Lost at sea: The unidentified bodies

Every unidentified body that arrives at Mater Dei’s mortuary gets a number, which stays attached to the case for as long as it remains open. For most, it never closes.

The system has been in place since around 2004, when staff began noticing a pattern—bodies recovered from Maltese waters, heavily decomposed, with nothing on them to say who they were. The number was a practical solution to an uncomfortable reality, since in the absence of a name, you need something to use instead.

Since January, four bodies have been pulled from Maltese waters in a heavily decomposed state. Remains were recovered at Ġnejna Bay on 25 January, and police noted at the time that identification would be difficult due to the state of decomposition. Three weeks later, a body turned up off Fomm ir-Rieħ. Two days after that, another near Ċirkewwa. Then a fourth, off the cliffs at Fawwara, on 27 February.

All three remain unidentified, a fact the police confirmed when approached by MaltaToday.

It is not a new problem, and the numbers behind it are larger than three. Between 1 January 2020 and today, the police say 72 bodies have been recovered from Maltese waters. Of those, 53 were eventually identified, but 19 were not.

What the law requires

Under Maltese law, when a body is found in circumstances of sudden, violent, or suspicious death, or where the cause is unknown, the police are required to report it to a magistrate, who is then legally obliged to open an inquiry. The purpose is to establish the cause of death and who the person was.

The moment a body arrives at Mater Dei Hospital, the police are informed and the magistrate takes jurisdiction. A number of experts are appointed, and the body does not move without authorisation. What follows is an autopsy carried out by two forensic pathologists, and it is here that the work of identification begins.

David Grima, a biomedical scientist at Mater Dei Hospital, has been part of this process for years.

“Across Europe, around 20% of cases get identified,” he told MaltaToday. “The rest remain unresolved; not because we cannot build a DNA profile, but because we do not have anything to compare it to.”

David Grima, a biomedical scientist at Mater Dei Hospital (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

Building a profile from nothing

The autopsy is the first and most important step. Grima and his colleagues photograph the remains and document anything that might later help, including healed surgical scars, amputations, and distinctive physical features still visible. Clothing is recorded, and any possessions found with the body are noted, though documents are treated with caution since they may not belong to the person carrying them.

Then comes DNA. A sample is taken regardless of the body’s condition. If it is fresh, blood works best. As decomposition progresses, the focus shifts to the intercostal muscle, between the ribs, which is particularly reliable. If muscle is no longer viable, bones take over, with long bones, ribs, and teeth all able to yield a result.

“Even from a fully skeletonised body, a profile is still obtainable,” Grima said.

What decomposition strips away is everything else—skin colour, facial features, hair. Bones hold longer, and from skeletal remains alone, a pathologist can determine sex and estimate age through ossification, the process by which cartilage gradually hardens into bone, and through patterns of fusion in the skull. None of that amounts to a name, but it narrows the pool of who a person might have been considerably.

What the sea takes

The sea makes all of this harder. On land, decomposition follows a relatively predictable path. In water, the variables multiply, with sea temperature, currents, marine life, and whether the body was clothed all playing a part.

One thing the sea removes that land does not is insects. Maggots, which accelerate decomposition significantly on land, are absent underwater. What takes their place is the water itself, and whatever moves through it.

Estimating how long a body has been in the water, and therefore an approximate date of death, is possible, Grima explained, but imprecise. The mortuary uses sea temperatures and current data to work it out. Establishing where a body entered the water, however, is a different question entirely.

“That can be done, but not by us,” Grima said. “Police investigators and other specialists would look at currents and patterns to determine where the body could have come from. There’s a whole picture you can build from that data.”

The police confirmed the broad shape of the process when approached by MaltaToday. When a body is recovered from the sea, they inform the duty magistrate, who opens a magisterial inquiry and appoints several experts. The body is transferred to the mortuary for autopsy, and if the person is known, family members are notified. If not, a search for a missing person begins through the police system, with Interpol and Europol potentially notified. Once all tests are complete, an unidentified body is assigned an identification number and kept at the mortuary for a period that depends on DNA processing time and the stage of decomposition.

Cirkewwa

After Storm Harry

The three bodies recovered in February came roughly a month after Storm Harry struck the Maltese islands in mid-January, generating waves of several metres and triggering over 180 civil protection incidents. Whether there is any connection between the storm and the unidentified recoveries is not something Grima can confirm, though he says the timeline is not impossible. A body that entered the water in late January could, depending on currents and conditions, wash ashore weeks later.

He has seen years heavier than this one, with the worst periods in his experience being 2014 and 2015.

Closed, not sealed

Once the autopsy is done and all appointed experts have submitted their reports, the procès-verbal (PV), the formal record of the inquiry, is closed and forwarded to the Attorney General. Under Maltese law, if the PV is not completed within 60 days, the magistrate must explain the delay, and thereafter a report is due every two months — the closest thing the law provides to a deadline.

If the person remains unidentified, a decision must be made about the body. Some are eventually claimed by families. Others are released for burial following a court authorisation, some to mosque cemeteries depending on circumstances, and for those with no one to claim them, parishes or public authorities step in to organise a burial.

Even after the PV closes, DNA is retained in case something develops, whether a family surfaces or an international request comes in, allowing the inquiry to be reopened. If a body has already been buried and new evidence emerges, the law even allows a magistrate to order exhumation.

The number that remains

The three individuals recovered in February, each have a DNA profile, and their sex and approximate age have been inferred from the remains. Their clothing has been photographed. Their number is registered in the system.

A DNA profile, Grima explained, is only as useful as what you have to compare it to. If a family has reported someone missing and provided a sample, a match becomes possible. If they have not, the profile sits in a database, waiting.

The cases remain open and the files can be reopened, but unless someone, somewhere, comes looking, the number assigned at the mortuary door may be the only identification these three people ever have.