It has been already 12 long years after horrific terrorist attack in a nine-story apartment building in Moscow in September 1999, killing 100 people, 12 victims remain unknown. Their bodies are stored in a morgue by authorities who haven’t found the money to carry out the necessary DNA tests.
Lawyers Trunov and Trepashkin, who represented families of the 1999 bombing, confirmed that body fragments remain unidentified, and Trunov said by telephone that city officials have explained that they have no money for DNA tests.
In fact, city officials demanded that relatives of those killed in the bombing pay for DNA tests using money they received as compensation from the state. Those who refused were unable to identify the bodies of their loved ones.
Moreover, many relatives were denied proper compensation, lawyer Trepashkin said. Those who were paid got meager sums of 5,000 to 10,000 rubles.
In comparison, a private Moscow firm is currently offering DNA tests for 12,000 to 16,000 rubles.
Lyudmila Knutova lost her 31-year-old son in the bombing and could not find him later among the dead, so an empty coffin was buried instead.
Tamara Gorbyleva lost her 4-year-old grandson, daughter and son-in-law, but only the daughter was identified.
They paid for DNA tests, but none managed to identify their relatives among the body fragments examined during testing.
The presumed victims officially have been listed as missing. No official data is available for how many people are on this list after the blast.