ABSTRACT
Mass fatality events occur for many reasons. Some are from natural causes and others from man’s intervention, and they run the gamut from hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, and building explosions to terrorist events. A recent position paper by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [2] says that all human remains are to be recovered and that “complete documentation and recovery of human remains and items of evidence must be completed.” The directives stress that mass disaster scenes are to be considered crime scenes and that the customary rules of evidence and chain of custody apply.
