“Influx of bright young” Forensic Scientists Helps Solve 58-year Mystery

During World War II, in a raid on Japanese-held Makin Island (now Butaritari Atoll) on August 17, 1942, 19 members of the 2^nd Marine Raiders Battalion—better known as the Makin Raiders—died and were buried on the island.

Mark Leney works to identify the remains of World War II soldiers.

Fifty-eight years later, as a postdoctoral research participant with the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI), Dr. Mark Leney helped identify the remains of these men so they could be returned to their families.

The Department of Defense made an unsuccessful attempt to recover the remains on Makin in 1949. The search was renewed in 1998 and a breakthrough came shortly thereafter when searchers found an elderly island resident who had helped bury the bodies as a young boy. He eventually led searchers to within 10 feet of the burial site.

Once recovered, remains where flown to CILHI, a one-of-a-kind forensics lab originally created to track down those missing and killed in action in Vietnam, for identification.

Leney, a forensic anthropologist, coordinated and offered analysis of DNA information collected at the lab.

“The program allowed us to get a close look at CILHI and CILHI a chance to look at us,” Leney said. “The influx of bright young people from a variety of backgrounds into CILHI as a result of Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) will be of major benefit to the scientific mission at CILHI, and it is also providing participants with a challenging experience that will help them to make an informed decision about their future careers.”

To make identifications, researchers first used historical data—such as identification tags worn by soldiers and other personal affects—collected at the site. If this data is unavailable, researchers can assemble bones to make a biological profile of an individual, estimating age, sex, race, and height. Forensic dentists can match teeth with dental records.

Leney and other researchers at the lab used DNA samples to make identifications when other methods failed in several cases. DNA samples from the person’s maternal relatives were used to make an exact match.