RivCo Tackles Backlog Of 200 Unidentified Bodies: Report

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — The Riverside County Coroner's Office hopes new funds will help achieve significant progress in addressing its backlog of unidentified remains, which as of this month numbers nearly 200, reports The Press-Enterprise.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved close to a half-million dollars to help the coroner's office expand its staff and pay for exhuming bodies and performing DNA tests as needed.

According to The Press-Enterprise, in a given year Riverside County is unable to identify 700 people at the time of their deaths, due to the condition of their remains or missing identification documents. The current backlog of 200 includes several people who died more than two decades ago and one man who died in the late 19th century.

Adding extra part-time staffers will help the coroner's office perform exhumations — a process that costs thousands of dollars — and utilize the latest DNA testing to finally provide more families with closure.

Relatives with family members who are unaccounted for can choose to upload their DNA to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems, which helps law enforcement land a match. The sheriff's office also hosts information on many of its unidentified cases on its website.

>> Read more via The Press-Enterprise.