Date of Award

Fall 12-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department/Program

Forensic Science

Language

English

First Advisor or Mentor

Angelique Corthals

Second Reader

Mechthild Prinz

Third Advisor

Bianca Brandon

Abstract

In this research, bovine leg bones were burned, both with and without meat intact, in order to determine if it was possible to extract and amplify DNA to obtain profiles. The meat was burned over an open flame and the DNA was extracted using the Qiagen DNeasy Blood & Tissue Mini Kit, quantified with the NanoDrop, and amplified using the Bovine Genotypes Panel 3.1 Kit, and separated using the 3500 Genetic Analyzer. Profiles were analyzed using the Thermo Fisher Cloud Microsatellite Analysis software. The samples burned with the meat intact produced lower quantities of DNA than the bones burned with the meat removed prior. However, the none of the profiles were complete for the burned samples and definitive identifications could not be made for either set. In all, the experiment proved that there are several different types of challenges when analyzing burned skeletal remains. This research should be continued using more optimized methods and possibly human samples.

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