Forensic Anthropology Research Papers

Genetic analysis of the presumptive blood from Louis XVI, king of France

2011, Forensic Science International: Genetics

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Canine scavenging of human remains in an indoor setting

2007, Forensic Science International

This case study documents the nearly complete consumption of adult human remains by two domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) inside a residence. While scavenging behavior has been observed for coyotes, wolves, hyenas and other canines in... more

Fig. 3. Nearly empty bags of dog food as well as dog feces on the kitchen floor. Note untouched boxes of cereal on the counter (photo courtesy of Chenango County Sheriff’s Office).

Fig. 1. Long bone fragments scattered on the floor in the entry into the living room from the front door (photo courtesy of Chenango County Sheriff’s Office).

Fig. 4. Nearly 60 long bone splinters were recovered from the living room floor

Fig. 2. Calvarium and additional long bones further into the main walkway of the living room (photo courtesy of Chenango County Sheriff’s Office). The anthropological goals were to provide evidence of personal identity, analyze evidence of perimortem and postmortem trauma, and estimate the postmortem interval. Recovered skeletal remains included only an intact calvarium (skull vault), tibial and femoral diaphyses, and approximately 60 long bone splinters (Fig. 4). Only the femoral shafts contained a small amount of ligamentous attachments while the rest of the bones were devoid of soft tissue. There were no

Fig. 7. Scavenging damage of the long bones. Note absence of epiphyses and scooping out of trabecular bone of the metaphyses.

Fig. 5. Deep arachnoid fovea (Pacchonian pit) on the anterior right parietal that perforates the external table.

Fig. 6. Scavenging damage of the skull. Note scoring on the anterior bosses of the frontal bone.

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Use of laser-scanning confocal microscopy in the detection of diagenesis in bone

by Ashley C Smith

2022, Journal of Forensic Sciences

This research demonstrates the value of laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) as a research tool in osteological studies, and diagenetic studies in particular. LSCM combines properties of light and scanning electron microscopy by... more

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Un mundo fantasmal: Paisajes de la muerte y huellas de la violencia en México (texto)

by Sabrina Melenotte

2020, in M.-V. Uribe y R. Parrini, La violencia y su sombra. Aproximaciones desde Colombia y México

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Death Scene Investigation from the Viewpoint of Forensic Medicine Expert

by Kamil Hakan Dogan

Medical expertise is crucial in death investigations. It begins with body examination and evidence collection at the scene and proceeds through history, physical examination, laboratory tests, and diagnosis – in short, the broad... more

Medical expertise is crucial in death investigations. It begins with body examination and evidence collection at the scene and proceeds through history, physical examination, laboratory tests, and diagnosis – in short, the broad ingredients of a doctor’s treatment of a living patient. The key goal is to provide objective evidence of cause, timing, and manner of death for adjudication by the criminal justice system. Death investigation has been performed for centuries in all societies, although not always by medical professionals (Committee, 2003). The association of law and medicine dates back to the Egyptian culture as early as 3000 B.C. The English coroner system was mentioned in documentations around the 12th century B.C. (Spitz, 2006).
Although the primary goal of a death investigation is to establish the cause and manner of death, the role of the death investigation extends much further than simply answering these two questions. A common question asked is, “Why does it matter? The person is dead.” While it is true that the dead cannot benefit, the value in death investigation is to benefit the living and future generations. In a culture that values life, explaining the death in a public forum (the meaning of “forensic”) is crucial for many reasons. And this interest goes beyond simple curiosity (Wagner, 2009).
In homicide, suspected homicide, and other suspicious or obscure cases, the forensic medicine expert should visit the scene of the death before the body is removed. Local practice varies but any doctor claiming to be a forensic medicine expert should always make himself available to accompany the police to the locus of the death. This duty is often formalized and made part of a contract of service for those forensic medicine experts who are either full-time or substantially involved in assisting the police, in England and Wales, the 'Home Office Pathologists' are permanently on call for such visits and in many other jurisdictions, such as the medical examiner systems in the USA, and the European State and University Institutes of Forensic Medicine, there is usually a prearranged duty roster for attendance at scenes of death (Saukko & Knight, 2004). In many cases, the scene investigation is more important than the autopsy. A thorough and complete investigation commonly leads to the proper diagnosis of the cause and manner of death prior to an autopsy (Avis, 1993; Dix & Ernst, 1999).
Why go to the scene? The purpose of having the forensic medicine expert attend the death scene is severalfold. By viewing the body in the context of its surroundings, the forensic medicine expert is better able to interpret certain findings at the autopsy such as a patterned imprint across the neck from collapsing onto an open vegetable drawer in a refrigerator. The forensic medicine expert is also able to advise the investigative agency about the nature of the death, whether to confirm a homicide by a specific means, evaluate the circumstances to be consistent with an apparent natural death, or interpret the blood loss from a deceased person as being more likely due to natural disease than to injury. This preliminary information helps the investigative agency to define its perimeter, structure its approach, organize its manpower, secure potentially important evidence, and streamline its efforts.
Nonattendance at death scenes has been regarded as one of the classical mistakes in forensic pathology. Hospital pathologists performing forensic autopsies who are not trained to, or able to, attend death scenes should be provided with information on how, when, and where the body was found, by whom, and under what circumstances. In some deaths, the immediate environment does not contribute to death, such as in cases of metastatic breast carcinoma. In other cases, the environment plays a role although it does not cause the death; for example, consider a case in which a person with marked coronary atherosclerosis collapses with a dysrhythmia while shoveling snow. On the other hand, the scene description and scene photographs are critical in documenting that the physical circumstances and body posture are indicative of death due to positional asphyxia because the autopsy in these cases may yield very few findings. The most meticulous autopsy in all academia will provide only a speculative cause and manner of death in a 30-year-old man with a negative history, negative toxicology, and autopsy findings of visceral congestion.
Yet at the scene, a screwdriver is next to an uncovered electrical outlet on a rain-soaked patio at the decedent's house, which is undergoing renovation. The cause and manner of death are provided by the scene (Lew & Matshes, 2005).
The examination of a death scene and subsequent collection of potential evidential material requires special skill, knowledge, aptitude, and attitude. The manner in which a death scene investigation is conducted may be a critical factor in determining the success of an investigation. The thorough examination of a death scene requires a disciplined and systematic approach to recording the various observations made and collection of potential evidential material. This must be combined with the analysis of various observations and the interrelationship of potential evidentiary material (Horswell, 2005a).
If resources are sufficient and the circumstances of death so dictate, it is ideal for a forensic medicine expert to perform a scene investigation. This is particularly relevant if the body remains at the scene of death, and has not been transported to the hospital during attempts at resuscitation; however, a scene investigation can be vitally important and provide valuable information even if the body has been transported to the hospital. If a body is pronounced dead at the scene (as opposed to after transport to the hospital), many death investigation systems require a scene investigation. Others have various protocols as to which case types absolutely require a scene investigation (whether or not the body is present at the scene). Case types that should always have a scene investigation include all confirmed or suspected homicides, suicides, accidents, child deaths, traffic-related deaths, in-custody deaths, and workplace-related deaths (Prahlow, 2010).
Death scene investigation may include a combination of the following types of incidents and examinations:
• Accidental deaths, which include a multitude of circumstances, including misadventure
• Suicidal deaths, which include a multitude of circumstances
• Homicidal deaths, which include a multitude of circumstances
• Sudden deaths, with or without suspicious circumstances
• Difficult victim identification, which includes mummification and putrefaction
• Disaster victim identification dealing with multiple casualties (Horswell, 2005a)
This chapter will focus on the steps of death scene investigation and some real cases will be analyzed.

