The unidentified human remains were found by local residents on the beach in Inoki, Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan on November 20^th, 2021. The post-mortem interval of the remains were estimated to be around months to a year by the Nagasaki Prefecture police. An intramedullary nail with 4 fixed screws, which was found at the right femur, was examined and confirmed to be manufactured by Johnson & Johnson Co., Ltd.. According to the device identifier, this type of products were only sold to 4 countries (Taiwan, China, India, and South Korea). However, there is no match between the DNA profile, acquired from the unidentified decease, and both Japan’s and South Korea’s DNA databases. National Police Agency Japan then assumed that this unidentified decease might be a citizen from Taiwan. So that, the DNA profile was provided to Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior on August 12^th, 2022. Due to the negative result of DNA matching with CIB’s database, this case was then delivered to Institute of Forensic medicine (IFM), Ministry of Justice. We inputted the DNA profile into the forensic DNA comparison system, which was set up by IFM, and then compared to the database with missing person’s relatives. We discovered that the DNA profiles of the unidentified decease match with a missing person’s son and two daughter, and the probability of first-degree relationship is more than 99.999%. After further investigation, the physical characteristics, provided form Japanese officials, also match with the information, acquired from relatives, which is about a fracture fixation of medical material placement in the right thigh of the missing person. Therefore, the identity of the unidentified decease can be confirmed as our citizen. IFM provided the DNA test report to the CIB, and then the report was transferred to the National Police Agency Japan.

In this case, the missing person, who was a fisherman form Xiaomen Village, Xiyu Township, Penghu County, sailed out alone to catch cuttlefish in the early summer morning on July 27^th , 2021. We assumed that the missing person fell into sea at the time when Kuroshio Current near Taiwan Strait flowed to north, so he was taken and ended up being stranded on the beach of Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The successful identification of this case was mainly because of the meticulousness and persistency of Japanese Officials, who persevered in requesting relevant countries for DNA comparison. In addition, we would like to express our gratitude to CIB and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their great assistance in not only contacting Japanese officials and the missing person’s family, but also accompanying the family traveling to Japan for helping them to claim the remains on November 14^th, 2022. And we appreciate the Taiwan Penghu District Prosecutor’s Office for taking the initiative to contact the family members and handle matters. With the combined efforts of many people, the unidentified decease can finally find the way back to Taiwan.