Tsunami
The Police sent staff to the tsunami-affected areas and we were in Phuket in Thailand. My team Rotation 7, got there in April. A young girl had been lost in the tsunami and couldn’t be identified. She was wearing a unique dress her mum had given her and should have been easily identifiable.
A girl wearing a similar dress had been found but people couldn’t match it up. The Americans had tried and the Aussies had tried, but they couldn’t get a fingerprint hit to match her and the dress ID was not sufficient.
This one case was driving hardened cops to tears. The Kiwi team ended up with the file and we managed to identify her through fingerprints and get her body home to her family. It’s not exactly a good news story but sometimes helping to bring closure is the next best thing.