Fig. 15. The death scene of a 13-year-old boy’s suicide. The shotgun is in front of the victim, and the entry wound is under the chin. According to the witnesses, after he argued with his father in the garden of his father’s office, he had ran into the office of his father and took his father’s shotgun and killed himself. Fig. 14. The hand of the suicide victim is still gripping the handgun (cadaveric spasm).

hanging deaths. To determine the cause of death in hanging cases, while the corpse is still at the death scene and in the suspended position, a detailed investigation should be performed by a team including a forensic medicine expert. Further evidence from the death scene investigation, statements from witnesses, the presence of a suicide note, and autopsy findings can all help to determine whether the victim was responsible for his or her own death (Figs. 10-16).

Fig. 1. Seventy two-year-old man had lost the key of the door of his house in his vineyard and he tried to go in from a small hole which he made on the roof. He was stuck and found dead in the hole due to positional asphyxia. Forensic Medicine — From Old Problems to New Challenges

Fig. 2. The 18-year-old murderer killed his employer in his workplace as he did not pay his salary. On the death scene investigation, a horror mask (on the top) and footprints of sports shoes of the murderer (on the bottom) were found. These evidences were used to determine the murderer. J05; Saukko & Knight, 2004). Vhere no such backup is available, the forensic medicine expert must try to collect tra vidence himself, but he should remain within the limits of his own expertise. The forens .edicine expert should accept the instructions of police officers in relation to the approa ) the body so as to preserve the immediate environment as much as possible. Out-of-doo ccess is often limited to a single pathway marked by tapes, and in a building a track to tl orpse is usually pointed out by the detective in charge. The doctor should not tou nything unnecessarily and certainly not smoke or leave any object or debris of his or h wn. Increasingly, those visiting the scene of a crime are given disposable overalls ar vershoes to wear, so that fibers, hairs and so on from the visitor are not spurious ansferred to the scene (Saukko & Knight, 2004). The Locard Exchange Principle states th Trhenever two objects come into contact, a mutual exchange of matter will take pla etween them. Linking suspects to victims is the most important and common type nkage accomplished by physical evidence in criminal investigations. Linking victims ar ispects to objects and scenes can also be accomplished by use of the physical eviden Miller, 2003) (Fig. 2).

