The recovery and identification of skeletal human remains related to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Dictatorship (1939-1975) is a complex process involving scientific associations, as well as private and public laboratories, with the participation of family members.
With the enactment of Spain’s Democratic Memory Law (Law 20/2022, of 19 October), an important step forward was taken through the creation of the State DNA Database of Victims of the War and the Dictatorship (BEADN, regulated in Article 23). This database is under the responsibility of the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences (INTCF), a public forensic science agency attached to the Spanish Ministry of Justice.
In this poster, we present the validation of the Bonaparte software by the INTCF, which will be the management software of the BEADN.
To perform this validation, a mock data panel was used, consisting of genetic profiles (for A‑STRs, Y‑STRs, and mtDNA markers) from 71 unidentified remains (UI) and 55 putative relatives (FM), distributed across 42 pedigrees (PT). These UIs and FMs were allocated among 3 hypothetical laboratories tasked with the identification of the analyzed remains.
Bonaparte software version 4.2‑r24_b1,275 was employed. Repeatability, reproducibility, and concordance were assessed. Concordance was evaluated qualitatively using CODIS 9 and quantitatively using Familias v3.3.1, applying a 30% coefficient‑of‑variation threshold and the Wilcoxon signed‑rank test.
The results show 100% repeatability, reproducibility and qualitative concordance. Regarding quantitative concordance, only one case exceeded the 30% coefficient‑of‑variation threshold, as a consequence of the low LR value obtained; however, the overall differences were not statistically significant.
These findings support the suitability of the Bonaparte software for managing the Spanish BEADN and open a new pathway for the re‑signification of the victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship in Spain. Once the regulation governing the BEADN is approved, all accredited laboratories will be trained and granted access to register profiles and make comparisons in the system.