Reliance is too often placed on visual inspection in establishing the identity of the deceased. This includes having the remains viewed by individuals seeking to locate a lost friend or relative. The body is often decomposed. If death was caused by burning, the victim may be unrecognizable. As a result of many fatal accidents the deceased is often mutilated, particularly about the face, so that visual identification is impossible. Yet, in many cases, the only attempt at identification is by having persons view the remains and the personal effects.
The recorded instances of erroneous visual identifications are numerous. In one case a body, burned beyond recognition, was identified by relatives as that of a 21-year-old man; yet fingerprints later proved that the corpse was that of a 55-year-old man.
Fingerprints have frequently been instrumental in establishing the correct identity of persons killed in airplane crashes and incorrectly "identified" by close relatives.
In one instance a woman found dead in a hotel room was "positively" identified by several close friends. The body was shipped to the father of the alleged deceased in another state where again it was "identified" by close friends. Burial followed. Approximately one month later the persons who had first identified the body as that of their friend were sitting in a tavern when the "dead" woman walked into the room. Authorities were immediately advised of the error; they in turn advised the authorities in the neighboring state of the erroneous identification and steps were taken immediately to rectify the mistake. After permission had been granted by the State Health Board to exhume the body of the dead woman, fingerprints were taken and copies were forwarded to the FBI Identification Division. The finger impressions were searched through the fingerprint files and the true identity of the deceased was established.
During a 12-month period, the FBI Identification Division received the fingerprints of 1,708 unknown dead. Of these, 1,298, or almost 76 percent, were identified. The remaining 410 were not identified simply because fingerprints of these individuals were not in the FBI files. It should be noted that in these 1,708 cases, it was possible to secure legible fingerprints of the deceased in the usual manner by inking the fingers in those instances in which decomposition had not injured the ridge detail.