http://news.onemissingperson.org/IN-NOV-03-2003-2150-Police-Wonder-Whether-Remains-Are-Richmond-Womans.html

A few moments ago, I came upon the link above. It is about the 2001 disappearance of Marilyn "Niqui" McCown (a case that aired on UM in 2002). The November 2003 article mentions that some remains have been found, and that it would possibly take months for tests to confirm whether or not they belong to McCown. Since this article is three months old, the identity of the remains may come at any day now.

I just read that the dna results were inconclusive. How is that possible? Can't you just keep testing them until you get a hit or miss?

I just read that the dna results were inconclusive. How is that possible? Can't you just keep testing them until you get a hit or miss?

From my understanding and I could be wrong here. An inconclusive result means that the DNA pattern is the same, but the strands are different. To get a positive the strands and the pattern have to match. Much like a finger print. Experts use a point system and to confirm a fingerprint belongs to someone there has to be a minimum amount of points on it. I believe for fingerprints 7 is considered a positive ID.

But yeah, they could run the DNA again and but there wouldn't be any point to retesting them. It could also depend on the conditions of the remains too. If I'm not mistaken bones aren't the best resource to test for DNA matches.