CNN: Katrina victims yet to be identified: DNA testing hasn't begun

Katrina victims yet to be identified
Three months after storm, DNA testing hasn't begun
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Up to 200 bodies of people killed by Hurricane Katrina remain unidentified because DNA testing has not begun, CNN has learned.

New Orleans coroner Dr. Frank Minyard expressed outrage that the process was stalled because the state of Louisiana had not signed a contract with a firm that would do the testing.

"It's extremely frustrating," he said, given that so many dentists' offices were wiped out in the flood along with their dental records, which are commonly used to identify bodies.

"We have to rely on DNA and it should have been done, at least started, a month ago," he said.

Three months after the storm ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast -- and on the day that the hurricane season officially ends -- many of the bodies discovered in Louisiana remain at a makeshift morgue....