Abstract ‘I still don’t realize that he’s dead.... I cried over it. It makes me sad to know that he was buried unaccompanied on his last trip. We were all shocked.’ This testimony corresponds to a family whose relative was buried in an anonymous grave six months after his disappearance was reported to the police. It is estimated that between 1000 and 3000 unidentified bodies are buried in anonymous graves in France each year. Most of these decedents have passed through the medico-legal system. However the identification of these bodies, outside the context of mass disasters, remains a complex problem. Several national and international publications have highlighted the prevalent problem of unidentified burials and the consequences for families who do not know the fate of their loved ones, specifically, whether they are alive or deceased. This six-year retrospective study (2018–2023), covering a total of 2324 unidentified decedents admitted to the Institute of Medical-Legal Paris (IMLP), aimed to assess the impact of the identification protocol implemented in 2017 on the number of bodies that remain unidentified (n = 164). In addition, this study aimed to establish profiles for individuals who remained unidentified with the objective of identifying the factors that hinder their identification and developing correlated methods to address these issues. The results of this study were compared with other published studies to highlight the global problem and the ongoing need for collaboration between forensic practitioners and relevant authorities.