Publications
The BIOMICs research group of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU in the last 10 years has intensly worked together with Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi and other association for the recovery of historical memory to the identification of Spanish Civil War remains from the victims buried in mass graves. To date, we have carried out the genetic analysis of 525 human skeletal remains from the Spanish Civil War and posterior dictatorship, recovered from graves of 9 different autonomous communities of Spain. As well as 879 reference samples from relatives (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Map of Spain indicating the number of family reference samples and skeletal remains analysed in 9 autonomous communities.
Results of our work
A significant success of DNA profiling has been achieved, since informative profiles (≥12 STRs and/or mitochondrial DNA profile) were obtained in 82.67 % of the remains only a 17.33 % of the remains did not provide an informative profile as a probable consequence of limited and/or degraded DNA in the skeletal remains. Notably, the identification of 137 skeletal remains (26.10 %) were established. Therefore, a total of 297 skeletal samples (56.57 %) remained unidentified despite of
having an informative profile to be compared with reference samples.
This partial identification success rate is mainly due to the lack of appropriate family members for genetic comparisons. This problem is related to the long time elapsed since the end of the conflict, and the difficulty to find close relatives such as sons/daughters. Furthermore, the dispersal of victims along Spain, to avoid their identification by acquaintances, also difficult the tracking down of relatives.
Despite that the current number of relatives’ profiles has significantly increased in recent years (compared to our previous study), mainly because of the creation of specific DNA databases in Basque Country and Balearic Islands, further efforts are needed in order to get a major contribution of donors along the territory. Moreover, a stronger collaboration between national laboratories working in the identification processes would be advantageous for increasing the number of identifications.
Baeta M et al. (2019). Updating data on the genetic identification of bone remains of victims of the Spanish Civil War. Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series 7:1:582-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.098.
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Baeta M et al. (2019). Forensic application of a mtDNA minisequencing 52plex: Tracing maternal lineages in Spanish Civil War remains. Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigss.2019.10.050.
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Baeta et al. (2015). Digging up the recent Spanish memory: genetic identification of
human remains from mass graves of the Spanish Civil War and
posterior dictatorship. Forensic Sci Int Genetics 19: 272-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2015.09.001
Congress Contributions
Raffone C et al. (2022). Challenging degradation in genetic identification of missing persons in Spanish Civil War and posterior dictatorship.
29th Congress of the ISFG.
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Baeta M et al. (2019). Update in the genetic identification of skeletal remains from victims from Spanish Civil War and posterior dictatorship. 28th Congress of the ISFG.
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