Dominican police are to send samples to a laboratory in Jamaica to determine whether a decomposed body found at the bottom of a precipice in Capuchin, north of Roseau, belongs to a person reported missing, Police Commissioner Lincoln Corbett has said.
The remains were recovered on 12 August this year. Because of the condition of the body, investigators have been unable to establish identity by ordinary means, and the case has turned on forensic testing.
Corbett said Jamaica has given the green light for the samples to be sent to a laboratory there. The testing is intended to confirm whether the remains match the DNA of a missing person, a step that would allow the police to close the identification question and move the investigation forward.
The Commissioner did not give a date for the transfer of the samples or an estimate of how long the laboratory work will take. He also did not name the missing person whose DNA is to be compared, and police have not publicly confirmed any link between the Capuchin discovery and a specific missing-person report.
Capuchin sits on the coast road north of the capital, where the land rises steeply from the sea and precipices are common. The location of the discovery has added to the difficulty of the recovery, and the condition of the remains has made scientific identification the only reliable route available to investigators.
DNA comparison works by matching genetic material taken from the remains with a sample from a relative of a missing person. In cases where a body has been exposed to the elements for some time, this is often the only method that can produce a definitive answer, and the results are treated as evidence in any subsequent proceedings.
The arrangement with Jamaica reflects the limited forensic laboratory capacity available in Dominica and across much of the Eastern Caribbean. Sending samples to a regional partner is a established practice when specialist testing is required, and it means the pace of the investigation now depends in part on the turnaround time at the overseas facility.
For the family of a missing person, the wait is the hardest part. Police have not indicated whether relatives have already been asked to provide reference samples, and the public has not been given details of the missing-person inquiry that the testing is meant to resolve.
The Commissioner's statement confirms that the case remains open and active more than two months after the body was found. It also signals that the police are treating identification as the priority before any further conclusions are drawn about the circumstances of the death.
Dominica 1 will report further details, including the outcome of the testing, when they are confirmed by the police. Anyone with information relevant to the inquiry is asked to contact the police directly.
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