to collect dna, the composition of the body, whether it was outdoors apparently, how does all of that factor in? number one, the dna is going to stay despite any decomposition. normally, if the body has deteriorated a great deal, the soft tissues, skin and muscle, the dna can be extracted from the leg bones. that s not a problem. that stays good for decades, in the bone and teeth. she had other ways of being identified also. dental records that she had from dental identification. from x-rays that she might have had and also, she had very characteristic tattoos that show up on the video when the police interviewed her and her boyfriend. shannon: doctor, what about the dna from someone else, whether it s the boyfriend or someone else, also being present
passengers and one crew member below deck. the fire literally blocking the escape hatch as well as the main exit. so far, officially they ve recovered 20 bodies and hope to find the remaining victims today. because several are burned beyond recognition, they will be doing dna analysis, dental identification. 30 families have been in contact with authorities. that basically means there are four families out there that do not know whether their family member is likely a victim. mainly, they are from san jose and santa cruz. they booked this three day scuba trip. today the coast guard suspended who chopper operations, while the dive teams continue to focus on remaining victims. our last aircraft over flight this morning revealed no additional finds of distress or debris. reporter: currently t boat is in about 65 feet of water.
a recovery mode. officials are not ready move to there yet but there s optimism they may find something at daybreak when the search resumes again. we just saw a heartbreaking tweet from the captain of the plane s daughter. and her tweet reads, dad, please come home. i still need you. please return dad. dad, come home. dad, you have to come home. you can just feel the desperation in those words. david, this is still being classified as a search-and-rescue mission. the emphasis there on rescue. at the same time families have been asked to provide close up pictures of family members who are smiling presumably for dental identification. is there a feeflg desling of despair among the families or are he holding out some hope? reporter: i think there is hope but i think that the hope is beginning to fade. you know we ve seen family members come by just behind me here at the crisis center inside
years ago now knows that their brother was one of the formerly unidentified victim of john wayne gacy. the body was exhumed for a new round of dna testing. gacy was executed in 1994. he was convicted of murdering 33 young men back in the 1970s. he buried most of the victims in the crawl space beneath his home. that is gacy dressed up as a clown. it is one of the means that he used to lure his victims. joining us now, dr. michael baden, forensic pathologist and a fooks news contributor. this is a fascinating story. there are at least eight victims that police didn t know, still don t know who they were. this young man, bundy, was one of the eight. right. what happened in 1970s the best way to identify decomposed bodies, no fingerprints, no identification by visual was by dental identification and 25 of those 33 dead bodies were identified that way.