Stories from Forbach · France

Investigators have identified a potential victim in a cold case involving a Syrian asylum seeker missing since 2002. The identification follows the discovery of severely burned remains in Forbach, France, near the German border. Forensic experts used the process of elimination to reach this conclusion after visual identification proved impossible due to the state of the body. The discovery provides a new lead in a long-standing investigation. Detectives are now investigating whether the remains belong to a Syrian asylum seeker who has been missing since 2002. Technicians used swabs on original fingerprints found on official documents that had been stored in a government file since 2002. The DNA profile extracted from the paperwork matched a woman's DNA isolated from the remains. This laboratory result provides a definitive link to the individual who had been missing for over two decades.