Interpol Yellow Notice
Definition
An international alert issued to help identify unknown bodies; complemented by the DVI PM (post-mortem) form, which captures all physical, dental, and DNA data for cross-matching against AM (ante-mortem) data from families.
- Purpose
- Help identify unknown or missing persons
- Complementary form
- DVI post-mortem (PM) form
- Matched against
- Ante-mortem (AM) data from families
Common questions
How does a Yellow Notice differ from a Red Notice?+
A Red Notice seeks the location and arrest of a wanted person. A Yellow Notice helps locate missing persons or identify unidentified bodies, and carries no implication of criminal wrongdoing by the subject.
What starts the AM-to-PM matching process?+
Family members or authorities submit ante-mortem information such as dental records, DNA samples or physical descriptions, which examiners then compare against the post-mortem data collected from the body.
Related terms
- AM/PM Data
- Ante-mortem data (records from life: dental charts, medical records, DNA reference samples) and post-mortem data (findings from the body after death). Identification...
- Body Part Number (BPN)
- A unique alphanumeric identifier assigned to every human-tissue fragment at the point of discovery, cross-referenced to its spatial coordinates and the personal...
- DVI (Disaster Victim Identification)
- The systematic multi-agency process for identifying victims of mass-casualty events, governed by the INTERPOL DVI Guide 2018 revision. Organises work into five...
- Scene Zoning
- The formal division of a disaster scene into sectors (hot zone, warm zone, cold zone) or operational grids, allocating search, recovery, and...
- Triage Recovery
- Recovery that prioritises the most complete or identifiable remains first, typically under time or resource pressure. Contrasted with systematic grid recovery, which...