The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net


THE Bahamas could have the capacity to conduct DNA testing locally before the end of the year, Attorney General Wayne Munroe said yesterday, as families of victims killed in the Independence Day plane crash in Andros face waits of up to eight weeks to identify and bury their loved ones.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville also renewed the government’s commitment to establishing a national forensic laboratory after concerns were raised about delays in identifying victims whose remains were severely burned in the July 10 crash near San Andros Airport.

Relatives submitted DNA samples last week after several victims reportedly could not be identified because of the condition of their remains.

Dr Darville confirmed that the remains were largely unrecognisable and said DNA testing would be conducted at a laboratory in the United States.

“It's a process and labs in the United States have to look at the remains and match before we start speaking and start putting remains to individuals. It needs to be tested for confirmation,” he said.

Forensic DNA analysis is often used alongside other methods to identify victims after mass-fatality incidents.

Dr Darville said the government would cover the cost of the testing and other expenses arising from the crash.

“We realise that this is one a national tragedy, and there's a lot of things that are going to be underwritten and absorbed by the government,” he said.

He said plans were being developed through the pathology department, in collaboration with the Royal Bahamas Police Force, to make DNA testing available locally.

Dr Darville said Bahamians would eventually have access to a DNA laboratory in the country, although officials would continue working with accredited laboratories in the United States and possibly Canada.

Mr Munroe said he understood police were working to establish the capacity to conduct DNA testing in The Bahamas before the end of the year.

The absence of a national forensic laboratory has been a longstanding issue, affecting criminal investigations, sexual assault cases and disaster victim identification.

The Progressive Liberal Party pledged in its 2021 Blueprint for Change to establish a national forensic laboratory as part of its national security and justice agenda before winning the general election that year.

However, Free National Movement chairman Dr Duane Sands said a forensic laboratory had been discussed for decades without the political will or budgetary allocation needed to make it a reality.

He said the country remained dependent on international partners for DNA testing despite the laboratory being promised in the PLP’s manifesto.

“It's not only the grieving families,” he said who are waiting on DNA results. “It is the justice system, because you have to wait for this evidence to be adduced. And sometimes you wait for weeks, sometimes for months before you get results. In the meantime, you have no answers, and some of those remains, are kept in storage in one of the multiple trailers at Princess Margaret Hospital, and there are many with human remains for years.”

Dr Sands also pointed to the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in 2019, when many victims remained unidentified because of the condition of their remains.

In 2020, 55 victims were buried in Central Pines after DNA samples were collected, with officials saying the remains could later be exhumed if testing confirmed their identities.

Dr Sands said some of those victims had never been positively identified, although their families believed the remains belonged to their relatives.

The need for a local forensic laboratory has also been repeatedly raised in connection with sexual assault investigations.

In 2025, Bahamas Crisis Centre director Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson said the lack of a forensic laboratory was forcing rape victims to wait months for critical DNA testing. She argued that the delays denied survivors justice and retraumatised them in court.

Dr Dean-Patterson said she had raised the issue with successive administrations but had been told establishing a laboratory would be extremely costly. She rejected cost as a valid excuse.

Mr Munroe, while serving as minister of national security, previously said Royal Bahamas Police Force biologists could examine samples collected in rape kits, but DNA testing was still conducted overseas.

He said the Davis administration was pursuing a national forensic laboratory that would provide DNA testing, pathology, drug analysis, firearms examinations and other forensic services.