The typical time for retrieval of a bone sample at the VIFM is
15 min and involves the invasive surgical removal of a bone from
the deceased – with a procedure needing to be scheduled. In
contrast, the typical time for taking a toenail sample in this study
was 2 min. The sampling of toenails was simple and involved
either clipping the tip of the nails from the deceased or the removal
of the entire nail from the toe using forceps if the level of
decomposition dictated. In this study, 22 cases had nails clipped
and 8 had whole nails removed (Table 1). Examples of the whole
toenails and the clippings collected for this study are shown in
Fig. 2. The rapid retrieval of toenail samples from the deceased
reduces the time the mortuary technician is required to access the
remains, and removes the need for an invasive procedure (when
compared to bone). This significantly reduces the OH&S risks
associated with the collection of bone samples for mortuary
technicians, and also increases the time efficiency of the ID process.
Compared to the volunteer nails used to optimise the protocol,
the casework toenail samples collected by the mortuary were
often covered in dirt or decomposed tissue. As such, a clean of the
nail was incorporated prior to extraction in order to remove this
material. The cleaning of the sample was relatively simple, and
did not require as much sample manipulation as the sawing of