The2004SoutheastAsiaTsunamikillednearly5,400peopleinSouthernThailand,includingforeigntouristsandlocalresidents.TorecoverDNAevidenceasmuchaspossiblefromtheseriouslydecomposedbodies,weexploredproceduresofsamplepreparationfrombothboneandtoothsamplesaswellasbothmitochondrialandnuclearmarkers.DespitehavingfailedtorecoverenoughDNAfornuclearmarkertyping,wesucceededinobtainingfullyinformativeresultsformitochondrialmarkers(HV1andHV2)from258toothsampleswithasuccessrateof51%(258/507).UsinganorganicDNAextractionmethodcoupledwithanultrafiltrationstep,weobtained16STR(including13CODISloci,onesexdiscriminationlocus,andtwoIdentifilerloci)profilesfor834sampleswithasuccessrateof79%(834/1,062).Inaddition,bycomparingtheallelicfrequenciesbetweenthetypedsamplesasagroupandotherindexpopulations,weconcludethattheThaitsunamivictimsareacombinedgroupofseveralpopulations.Ourresultsprovidevaluableevidenceandprotocolsforthefutureforensicpractice.
