Experts have voiced concern that contamination of the unregulated crash MH17 site could prevent perpetrators of the disaster being brought to justice.
Pathologist John Hilton, who led the investigation into the 2002 Bali bombings, told SBS the victims’ bodies would have sustained extensive damage in the crash, compounded by the events that followed.
"One the body's cooled down decomposition stops," he said. “But decomposition plus damage from the actual crash would have been fairly extensive."
He said the disorganised crash site was open to contamination.
"The people who were exercising some form of irregular authority probably knew nothing, cared nothing, and wandered in and contaminated the site pretty thoroughly," he said.
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The delay in bringing in independent investigators has also sparked international fears the perpetrators will never face justice.
But veteran investigator John Ralston was optimistic.
"We're worried about the crime scene being contaminated but the crime scene is just one part of the evidence you gather in one of these investigations," he said.
He said evidence of war crimes could be gathered years later.
"Many years after, in Bosnia for example, I know that two or three years ago people were still getting trace evidence from massacre scenes there," he said.
"The message that we need to be sending here is that a thorough investigation is still possible and it is still possible to bring these guys to justice."
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