Parentage testing on blood crusts from firearms projectiles by DNA typing settles an insurance fraud case

We describe a case of a fraudulent insurance claim. The family of an adult white male (DLF) notified the police of their son's disappearance. After a few weeks, a corpse that presented characteristics similar to those of the DLF was found in advanced stages of decay and was identified by the family as being DLF. The family then filed a claim for the life insurance that DLF had taken out just before he disappeared. Suspicions were raised about the identification of the corpse, because it had been done only visually, and because the insurance policy had been taken out just prior to DLF's disappe arance. The insurance company requested a postmortem examination for identi fication. As the corpse had been cremated immediately after identification by the family, the biological material that was encrusted on the two projec tiles removed from the body was used for analysis. The blood crusts provide d enough genomic DNA for us to carry out PCR base typing of HLA-DQA1, D1S80 , HUMCSF1PO, HUMTPOX, HUMTH01, D3S1744, D12S1090, D18S849, and amelogenin. Results from all loci typing from the corpse presumed to be that of DLF wer e then compared with that of his alleged biological parents, revealing gene tic incompatibility.