Officials are looking to collect DNA samples in order to properly identify several victims of the Interstate 81 crash in Pennsylvania last month.
The crash happened on March 28th near the Minersville exit of I-81 in Schuylkill County, during “an active snow squall,” but the identities of four men and two women killed in the incident have yet to be fully confirmed. The wreck involved a total of 39 commercial vehicles and 41 passenger vehicles.
Dr. David Moylan III, the Schuylkill County coroner, says that officials are “99.8 percent sure” that they have correctly identified the six deceased people, “but we want to be 100 percent sure,” reported ABC 16 News.
“We need to get some DNA samples” from people they believe to be relatives of the deceased in order to be entirely sure of their identities, he continued. All of the people in question were between 40 and 70 years old, but were burned too badly in the crash to be recognized.
“All of the decedents were found in the group of vehicles that were on fire,” Deputy Coroner Albert Barnes said.
Two of the people in question were found inside of a box truck, one of the first vehicles involved in the pile-up crash. Two more of the people were found in their cars, and one was a truck driver found inside of his burned cab.
Moylan says that collecting DNA samples from presumed relatives will take “at least a week and maybe another week to get the results.”