MH17 anniversary: How Aussie cops went into a warzone to seek justice

When hundreds of people fell from the sky right into the middle of a warzone, investigators knew this would be a crime scene like no other.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was on a routine flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, when a Buk surface to air missile exploded just above the cockpit as the plane travelled over eastern Ukraine at 33,000 feet.

The impact was catastrophic. Bodies and debris rained down across a crime scene so large it covered farmland, homes and villages.

It was mid summer, July 17, 2014, there were 283 passengers and 15 crew, and the death toll included people from 10 different countries. Among them were 38 Australian citizens and residents. But, this information wouldn't be known for quite some time.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) formed a vital part of the investigation team called in from across the globe.

The AFP deployed its chief scientist, Dr Simon Walsh, to lead the disaster victim identification (DVI) team.

Even though the AFP's DVI team had extensive experience after working on a number of high profile, mass casualty incidents - the Bali bombings attacks of 2002 (202 victims) and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 (an estimated 230,00 dead) - this was very different.

"The complexity of this incident where a passenger plane was shot down by virtue of a conflict, and then actually landed in the conflict zone made that hugely complex from the outset," Dr Walsh said.

"To access the crash site and conduct further search and recovery activities was incredibly difficult. It was hugely stressful and quite dangerous, people were operating in highly uncomfortable and high-risk circumstances."

Investigators were forced to negotiate with militia groups to access the crash site, the victims' remains were then removed and taken to the Netherlands for identification.

The AFP's DVI methods were borne out of the Bali bombing attacks of 2002. It's the forensic process of identifying human remains, whether that be a complete body or a small fragment. There are five steps:

The scene is treated as a crime scene and is investigated as such to determine the cause of the incident. Victims are transported to the mortuary and placed into cold storage.

The remains are examined in detail by pathologists, odontologists, radiologists and police teams. Personal effects and clothing are photographed and collected.

Information from potential victims is gathered, including physical descriptions, clothing, jewellery, medical records, dental records, scars, tattoos, implants such as a hip implant, fingerprints and DNA samples from a range of areas including a toothbrush or hairbrush. If ante-mortem DNA cannot be obtained from the potential victim, familial DNA can be used.

This phase matches ante mortem and post mortem information to confirm the identification of all remains.

Conducted at the completion of the incident and includes critical incident stress debriefing.

The majority of DVI work was done in a converted air force medical training facility in the village of Hilversum in the Netherlands.

"The scale is quite massive. If you could imagine a hospital mortuary environment, that would probably normally have a handful of people working in it, there'd be hundreds of people working in this environment," Dr Walsh said.

It took around three weeks for the first victim identification to be made.

"There's a huge amount of anticipation because this process takes time," Dr Walsh said. "That's a terrible time for those families."

All Australian citizens and residents on the flight were identified. The 38th Australian was identified on December 5, 2014.

Only two of the 298 victims are yet to be identified. Both are Dutch.

Not only did DVI work to identify the deceased, but in this case investigators also looked for evidence on victims of how the aircraft was brought down and who was responsible.

The murder trial verdict for those accused with being involved in the downing of MH17 took place on November 17, 2022. At the time, Dr Walsh was hopeful it would bring some closure for families of the victims.

"It's never going to be complete, but I think these things are really significant," he said.

"It's really important that people continue to acknowledge it's our most significant loss of life offshore since Bali, it was hugely traumatic.

"All of the stories were just horrific in the sense that they were such innocent people, and it was just horrific that they had to die this way. That was very apparent to all of us."

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