How are identities linked to the actual people? It seems to me that if person A destroys all of person B's identification documents, and somehow fabricates his own, in person A's name, with his own picture, person A is now person B. Given that A and B are of the same sex and similar age. There are some difficulties, such as family members, who know that person A is not the real person B, but that is not really good evidence, when person B tries to get his identity back. When person A and B both have the same identification documents, how do authorities know who is the real owner of those documents?
Where I live at least, there are no fingerprint records besides for criminals. As for photography, I don't think that that is recorded at the government either.
In brazil, to be a citizen and to do anything, you need an RG (Registro Geral), which is a Federal ID, and when you get that, they take all your fingerprints of both hands and put it in the record. This ID has a photo in it also. Same thing with passports To replace an identity, you'd also need to replace their fingerprints and pictures in the federal records... at least here