Texel police begin DNA testing for dozens of unidentified bodies

Police in Texel are trying to identify the remains of 38 dead bodies who have washed ashore on the island between 1920 and 2010, all of which were buried anonymously. The first nine will be exhumed on Wednesday for DNA sampling.

It may take months to find matches and identify the bodies, police have said. Prior to 2010, it was not mandatory for authorities to check DNA bases in cases of missing identities and bodies were buried without sampling.

The first bodies being examined today were buried between 1940 and 1982 in the general cemetery in Den Burg. Some bodies were there long enough that new graves have been placed above them, regional broadcaster NH reported.

The exhumation follows years of pressure from the community in Urk, a former island and fishing town in Flevoland, where 31 fishermen were lost in the North Sea between 1922 and 1997 and never found. Their relatives hope DNA from the Texel graves will match their missing family members.

Texel council refused to open the graves for years, since the anonymous bodies lie among named graves still protected by burial rights, police spokesman Erwin Sintenie told NH.

The remains are also thought to include drowning victims and two Second World War naval air service scouts.

DNA testing has already solved several cases on the island. In 2020, a body that washed up in 1995 was identified as a 59-year-old Swedish sailor who had been missing for 25 years.

A 22-year-old Syrian who drowned in 2014 trying to swim the Channel and two Afghan men aged 20 and 27, whose remains washed up in 2023, have also been identified.

Sintenie said the number of anonymous dead on Texel is high compared with the rest of the country, possibly because of the strong currents around the island. Remains will be reburied immediately after sampling.