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6-Aug-2025
From nameless pauper to half-sib identification
Family Pedigree. Each half-sibling has the same mother but a different father. Does the family's missing half-sibling (green) have the same DNA as the deceased's remains (blue)?
Identifying a missing person without parental DNA is a complex challenge. In this South African case, the deceased was believed to be one of four half-siblings — all sharing the same mother, but each having a different father. There was reference DNA from the three half-siblings, but no parental DNA. Conventional kinship analysis wouldn't work.
TrueAllele solved the problem. A Cybergenetics analyst statistically reconstructed the mother's genotype from her three children. And then inferred the missing child from the mother. Comparing the missing child's probabilistic genotype with the deceased individual, TrueAllele found a positive match.
Dr. Laura Heathfield, Associate Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Cape Town, said, “The deceased individual lay in the mortuary unidentified for over a year, and would have been buried as a nameless pauper had it not been for Cybergenetics' probabilistic genotyping. This case demonstrates the importance of the results obtained from the TrueAllele system, as it brought about a positive identification and much needed closure to a grieving family.”