Who was ‘unknown dead’ on Texel beach? Experts examine DNA from found body parts

For kinship expert Charissa van Kooten (40), it feels awkward, but also ‘nice’ in a way when she can match found human remains with someone who is missed. “Sometimes we manage to quickly produce a good DNA profile from the material we receive and we know it within a week. Sometimes it takes longer.”

We all have DNA material in our cells: a unique composition of genetic material. It can be in your blood, semen, skin flakes, dandruff, hair, saliva, but if someone has died longer it can be extracted from muscles, teeth or bones.

Of the remains on Texel we know that in any case it concerns bones that have washed ashore and that there was also modern clothing around them. So we can assume that these are human parts from after 1920 – so not an archaeological find.

Once this has been established, the NFI experts will take action on behalf of the police or the Public Prosecution Service. “We are going to see: who could this belong to, does it match a DNA profile from the DNA database of missing persons?”

The quality of the hereditary information in human remains depends ‘on conditions such as time, temperature, sun, water’. According to Van Kooten, all these factors contribute to possible degradation of usable material.

In bones, DNA is often preserved for a long time and well inside. And in order to achieve this, the remains are (partly) ground with a machine. “We destroy the found cells with chemicals. They are washed and so we have clean DNA, so to speak.”

Material from databases

The hereditary material consists of a row of numbers. And this is compared with profiles in databases containing DNA of people reported missing, people wanted for a criminal offense and international databases.

It sounds like some kind of CSI-like computer system with all kinds of photos of people in it, but that’s not how it works, says Van Kooten. “No, they are not there. They are really databases with numbers. I do know names of people and sometimes a little background.”

Furthermore, a possible match with DNA profiles of relatives of people who have gone missing is examined. “A person’s DNA consists of half of the father’s material and the other half comes from the mother. So if you have hereditary information from both people, you could have a one hundred percent match.”

The exact time it takes to get a definitive answer varies: sometimes a few days, weeks and sometimes months. But if they succeed, if they can provide feedback to the police or the Public Prosecution Service that someone has been identified, it is satisfying.

“It gives a nice feeling if we can pass on a so-called link. Quite a few unknown deaths have been identified in this way.”

But sometimes it is not a match. No identification. The dead person remains anonymous. “It may be that the person has not been reported missing or that the country where the person comes from is not developing that far. There is not the knowledge or the money for that.”

The person’s DNA profile will then be stored. “And when new family members come forward, or parts of unknown dead people wash ashore, we compare.”

Not from missing boy

When asked, the police informed NH that it is not yet clear to them whether the two body parts belong together. But it is in any case impossible that the human remains of 12-year-old Riemer are. He went missing almost a year ago in a boat accident near Terschelling.

The beachcomber Maarten Brugge, who made the discovery, thinks that the bones belong to one or more people who tried to cross the channel between France and England. Thousands of refugees do this in rubber boats. And that sometimes goes wrong.

The Texel also finds regularly indicate things: life jackets, bags with toothbrushes, clothes, shoes.

If the bones are indeed from a migrant, it is quite possible that there is no DNA match of relatives in any of the databases. Which is also an option: the NFI experts can often find information about the geographical origin of the dead person.

NFI expert Van Kooten: “Which continent the ancestors came from, for example from Africa, but also what color their eyes, hair and skin were.”

The years she has been doing this work have not left her untouched. “It seems very difficult to me when you feel that someone has died, but you don’t know where someone is. Dealing with that. I have the feeling that we can do something with our work. Pass something on. Some closure.”

There must be someone somewhere who knows about that person, she says, someone who misses the person. “There is a whole story behind everything. I believe that I and my colleagues can contribute to that.”