Fig. 3. The murderer sometimes binds the victim’s hands and mouth before killing the victim. 65-year-old man was found dead in his bed, his hands and mouth were bound. The cause of death was strangulation and blunt head trauma. revolver, as opposed to searching for an assailant with another type of weapon such as an ice pick. Once the extent of injuries is seen, the forensic medicine expert will know how many radiographs are required. A beating death will alert the team that a struggle may have ensued, and scalp hair and fingernail scrapings/clippings are required, in addition to a blood standard obtained during the autopsy. Whenever sexual assault/battery is a possibility, specimens for a sexual battery kit must be obtained from the deceased victim prior to cleaning the body. Bodies with patterned injuries from an object or weapon still at the scene should be photographed with the object close to, but not touching, the injured part of the body. The patterned injury and the object should be photographed separately with a scale. A weapon may be brought to the autopsy for comparison with the wounds only after the weapon has been processed for trace evidence, DNA, and fingerprints to prevent allegations of contamination at the autopsy (Rogers, 2004; Lew & Matshes, 2005). It is always advantageous for the forensic medicine expert to visit the death scene of a possible homicide. By visiting the scene and actually seeing the position of the body and the pattern of injuries to the deceased and the arrangement of objects in the surrounding areas, the forensic medicine expert can put the pieces of the puzzle together and attempt to reconstruct the circumstances that led to the event (Fig. 3). The autopsy becomes a major item in the solution of this puzzle (Adelman, 2007).

Fig. 4. The murderer killed his 36-year-old brother by strangulation and blunt head trauma. The victim was found on the floor in prone position near his bed. The belt buckle of the killer was found inside the hand of the victim (arrows) and this belt buckle helped in identifying the killer. Strangulations should be presumed to be homicidal unless proved otherwise. In order to determine the origin of ligature strangulation, it is necessary to perform a detailed investigation of death scene and examine the type of ligature on the neck of the victim carefully (McMaster et al., 2001; Verma & Lal, 2006). situation is inadvertently changed by police forces or rescue teams that first arrive at the crime scene. As a result, the initial scene is often not sufficiently documented, and changes may lead to misinterpretation in the future analyzing process (Schréer & Piischel, 2006). Don’t forget: The victim himself or herself is the most important crime scene (Trestrail, 2007) (Fig. 4).

Fig. 5. The 57-year-old woman was found between bed and wardrobe. Her severed head, right arm and both hands were in a cardboard box. On the right, bloody sports suits of the assailant in the washing machine. Death Scene Investigation from the Viewpoint of Forensic Medicine Expert

Fig. 6. A homicide victim found in a well (on the left) and a victim who was burned (on the right, note the unburned parts of the clothes which are useful for identification).

Fig. 7. A buried homicide victim in a desolate land. measures have not been taken. Other people may use wells for the purpose of committing suicide. Also, the victims of a homicide may be thrown into a well for concealment. A murdered victim may be thrown into a well to prevent the body from being found. In the cases of homicide, the wells chosen to dispose of the body are often distant from the victim’s district and close to the killer’s district. Wells can provide a means for concealing a corpse and that the corpse can sometimes only be found upon a confession by the killer (Dogan et al., 2010c).

Fig. 9. Death scene of a homicide-suicide. Twenty two-year-old man killed his 16-year-old lover (illegitimate relationship), then killed himself with his handgun. The man was married with another woman. Note the handgun between victims. 5.1 Homicide by poisoning

Fig. 11. Two items found at a suicide death scene. The packing of a rodenticide and the last 5 Me | BOSS Pa Ef PRE Se SN SD RETO meee yey eee see ee me cee Oe CR ee Fes. eee oh. eee ie: RS Gegeoe Baap eon ee ES SS Pe ae Fig. 10. Thirty seven-year-old woman hanged herself in her house. There was a farewell letter on the floor.

The finding of suicide as a manner of death may impact families differently. Suicide carries a stigma on the family name in many cultures. Consequently, objections are often raised by survivors when suicide is documented on the death certificate. Additionally, the finding of suicide can influence the payment of life insurance policies, as most exclude suicide within the first two years after issuance of the policy in order to prevent profit from an individual's death (Moldovan, 2008).

Fig. 12. Seventy eight-year-old woman hanged (partial) herself in the garden of her house.

Fig. 16. The death scene of a 75-year-old woman who stabbed herself in the neck. There is a basin which she collected her blood (right top) and there are hesitation wounds on the neck (right bottom). She had psychiatric problems. Forensic Medicine — From Old Problems to New Challenges

The tying together of the wrists in hanging cases is rare, but may not indicate a homicide, so long as the hanging ligature could not have been self-applied. At first glance, a hanging body found with their hands tied together would give the impression of a homicide but some suicidal people try to avoid being rescued by others or themselves. The closing of the mouth with a plastic bag or a scarf was thought to have removed the possibility of calling out for help during the hanging. Both the tying together of the hands and closing of the mouth were regarded as precautions taken by the victims to prevent any change in mind and an indication of their resolve to go through with the suicide (Fig. 17). In addition, placing soft material against the ligature loop was thought to be an attempt to lessen the feeling of pain (Demirci et al., 2009a) (Fig. 18).

In some cultures, religious books and findings indicating praying before suicide may be found at death scene. Demirci et al. (2008a) reported that in investigating medicolegal death cases believed to be of suicidal origin, evidence showing that this action was committed by the victim, the presence of a suicide note at the death scene, and a history of a previous suicidal attempt, the presence of daily axillary and pubic shaving on the external examination of the victim’s body, when of the Muslim faith, may also be considered a feature of suicide (Fig. 19). Fig. 19. A death scene of a 42-year-old woman’s suicide. There was a razor and cut axillary hair in the sink of the bathroom (arrows on right up). Also a prayer rug, pictures of herself, her husband and two daughters, and her ring were on the carpet of the room (right down).

