Ri.Sc.- Italy's Database of Unknown Decedents and Missing Persons : Towards a Solution for Unidentified Cadavers

The identification of unknown decedents is a key issue in forensic pathology, for ethical, criminal and civil reasons. Nowadays with looser family ties, immigration and countries in political turmoil, the issue of missing persons and, consequently, unidentified cadavers is inevitably destined to increase. Surprisingly, in the 21st century very few countries have a database for matching on a national basis data concerning missing persons with unidentified cadavers. The present communication aims at illustrating the numbers and problems behind unidentified bodies and missing persons and how the Italian Government is trying to solve them with a new national database.