The extremely difficult task of identifying Miami condo victims.

June 30, 2021

Emergency crews at the site of a collapsed South Florida condo aren't just battling summer weather, smoldering fire and dangerous debris in their race to find 149 unaccounted-for victims. The longer the search takes, the more likely it is that human remains will have decomposed significantly, making DNA identification more challenging, experts say. "It's been a fruitful 20 years in terms of DNA technology advances," said Tracey Dawson Green, a professor and chair of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Forensic Science. "Now, just a few cells of DNA are enough to do an identification."