Some bodies taken from a Tulsa, Okla., cemetery and later reburied could belong to victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and will be exhumed again.
and will be exhumed again starting Wednesday, part of a bid to gather more DNA for possible identification.
The latest exhumation of the bodies, some of which were taken last year from Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, will be followed by another excavation for additional remains. “There were 14 of the 19 [bodies] that fit the criteria for further DNA analysis,” according to city spokesperson Michelle Brooks. “These are the ones that will be re-exhumed.”The 14 sets of remains were sent to Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City for attempted identification. Brooks said two sets have enough recovered DNA to begin sequencing.
The remains will be reburied at Oaklawn, where the previous reburial drew protests from about two dozen people who say they are descendants of massacre victims and should have been allowed to attend the ceremony, which was closed to the public.