Flesh on leg to be matched
against missing persons

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Flesh on the foot portion of a human leg found in Hanauma Bay could help identify the person to whom the bones belong, said Kanthi Von Guenthner, Honolulu chief medical examiner.

However, matching DNA from the leg with samples from missing persons on police files could still take months.

"It depends on how much tissue is there," she said.

If medical examiners are not able to extract DNA from the flesh, they can get it from the bones, but that process is more expensive, Von Guenthner said.

A diver found what Von Guenthner called a complete leg, from hip to foot, about 30 feet below the surface of the water in Hanauma Bay about noon Saturday. Von Guenthner would not say whether it is a left or right leg.

The U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory will help narrow down the possible matches by determining the sex and height of the person.

"If the police gave us a list of missing persons, and if one of those match the characteristics of what we have, then we would have to go ahead and get the DNA identification with that particular person that they have in their file. Then we would have to send the DNA samples to a mainland lab and get it established," Von Guenthner said.

If police do not have DNA of the missing person, samples can be obtained from relatives or from hair that may still be in the person's hairbrush, she said.