Piccinini,A.; Coco,S.; Parson,W.; Cattaneo,C.; Gaudio,D.; Barbazza,R.; Galassi,A.;

We report the results of an attempt to identify the supposed remains of a famous World War I (WWI) Italian soldier who was killed in battle along the Italian front in 1915. Thanks to the availability of offspring from both paternal and maternal lineage Y-STRs and mtDNA were analysed and both showed a clear exclusion scenario: the remains did not belong to the supposed war hero. This is the first effort of identification of the remains of soldiers who perished during World War I within a multidisciplinary project aimed at the retrieval of historical and cultural aspects linked to WWI, and the systematic study of the remains of soldiers and ultimately their identification. This last step involves both Italian and Austrian laboratories.

Forensic Sci Int Genet 2010 4(5):329-333