on the presence of multiple coincident points between postmortem (PM) and antemortem (AM) photographic records of the tattoo designs, along with the absence of exclusionary elements. <b>Conclusion:</b> The authors propose that the comparative analysis of PM and AM tattoos should be more widely adopted as a low-cost, rapid identification method, particularly in complex forensic scenarios such as mass disasters and other challenging cases in the medical and forensic anthropology context. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4259ab0fa11d47a79ddd2bdf5964096b |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-6756 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forensic Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-4259ab0fa11d47a79ddd2bdf5964096b2025-08-20T02:55:41ZengMDPI AGForensic Sciences2673-67562024-12-014468670110.3390/forensicsci4040048Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho TragedyAlexandre Neves Furtado0Alexander Santos Dionísio1Ricardo Moreira Araújo2Yara Vieira Lemos3Laboratório de Antropologia Forense Frank Marotta, Instituto Médico Legal André Roquette, Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30510-160, BrazilLaboratório de Antropologia Forense Frank Marotta, Instituto Médico Legal André Roquette, Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30510-160, BrazilLaboratório de Antropologia Forense Frank Marotta, Instituto Médico Legal André Roquette, Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30510-160, BrazilLaboratório de Antropologia Forense Frank Marotta, Instituto Médico Legal André Roquette, Polícia Civil de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30510-160, Brazil<b>Background:</b> The identification of victims in mass disasters is a challenging task, particularly when forensic teams must address fragmented human remains. <b>Objectives:</b> This article reports two necropsy cases from the 2019 collapse of the Brumadinho mine tailing dam, the largest humanitarian disaster in Brazilian history. <b>Results:</b> In both cases, identification was achieved through comparative anthropological analysis of complex tattoos. Positive identification was based on the presence of multiple coincident points between postmortem (PM) and antemortem (AM) photographic records of the tattoo designs, along with the absence of exclusionary elements. <b>Conclusion:</b> The authors propose that the comparative analysis of PM and AM tattoos should be more widely adopted as a low-cost, rapid identification method, particularly in complex forensic scenarios such as mass disasters and other challenging cases in the medical and forensic anthropology context.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/4/4/48forensic anthropologyvictims’ identificationminingtattoodam disasterforensic science |
| spellingShingle | Alexandre Neves Furtado Alexander Santos Dionísio Ricardo Moreira Araújo Yara Vieira Lemos Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy Forensic Sciences forensic anthropology victims’ identification mining tattoo dam disaster forensic science |
| title | Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy |
| title_full | Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy |
| title_fullStr | Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy |
| title_short | Human Identification in Mass Disasters: Analyzing Complex Tattoos in the Brumadinho Tragedy |
| title_sort | human identification in mass disasters analyzing complex tattoos in the brumadinho tragedy |
| topic | forensic anthropology victims’ identification mining tattoo dam disaster forensic science |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/4/4/48 |
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