Today, 797 people are still reported as worryingly missing. The oldest files date back to the 1970s and 1980s and have become unsolved cases, known as “cold cases“.
In addition, in recent decades, many unidentified dead bodies have been discovered. “At the time these bodies were buried, current DNA detection techniques did not yet exist. Therefore, it is quite possible that many old disappearance cases might be solved by taking new DNA samples from the hitherto unidentified bodies.“, specifies the press release.
With this in mind, the Missing Persons cell launched the operation “Graveyard” in 2021, with a view to systematically digging up unidentified bodies in cemeteries across the country to collect a DNA sample. The action began in West Flanders, with 35 exhumations carried out to date.
