Yep. Depends on how complex of a test you want (like searching for rare gene variants might take a long time and need multiple tests due to false positives), but a test accurate enough to establish identity is not a complex test - it should only take a couple hours in an automated lab (not even a lab with a tech in it).
And they don’t need his DNA itself, just that of relatives, enough to say “this sample DNA is a male first cousin of SuchandSuch, and third cousin of suchandsuch” etc. Then you just cross reference against national id databases, birth records (FBI has all this) and boom you’ve got your person.
Most Americans have enough relatives in PUBLIC (this cannot be emphasized enough, it’s not even secret data it is public data) DNA databases to cross reference like that and establish identity.
Yep. Depends on how complex of a test you want (like searching for rare gene variants might take a long time and need multiple tests due to false positives), but a test accurate enough to establish identity is not a complex test - it should only take a couple hours in an automated lab (not even a lab with a tech in it).
And they don’t need his DNA itself, just that of relatives, enough to say “this sample DNA is a male first cousin of SuchandSuch, and third cousin of suchandsuch” etc. Then you just cross reference against national id databases, birth records (FBI has all this) and boom you’ve got your person.
Most Americans have enough relatives in PUBLIC (this cannot be emphasized enough, it’s not even secret data it is public data) DNA databases to cross reference like that and establish identity.