Fig. 18. A soft piece of cloth against the ligature. Death Scene Investigation from the Viewpoint of Forensic Medicine Expert

Fig. 21. The corpse of a 70-year-old woman who threw herself into the well in the garden of her house. A farewell letter was found in her house.

Fig. 20. Forty one-year-old man went to the woodland with his motorcycle (arrow) and hanged himself on a tree. A suicide note about his familial problems was found in his pocket. Forensic Medicine — From Old Problems to New Challenges

Fig. 22. A 17-year-old worker was dead due to electric shock in his workplace. The scene investigation revealed electrical leakage from the defect of the plastic sheath of the cable of carpet washing machine.

Fig. 23. A family (father, mother and child) was found dead in their bed due to carbon monoxide poisoning. There was a coal stove in the room and soot traces (arrows) were observed at the entry point of the stovepipe on the wall which indicating leakage of smoke of the stove.

Fig. 24. A 42-year-old man was found dead due to carbon monoxide poisoning in his bathroom. There was an LPG water heater which had not a smoke pipe in the bathroom. or gasoline. Combustion products burning in the pre-combustion chamber heat the fins of the engine. The air passing through the fins is heated and is transferred into the cabin. Malfunction of such an apparatus may be the cause of CO poisoning or fire. So the supplementary heater in the truck might be the cause of fatal CO poisoning and of the fires in the cabins of the trucks (Demirci et al., 2009c) (Fig. 25).

Fig. 25. A 48-year old male truck driver (ellipse) was found dead due to a fire in a truck parked in an open area of the truck garage. Scene investigation revealed that the cause of fire was broken supplementary heater (arrows) in the truck.

Fig. 27. A 42-year-old man was injured on the right thigh region while he was setting a mole gun to kill moles which were damaging the vegetables in his field, and died shortly after at the incident scene. The mole gun was found at the scene.

Fig. 26. A 41-year-old male farmer was found decapitated in the stackyard. He was working with a helix elevator machine. He had scarf tied loosely over his face and neck but the scarf was pulled up and wrapped around the shaft of the machine. The scarf then slid around the victim’s neck and tightened, causing the head to separate from the body.

Fig. 28. The chief physician of the hospital showing the victim who was found strangulated with her scarf by the roller cylinder of the ironing machine in the laundry of the hospital. On the right side the ligature mark is seen on the neck. In some cases, it is important to distinguish accidental manner from suicidal or homicidal ones. For example, if a ligature mark is present on the neck, this is usually suicide or homicide. But sometimes the death may be accidental origin. In a case reported by Dogan et al. (2010d), a 53-year-old woman who had been working in the laundry of a hospital sat on the counter of the ironing machine to heat her back and leaned her back closer to the machine in a cold winter day. At that point, her coworkers left the room. When they re- entered the room 15 min later, they found her dead and observed that her scarf was caught in the roller cylinder of the ironing machine (Fig. 28).

Children have an increased risk for injury or death from accidents for a variety of reasons compared to adults. Perhaps the greatest reason is their natural curiosity, which leads them to explore their environment and investigate situations where they often do not recognize potential hazards (Byard, 1996). Accidental asphyxia can occur in childhood as a result of a variety situations (Dogan et al., 2010b) (Fig. 29).

Fig. 30. Fatality involving power take-off (water pump) entanglement. 1985). Unguarded agricultural power take-off (PTO) drivelines and the related components, including secondary drivelines powered by the PTO, have been historically recognized as serious farm-related hazards that can cause severe, permanently disabling injuries and death when entanglement occurs (Beer & Field, 2005). PTOs are rapidly rotating shafts that transfer power from the tractor attached at one end to a piece of farm machinery at the other end. Clothing or body parts can become entangled, resulting in amputation or avulsion of body parts, strangulation, and massive crushing injuries (Karlson & Noren, 1979) (Fig. 30). Dogan et al. (2010f) reported that 5.8% of the farm tractor-related fatalities involved deaths resulting from PTO entanglement. In these cases, there were extensive crush injuries to the chest, abdomen, and extremities. None of the turning shafts in these cases had safety shields.

Fig. 31. Seventy six-year-old woman who had been living alone was found dead in her home in sitting position and holding a glass in her hand. Note the livor mortis on face, hands and left foot due to the position of the deceased. Death Scene Investigation from the Viewpoint of Forensic Medicine Expert

Fig. 32. A 74-year-old man was found dead in half-naked position lying alongside his car. The investigation revealed that when the man and a young woman were having sex, the man suddenly deteriorated and died. The cause of death was determined as myocardial infarction at the autopsy.

Fig. 33. The position of dead infant in the swing-like cradle. As the victim leaned out of the cradle, the ligature that was tied around the swing-like cradle wrapped around the child’s neck, resulting in asphyxia. harnesses (Gilbert-Barness et al., 1991; Nixon et al., 1995; Byard, 1996). Many houses in Turkey (especially those situated in the villages and slums) are built with metal rings mounted in the ceilings, so that the occupants can set up swing-like cradles, which are hammock-like in nature. The cradles are constructed by tying two ropes between the two metal rings and connecting them with cloth. Infants are placed in these cradles on top of cushions, and ligatures (e.g., scarf, rope, or sash) are tied around the cradles to prevent them from falling out. However, the ligature can wrap around the neck and asphyxiate the infant if it leans out of the cradle (Dogan et al., 2010b) (Fig. 33).

