The authorities announced on Friday that they currently believe 97 people died in the Maui wildfire instead of the 115 fatalities they had been reporting for weeks, a surprising development after initial fears that many more lives had been lost in the disaster. It is the first time that the Maui death toll has dropped. In some instances, Dr. Stuelpnagel explained, forensic examiners have determined that they had multiple sets of remains for the same person. He also said that 16 of the remains that investigators had received were nonhuman. “It’s good news to have a lower number, that’s for darn sure,” Dr. Stuelpnagel said on Friday.

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Persons: Jeremy Stuelpnagel, Stuelpnagel Locations: Maui, Maui County, Lahaina