Abstract
In 1991, treasure hunters found skeletal remains in an area close to the destroyed country residence of former Nazi leader Hermann Göring in northeastern Berlin. The remains, which were believed to belong to Carin Göring, who was buried at the site, were examined to determine whether it was possible to make a positive identification. The anthropological analysis showed that the remains come from an adult woman. The DNA analysis of several bone elements showed female sex, and a reference sample from Carin's son revealed mtDNA sequences identical to the remains. The profile has one nucleotide difference from the Cambridge reference sequence (rCRS), the common variant 263G. A database search resulted in a frequency of this mtDNA sequence of about 10% out of more than 7,000 European haplotypes. The mtDNA sequence found in the ulna, the cranium and the reference sample is, thus, very common among Europeans. Therefore, nuclear DNA analysis was attempted. The remains as well as a sample from Carin's son were successfully analysed for the three nuclear markers TH01, D7S820 and D8S1179. The nuclear DNA analysis of the two samples revealed one shared allele for each of the three markers, supporting a mother and son relationship. This genetic information together with anthropological and historical files provides an additional piece of circumstantial evidence in our efforts to identify the remains of Carin Göring.
Highlights
Born October 21, 1888 in Stockholm, Sweden, Carin was the daughter of Baron Carl Alexander Fock and Huldine Beamish
The general appearance In total 26 bones from both the cranium and the upper postcranial body were received from the Sweden National Board of Forensic Medicine (Figure 1 and Table 2)
Based on the facts that all bones were of the same colour, the same elements but from different sides were equivalent in size and shape, and some elements showed a trim articulation – it is likely that they belonged to the same individual
Summary
Born October 21, 1888 in Stockholm, Sweden, Carin was the daughter of Baron Carl Alexander Fock and Huldine Beamish. Three years later Hermann moved the remains to his country residence, Carinhall, named after her, near Berlin. The remains, described as ‘‘not more than a human torso’’ were handed over to a minister and transferred to the Swedish church in Berlin, cremated and buried in the family tomb in Stockholm [3]. In 1991, treasure hunters found a zinc coffin with skeletal remains in the Schorfheide Forest northeast of Berlin, again near the location of the destroyed Carinhall. The story has been published in an article in the (former East) German magazine Super Illu 1991 [4] These remains were handed over to the Swedish church in Berlin, which sent it to the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine for examination and individual identification
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