Hanzlick Randy
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Am J Forensic Med Pathol. 2006 Jun;27(2):126-8. doi: 10.1097/01.paf.0000221069.55267.05.
Medical examiner and coroner offices may face difficulties in trying to achieve identification of deceased persons who are unidentified or in locating next of kin for deceased persons who have been identified. The Fulton County medical examiner (FCME) has an office web site which includes information about unidentified decedents and cases for which next of kin are being sought.
Information about unidentified deceased and cases in need of next of kin has been posted on the FCME web site for 3 years and 1 year, respectively. FCME investigators and staff medical examiners were surveyed about the web site's usefulness for making identifications and locating next of kin.
No cases were recalled in which the web site led to making an identification. Two cases were reported in which next of kin were located, and another case involved a missing person being ruled out as one of the decedents. The web site page is visited by agencies interested in missing and unidentified persons, and employees do find it useful for follow-up because information about all unidentified decedents is located and easily accessible, electronically, in a single location.
Despite low yield in making identifications and locating next of kin, the UID web site is useful in some respects, and there is no compelling reason to discontinue its existence. It is proposed that UID pages on office web sites be divided into "hot" (less than 30 days, for example) and "warm" (31 days to 1 year, for example) cases and that cases older than a year be designated as "cold cases." It is conceivable that all unidentified deceased cases nationally could be placed on a single web site designed for such purposes, to remain in public access until identity is established and confirmed.
法医和验尸官办公室在试图识别身份不明的死者或为已确认身份的死者寻找近亲时可能会面临困难。富尔顿县法医办公室（FCME）有一个办公网站，其中包含有关身份不明的死者以及正在寻找近亲的案件的信息。
分别在FCME网站上发布身份不明死者和需要寻找近亲的案件信息已有3年和1年。对FCME调查人员和法医工作人员就该网站在身份识别和寻找近亲方面的有用性进行了调查。
没有回忆起该网站促成身份识别的案例。报告了两起找到近亲的案例，另一起案例涉及排除一名失踪人员作为死者之一。对失踪和身份不明人员感兴趣的机构会访问该网站页面，员工们确实发现它对后续工作很有用，因为所有身份不明死者的信息都集中在一个地方，通过电子方式很容易获取。
尽管在身份识别和寻找近亲方面成效不高，但身份不明死者网站在某些方面是有用的，没有令人信服的理由停止其存在。建议将办公网站上的身份不明死者页面分为“热点”（例如少于30天）和“温点”（例如31天至1年）案例，并将超过一年的案例指定为“冷案”。可以想象，全国所有身份不明的死者案例都可以放在一个为此目的设计的单一网站上，在身份确定并得到确认之前一直供公众访问。
