Analysis of complex kinship cases for human identification of civil war victims in Guatemala using M-FISys software

Abstract Twelve years after the end of Guatemala's 36-year internal conflict, the depth and breadth of loss of human life during this time is now being calculated, and the number is staggering. FAFG has been working for several years trying to reconstruct the historic memory. Now with DNA technology running at FAFG laboratory, our ability to identify victims is much greater, but the data behind these identifications has become much more complicated. To help manage the data FAFG has employed M-FISys software, which contains tools and algorithms for use in elucidating very complex kinship relationships that cross familial as well as generational lines, giving alternative approaches to complex kinship relationships and management of population genetic information. In FAFG's first comparison of 67 victims to 451 family references numerous genetic leads were made and here we describe a family tree compound of 3 family groups that are biologically related to one another and in total consist of 42 individuals spread over 5 generations, including: 14 missing persons; 12 living family members who donated biological samples for DNA analysis and 16 individuals who were either deceased or unavailable for sample collection. This case exemplifies the depth and breadth of the losses as well as the nature of complex kinship between victims and relatives. Through the use of integrated software to combine ante-mortem and post-mortem data into one system, large-scale human identification can be made easier and simpler for those tasked with large-scale or complex human identifications.