The case of Pfc. Charles McAllister: the identification of an American First World War MIA

Silverstein, J.E. ORCID: 0000-0002-8213-0321, 2023. The case of Pfc. Charles McAllister: the identification of an American First World War MIA. Human Remains and Violence, 9 (1), pp. 70-90. ISSN 2054-2240

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Abstract

In 2004, the remains of two First World War US soldiers from France were delivered to the US Government for identification and burial. One set of remains was identified and buried, and the other went into a cold-case status. In 2019, the second individual was identified using multiple lines of evidence. The possible individuals that could be associated with the remains were reduced based on material evidence recovered with the remains and the spatiotemporal historical context of the remains. The First World War personnel records then offered sufficient biometric criteria to narrow the possible individuals associated with the second recovered individual to one person, Pfc. Charles McAllister. A family reference DNA sample from a direct matrilineal descendant of the individual added statistical weight to the identification, although the mtDNA was not a decisive or necessary factor in the identification. Due to bureaucratic reasons, the legal identification of Pfc. Charles McAllister is still pending statistical weight to the identification, although the mtDNA was not a decisive or necessary factor in the identification. Due to bureaucratic reasons, the legal identification of Pfc. Charles McAllister is still pending .

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Human Remains and Violence
Creators: Silverstein, J.E.
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Date: April 2023
Volume: 9
Number: 1
ISSN: 2054-2240
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.7227/hrv.9.1.5DOI
1756453Other
Rights: This is an Open Access article published under the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/4.0.
Divisions: Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 09 May 2023 09:49
Last Modified: 09 May 2023 09:49
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/48899

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