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Insects found on a human cadaver in central Italy including the blowfly Calliphora loewi (Diptera, Calliphoridae), a new species of forensic interest

by Stefano Vanin and

2011, Forensic Science International

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Forensic Anthropology Inside Forensic science

by Moerken Syb

On the 4th of July in 2005, a couple was walking along an access road on Randall’s Island in New York City. The man observed a bone near the side of the road and playfully tossed it at his girl- friend. They then became concerned that the... more

FIGURE 3.1 This example of a burial pit was discovered in September 2001 by removing the topsoil in a cabbage patch. This site was located near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, a site of heavy fighting between U.S. and Chinese military forces during the Korean War in late 1950. The dark, cigar-shaped soil within the red dotted oval is the burial pit. It is surrounded by orange-colored soil (original soil color). This pit was approximately 3 x 15 feet (.9 x 4.5 m) in size and contained the skeletons of 12 servicemen.

FIGURE 6.7 Dr. William Bass poses with a skull at the University ot Tennessee, Knoxville.

FIGURE 7.3 Photomicrograph of goat bone (left) and human bone (right) at 50x magnification. Notice the difference between the plexiform bone (goat) and the osteon (human).

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ISO Standards Addressing Issues of Bias and Impartiality in Forensic Work

by Itiel Dror and

2020, Journal of Forensic Sciences

The ISO/IEC 17020 and 17025 standards both include requirements for impartiality and the freedom from bias. Meeting these requirements for implicit cognitive bias is not a simple matter. In this article, we address these international... more

FIG. 1—Different stakeholders of forensic examination (a modified version of the figure from Almazrouei et al. [10]). Internal stakeholders: Forensic Services Domain (A). External stakeholders: Investigative Domain (B), Judicial Domain (C), Regulatory Domain (D), and Public Domain (E). The forensic examiner nust interact with members of each domain, regardless if they have direct or indirect involvement with their cases.

FIG. 2—Taxonomy of seven sources of factors that may unconsciously affect the decision-making of forensic experts (Dror, 2017 [28], p. 543).

FIG. 3—Risk Matrix (a modified version from Robertson et al. [29]) that takes together the risk of bias relative to the gravity of its effects in order to priori- tize actions required to minimize and mitigate bias.

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İnsan-Hayvan Kemiklerinin Ayrımı

by Derya Silibolatlaz

2017, Türkiye Klinikleri Adli Tıp Özel Dergisi

azı durumlarda insan ve hayvan kemikleri birbirine kolaylıkla karıştırılabil-mektedir, yapılacak bu hatayı önlemek için osteoloji bilgisine sahip kişilerin karar vermesi gerekmektedir. Ülkemizde Antropoloji bölümlerinde hem insan hem de... more

azı durumlarda insan ve hayvan kemikleri birbirine kolaylıkla karıştırılabil-mektedir, yapılacak bu hatayı önlemek için osteoloji bilgisine sahip kişilerin karar vermesi gerekmektedir. Ülkemizde Antropoloji bölümlerinde hem insan hem de hayvan osteolojisi dersleri verilmektedir. Hayvan osteolojisi üzerine çalışma yapan birçok araştırmacı zooarkeolog/arkeozoolog olarak geçmiş dönem in-sanlarına ilişkin birçok bilgiye hayvan kemiklerini çalışarak ulaşabilmektedir. Diğer bir deyişle Zooarkeoloji, hayvan kemik kalıntılarını inceleyen ve insanın çevrele-riyle ilişki kurmasına yardımcı olan bir bilim dalıdır. 1 Bu kapsamda özellikle hay-van kemiklerinin insan kemikleriyle karşılaştırılması durumunda bu kişilere danışılması gerekmektedir. Antropologların alan çalışmalarında yanıtlamaları gereken birçok soru mev-cuttur, bunlardan ilki arazide bulunan kemiklerin insana ait olup olmadığıdır. Bu durumda insan kemiklerini hayvanlardan ayırt edebilmek için osteolojik bilgi bi-rikimine sahip olmak gerekir. Özellikle kırık veya parçalanmış iskelet malzeme-Turkiye Klinikleri J Foren Med-Special Topics 2017;3(1):21-6 21 İnsan ve Hayvan Kemiklerinin Ayrımı DERLEME Ö ÖZ ZE ET T İçeriği adli veya arkeolojik olsa da insana ait olan veya olmayan kemiklerin doğru bir şekilde tanımlanması için osteoloji analizlerinin yapılması gerekmektedir. Ancak, kemik gelişimi sırasında çok fazla değişime uğradığı gibi tür bazında da gerçekleşen varyasyonlar, yapılan tanımlama çalış-malarını hem kısıtlamaktadır hem de kemiklerin ayrımının yapılmasını zorlaştırmaktadır. Bu ne-denle adli antropolojik çalışmalarda ve arkeolojik alanlardan gelen iskelet veya fosil insan kalıntılarının tanımlanmasında uzman kişilere başvurulması gerekmektedir. Bunun yanı sıra insan-hayvan kemiklerinin ayrımında iyi bir referans koleksiyonun bulunması yapılan çalışmaların gü-venirliğini arttırmaktadır. Bu çalışma kapsamında insan ve hayvan kemiklerinin ayrımında kullanılan morfolojik kriterler ele alınmıştır. A An na ah ht ta ar r K Ke el li im me el le er r: : Adli antropoloji; zooarkeoloji; insan hayvan kemik ayrımı; antropoloji A AB BS ST TR RA AC CT T Distinguishing between human and nonhuman bone is a task that should only be un-dertaken anthropologists. In particular, when bones are highly weathered, eroded, and fragmented, identification may be difficult and limited. Thus, an experienced forensic anthropologist will have help to distinguishing no osseous material from bone. In addition, osteologists can become familiar with animal bones by putting together a comparative collection to determine the species. They can then use this collection to determine the species of questionable bones. In this study, the morphological criteria used to distinguish human and animal bones are discussed. K Ke ey yw wo or rd ds s: : Forensic anthropology; zooarcheology; distinguish nonhuman skeletal; anthropology

