Humanitarian Forensic Anthropology in Italy: a case of commingled remains from the largest mass disaster of the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean Sea

On April 18th, 2015, a boat sank off the Libyan coast allegedly carrying 1000 migrants: with only 28 survivors, this is considered the most tragic event amongst the shipwrecks that daily occur in the Mediterranean Sea. This presentation focuses on the skeletal remains found in the engine room of the wreck and describes the elaboration of the biological profile and the segregation of the commingled remains that were found completely or partially disarticulated. The inventory and anthropometric data of the commingled remains were recorded on the CoRA (Commingled Remains Analytics) platform: 2,831 bones and teeth were entered into the database, 397 of which belong to articulated portions. Morphometric analyses were performed on the remains for the elaboration of the biological profile. The segregation of the mixed remains focused on the pair-matching of the long bones through a visual approach and osteometric sorting. 25 disarticulated crania and 25 individuals represented by pelvic bones were recovered from the engine room. The individuals were adult and subadult males. Morphometric ancestry identified both African and European forms. Minimum number of individuals (MNI) could amount to 25. However, 33 disarticulated mandibles and several supernumerary long bones were found, suggesting further intermixing of remains with other environments of the boat. Visual and osteometric pair-matching return partially discordant results, but the latter substantially reduces the number of comparisons that can then be evaluated through the visual approach. The engine room was supposed to be a closed space. However, evidence of further commingling was found because of the presence of supernumerary bones that could not be assigned to any of these individuals. The engine room is only a small portion of the boat, but it represents a starting point for the analysis of the commingled remains and the future identification of the victims of this shipwreck.