FRESNO, Calif. - DNA tests show the remains of slain Yosemite tourist Silvina Pelosso were mixed with someone else's before they were returned to her parents for burial, a family lawyer said Friday.
But even San Francisco attorney Steven Fabbro concedes the Argentine teen-ager's remains might have been mixed with those of Carole Sund when the two women's bodies were burned together in the trunk of a rental car.
''That's possible. But we're not sure,'' he said.
Fabbro said an analysis - performed by an Argentine expert he could not name - found a genetic pattern among Pelosso's remains that is not consistent with that of a 16-year-old female. One bone showed signs of osteoporosis, suggesting an older woman, and the brain tissue ''was definitely not that of Silvina's,'' he said.
The Pelossos, who have questioned the FBI's competence because of the way the investigation was carried out, will consider suing if the remains were mishandled, Fabbro said. The FBI was highly criticized for missing suspect Cary Stayner until he allegedly struck again.
Considering the manner in which Silvina's body was found, FBI agent and case spokesman Nick Rossi said he has no reason to believe the teen's remains were mixed with those of any other person besides Carole Sund.
''While we made every effort to treat their remains with dignity and respect in returning them to their families, it is inevitable, given the way they were burned together, that some of their remains were likely commingled,'' Rossi said.
Jose and Raquel Pelosso, who had their daughter exhumed, want to know where along the chain of custody the remains might have been mishandled - by the FBI, the county coroner or the funeral home that prepared the remains for burial.
''Every individual who had contact with Silvina's body had the responsibility to treat the remains with dignity and care,'' Fabbro said.
''Needless to say, the latest turn of events have caused Jose and Raquel Pelosso further grief from the loss of their beloved Silvina,'' Fabbro said. ''They had hoped at least they could lay her body to final rest with dignity.''
Pelosso was spending her summer vacation in Eureka with the Sund family, and was two weeks shy of returning home when she accompanied Carole Sund and Sund's 15-year-old daughter, Juli, on a trip to Yosemite National Park.
The women were last seen alive Feb. 15, 1999, at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal on the west fringe of the park, after a day of ice-skating and sightseeing in the park.
Their murders remained unsolved for five months until Stayner, a handyman at the motel arrested in the slaying of Yosemite naturalist Joie Armstrong, confessed to killing all four women. He is awaiting a federal trial in Armstrong's death and is then scheduled to be tried in state court in the sightseer case.
Once extensive forensic tests were complete, the FBI, which led the murder investigation, returned Silvina's remains to the Tuolumne County coroner's office on April 22, 1999. The following day, they were cleared for release to her family. But before they were flown back to Argentina in a sealed coffin, a local funeral home handled the remains.
The Pelossos' lawyer said the remains could have been mixed anywhere along the line.
John Steely, chief coroner for Tuolumne County, had left for the day and could not be reached.
Fabbro's firm, which is representing the Pelossos in a lawsuit against the company that owns the Cedar Lodge, plans to have the expert's report translated from Spanish to English for further analysis.