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Forensic DNA Challenges: Replacing Numbers with Names of Fosse Ardeatine’s Victims

by Liana Veneziano

2009, Journal of Forensic Sciences

The Fosse Ardeatine massacre was a mass execution carried out in Rome on March 24, 1944 by Nazi German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for a partisan attack conducted on the previous day in central Rome. The... more

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Contribution of forensic anthropology to identification process in Croatia: examples of victims recovered in wells

by Vlasta Vyroubal

2007, Croatian Medical Journal

To describe the contribution of forensic anthropology to the recovery, analysis, and identification of victims from the 1991-1995 war in Croatia recovered in wells. From 1996 to the present, human remains of a total of 61 individuals have... more

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Challenges of DNA Profiling in Mass Disaster Investigations

by Oscar Garcia

2005

In cases of mass disaster, there is often a need for managing, analyzing, and comparing large numbers of biological samples and DNA profiles. This requires the use of laboratory information management systems for large-scale sample... more

In cases of mass disaster, there is often a need for managing, analyzing, and comparing large numbers of biological samples and DNA profiles. This requires the use of laboratory information management systems for large-scale sample logging and tracking, coupled with bioinformatic tools for DNA database searching according to different matching algorithms, and for the evaluation of the significance of each match by likelihood ratio calculations. There are many different interrelated factors and circumstances involved in each specific mass disaster scenario that may challenge the final DNA identification goal, such as: the number of victims, the mechanisms of body destruction, the extent of body fragmentation, the rate of DNA degradation, the body accessibility for sample collection, or the type of DNA reference samples availability. In this paper, we examine the different steps of the DNA identification analysis (DNA sampling, DNA analysis and technology, DNA database searching, and concordance and kinship analysis) reviewing the "lessons learned" and the scientific progress made in some mass disaster cases described in the scientific literature. We will put special emphasis on the valuable scientific feedback that genetic forensic community has received from the collaborative efforts of several public and private USA forensic laboratories in assisting with the more critical areas of the World Trade Center (WTC) mass fatality of September 11, 2001. The main challenges in identifying the victims of the recent South Asian Tsunami disaster, which has produced the steepest death count rise in history, will also be considered. We also present data from two recent mass fatality cases that involved Spanish victims: the Madrid terrorist attack of March 11, 2004, and the Yakolev-42 aircraft accident in Trabzon, Turkey, of May 26, 2003. A mass disaster is an unexpected event that causes serious injury and death to a number of people. Mass disaster events may be natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding, and tornadoes), accidental disasters (aircraft crashes, train crashes and derailments, and building fires), or intentioned terrorism acts (direct attacks on significant objectives, and bombing of populated areas, including suicide attacks and deployments of chemical and bio-logical weapons). Forensic identification of victims is essential for humanitarian reasons, but also for civil or criminal investigative needs, and it is essentially based on forensic anthropology, fingerprints, forensic odontology, radiology, and DNA typing (1).

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Determination of Season at Death Using Dental Cementum Increment Analysis

by Vicki Wedel

2007, Journal of Forensic Sciences

Abstract: Dental cementum anchors teeth into their sockets via the periodontal ligament. In mammals, dental cementum is laid down in alternating opaque and translucent bands representing winter (dormant) and summer (growth) seasons. Each... more

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AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Student Essay Award 2016

by Julie Fleischman

Essay Title: “Skeletal Analysis after Crimes Against Humanity and Genocides: Implications for Human Rights”

http://www.aaas.org/news/science-and-human-rights-coalition-announces-2016-student-essay-competition-winners

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The challenges for capacity building and subsequent impact assessment: the case of mass grave investigation training by Inforce at Bournemouth University

by Roland Wessling

2013, Science & justice : journal of the Forensic Science Society

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Identification of the Cranium of W.A. Mozart 2019

by Pierre-François Puech

Abstract. In 1801 at the cemetery in Vienna, Austria, the skull of W.A. Mozart was exhumed, and now it has been examined for identification. The osteological findings correspond with the available data of W.A. Mozart. Additional... more

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Reconsidering Osteoarthritis as a Skeletal Age Indicator

by Allysha P Winburn

2019, American Association of Physical Anthropologists annual meeting

Poster presented at the 2019 meeting of the AAPA (Cleveland, OH).

