Scandal-plagued DNA lab forced to store bodies in temporary coolrooms
A state-run Queensland DNA lab that was embroiled in a controversial bungle requiring 100,000-plus samples to be retested has run out of room for human remains.
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Queensland Health’s scandal-plagued Forensic and Scientific Services unit has all but run out of space to store dead bodies and skeletons.
The forensic facility – commonly known as the John Tonge Centre – will build a temporary refrigerated storage area to hold a minimum of 250 cadavers and human bones at the Coopers Plains campus, south of the Brisbane CBD.
The John Tonge Centre is a mortuary and laboratory run by Queensland Health’s Forensic and Scientific Services unit, which tests DNA and conducts autopsies on people killed in homicides, suicides, accidents or whose deaths were unexplained.
Autopsies may also be ordered for patients who die unexpectedly during surgeries.
Queensland Health has invited specialist building firms to bid to build a “temporary mortuary body storage project” with “a cold room to house minimum 200 persons and a freezer to house minimum 50 persons”.
Project documents obtained by The Sunday Mail show spaces will be required for standard and obese deceased persons where “racking will be required to be installed”.
Successful bidders will also have to construct a “dedicated storage area for DNA specimens” and “a storage area for skeletal remains”.
The construction project will include a staff kitchenette and a communications and data room.
A long-running DNA testing scandal uncovered by the media promoted the upgrade.
Up to 103,000 DNA crime scene samples, many from suspected murderers and rapists, will have to be reanalysed because the method originally used to test them was faulty.
It was alleged that murderers and rapists went free because of the bungle.
The Australian’s Hedley Thomas stumbled on the travesty when compiling his true crime podcast series into the death of Mackay stabbing victim Shandee Blackburn.
The court heard the 23-year-old was stabbed more than 20 times on her way home from work in 2013, with her former boyfriend John Perros charged with her murder but acquitted in 2017.
Queensland Health said it was seeking to install a modular temporary mortuary.
“The new building or extension will be affixed to the rear of the current mortuary allowing a seamless transfer from the current mortuary through to the new temporary mortuary without going outside,” it said in a statement.
“The build must be modular to allow for relocation of the asset in the future.
“The modules will be constructed off site and then transported to site.”
The centre was named after pioneering forensic pathologist Dr John Tonge, who died in 2013 aged 96 and who bequeathed his body to the University of Queensland for medical research training.
Former judge Walter Sofronoff led a commission of inquiry in 2022 that found DNA tests for “thousands” of crimes, including murder and sexual assault cases dating back to January 2008, would have to be re-examined.
Originally published as Scandal-plagued DNA lab forced to store bodies in temporary coolrooms
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