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UM Medicolegal Death Investigation Conference Agenda 2018

by Dr. Teresa "Lilly" White

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Early Closure of the Metopic Suture (ECMS) In Mozart

by Pierre-François Puech

getcited.org

As part of a forensic study to determine the identification of the skull of W.A. MOZART, we noted a case of partial metopic closure in newborn skulls that may explain the orbital deformity, the feminine profile and alterations of the... more

Fig. 1.a, The triangular configuration of this skull with premature closure of the midfrontal suture results fram the association of a narrow forehead {see arrows) and a broad biparietal diameter. b. Normal appearance of a nawbern skull viewed from top. Many a craniosynostosis is discovered because of the resulting unusual facial appear- ance. The purpose of this paper is to show how the addition of discreet features, well within the range of normal variation, may be diagnotic.

Fig.2.a. Premature closure of the metopic suture is associated with the increased presance of vascular pits. The orbits are egg-shapped with receded superolateral rims and indented outer supra-orbital area. b. in. normal newbom the orbiis usually cant outward producing a Mephistopneélean appearance,

Fig.3.a. inthe skul of W.A. Mozart, the forehead is straight, the orbilale and subnasale are advanced, and small vasoular channels are present in the glabellar region. b. Mozari portrait, Bologna 1770. Note the poor frontal protection of the eyes with marked depressed zone that separates the orbital ridge from the bulged forehead.

Socidte do Médecine Légale - 14 novembre 1988

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Fall 2018 - Bard Forensic Anthropology.docx

by Melina Calmon

Syllabus for Introduction to Forensic Anthropology. Fall/2018 at BECNO

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Frontal Sinuses for Identification: Quality of Classifications, Possible Error and Potential Corrections

by Mariano Cingolani

2005, Journal of Forensic Sciences

Many studies have examined the characteristics of the frontal sinuses and their use for forensic purposes, particularly when an individual is edentulous. One of the most widespread classification systems is that proposed by Yoshino et al.... more

TABLE 6—Absence of Frontal Sinus in our samples.

TABLE 7—Correlations among seven classification items used in Yoshino’s method (Fs = frontal sinus size; Ba = bilateral asymmetry; Ss = superiority of side; Ou;, Ouz= outline of upper border (left, right); Ps=partial septa; Sc = supraorbital cells).

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The suitability of visual taphonomic methods for digital photographs: An experimental approach with pig carcasses in a tropical climate

by Ruth Morgan

2018, Science & justice : journal of the Forensic Science Society

In the context of increased scrutiny of the methods in forensic sciences, it is essential to ensure that the approaches used in forensic taphonomy to measure decomposition and estimate the postmortem interval are underpinned by robust... more

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Estimation of Height Using Arm Span of The Itsekiris in Delta State of Nigeria

by E. Anibor

2015

Arm span (AS) has been reported to be a good substitute for height measurement in osteoskeletally deformed patients and in the elderly with osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between arm span and height... more

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Sex determination by discriminant analysis of patella measurements

by Carlo Campobasso

1998, Forensic Science International

The authors have analyzed 80 skeletons (40 males and 40 females) from the collection at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the University of Bari belonging to a known contemporary Southern Italian population; time of death was around 1970... more

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Performance of distance-based matching algorithms in 3D facial identification

by Petra Urbanová

Facial image identification is an area of forensic sciences, where an expert provides an opinion on whether or not two or more images depict the same individual. The primary concern for facial image identification is that it must be based... more

Figure 7 Illustrating pitfalls of 3D face identification based on a single dissimilarity measure. (A) Shows a false negative result at the rank of | due to highly localized differences — artifacts of data acquisition. (B) Shows a false positive result at the rank of 1.

Figure 8 Relationships between ranks and Procrustes distances averaged for the tested sample and displayed for various numbers of landmarks.

Figure 9 Rank-1 identification rates for landmark-based metrics and varying numbers of landmarks.

Figure 10 ROC curves illustrating performances of Procrustes distances on the studied sample.

Figure 1 The set of landmarks acquired for each 3D image.

Figure 2 Values of closest point-to-point distances for a true positive and a true negative result at various mesh resolutions accompanied by 3D visualizations depicting local dissimilarities (results for meshes of 10k displayed).

Figure 3. Relationships between ranks and PERC75-based metrics averaged for the tested sample and displayed for various mes resolutions.

Figure 4 Rank-1 and rank-10 identification rates for RMS and PERC75-based metrics.

Figure 6 ROC curves illustrating performances of PERC75-based measures of dissimilarity on the studied sample.

Figure 5 ROC curves illustrating performances of RMS-based measures of dissimilarity on the studied sample.

Table 1 List of landmarks, their definitions and presence in configurations of descending number of landmarks as employed | landmark-based identification. matching 100% of probes. By the resolution of 500 vertices, the PERC75-based metric was able to identify all probes cor- rectly, which is consistent with the results on the original meshes. When tested by Wilcoxon signed-rank test raw point-to-point distances were significantly smaller in size- invariant comparisons than in the original comparisons (data not shown). Alike in the original meshes, raw point-to-point distances increased as the mesh resolution decreased (Table 2). If a non-match was met at the first rank, the positive iden- tification was mostly achieved by the rank of 10. This was, however, valid only for the meshes of more than 500 vertices. Although the number of matches based on low-resolution meshes at the rank of 10 increased significantly comparing to the rank-1 rates, it could not match that of better-quality meshes. Many positive matches based on meshes of 50 points were even met beyond single digit ranks. In fact, the highest- ranked match for one of the probes was met at rank 208 and 41 for RMS and PERC75, respectively.

Table 2 Rank-1 identification rate and descriptive statistics as recorded for the mesh-based testing.

Table 3 Results of M—W U test comparing values of dissimilarity measures for the tested and control subsets at rank of |

Table 4 R-values provided by the Mantel test. All R-values were statistically significant at p-value = 0.0001.

Table 5 ROC curve statistics for mesh-based identification.

Table 6 Rank-1 identification rates and descriptive statistics grounded on landmark-based comparison. to the hypothesis that two scans depict the same individual.** Conversely, in the landmark-based analysis the number of 12 points, the lowest-numbered configuration to provide the rank-1 identification rate of 100% yielded likelihood ratios that are far from being considered comparable to the mesh- based results. With the positive likelihood ratio of 7.9 the ver- bal equivalent to support the origin from the same individual would be weak to limited. to the constant number of 10,000 points provided an accept- able level of data volume together with a welcome decrement of computing power requirements that did not sacrifice the precision in face geometry. Still, using a standard hardware equipment (laptop, 2.4 GHz, 16 GB RAM) it took almost an hour to match a probe against 501 candidates. For the meshes of 1,000 and 500 points the time requirements fell drastically to 3 min and to less than 2 min, respectively. For 3D faces of 100 points it took less than 40 s to acquire results. To ease the com- puting requirements many proposed algorithms convert tex- tured 3D meshes into depth image, depth maps, XYZ maps or 2.5D representations via orthographic projection.“*°° How- ever, this may not be the most appropriate solution in all forensic and security applications as the conversion discards

Table 7 Results of M-W U test comparing values of dissimilarity measures for tested (matching pairs) and random (rank 1) subsets. Results of M-W U test comparing values of landmark-based dissimilarity measures for tested (matching pairs) and random (rank 1) subsets. a substantial amount of the original 3D information and it may also lead to a significant increase in error rates.”! to achieve positive identification. Similarly, Sala et al.** assessed identification in 2D to 3D images by a threshold set to 1.8 mm.

Table 8 R-values provided by the Mantel test. All R-values were statistically significant at p-value = 0.0001.

Table 9 ROC curve statistics for landmark-based identification.

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Karadžić's guilty verdict and forensic evidence from Bosnia's mass graves

by Melanie Klinkner

2016, Science & Justice

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia's Karadžić verdict, eagerly awaited, was unsurprising. He was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. One part of the judgment was concerned with the... more

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Andean isoscapes: Creating and testing oxygen isoscape models to aid in the identification of missing persons in Peru

by Tiffiny Tung and

2020, Forensic Science and Humanitarian Action: Interacting with the Dead and the Living

Isotope analysis has long been used in archaeological research to establish whether an individual is local or non-local to a particular region. Those same methods can be applied to modern cases and aid in establishing whether a corpse is... more

Isotope analysis has long been used in archaeological research to establish whether an individual is local or non-local to a particular region. Those same methods can be applied to modern cases and aid in establishing whether a corpse is from the region where they were found. That premise is expanded upon here to create preliminary isoscapes-predictive surfaces of isotopic values based on field-sampled data-to evaluate its utility in excluding regions, and perhaps identifying potential places of origin, for particular samples. We start by testing the success of three isoscape models in identifying the source of water samples, and then test its effectiveness at identifying sources of archaeological human remains. The longer-term and more pressing concern is to use these and future isoscape models to begin to narrow down the geographical origins of victims from the Shining Path war in Peru, during which, in the 1980s to 1990s, approximately 69,000 mostly indigenous people were killed. We use stable oxygen isotope data from surface water samples in the Andes to construct three oxygen isoscape models. Water sample collection in Peru is ongoing, and future isotopic research will aim to integrate multiple isotopes to create a more comprehensive isoscape that can be used to estimate the geographical origins of corpses. In those regards, this study is preliminary and simply lays the foundation for ongoing work to create an isoscape model that will enable researchers to exclude possible regions as the geographical origin for particular victims and pinpoint other areas as possible homelands. We do not claim that these isoscape models will immediately lead to positive identifications. Instead, the hope is that isoscape models will enable human rights workers to concentrate outreach and identification programs in areas where they are more likely to find surviving family members. We do not yet have stable isotope data from victims of the conflict; those data will be collected as part of a separate and ongoing project. Instead, we use stable oxygen isotope data from well provenienced archaeological human teeth to test the utility of these preliminary isoscape models. While this isoscape modeling could potentially be combined with DNA testing, we note that the isotopic approach is less invasive than DNA analysis (Montgomery, 2010); it does not require family members to come forward and give biological samples for DNA testing. Chapter 21.

Figure 211 Map showing the locations of the 575 surface water samples.

eliminated by each model changes across the measured 5'8O values. In addition to having the highest minimum area eliminated, the MLR also eliminates substantially more of the study area than either of the other two models between 6!%O values of —13%o and —8%o. This portion of the distribution is crucial because, as shown in Figures 21.3 and 21.4, a substantial proportion of both the water samples and archaeological samples fall within this range. As such, the MLR model far outperforms the other models in terms of eliminating portions of the study area, while maintaining a high rate of success at identifying the locations water samples were collected, in spite of its much poorer MSE. This demonstrates that a model with low MSE does not necessarily imply it is the best model for identifying locations of origin.

lable 21.1 Descriptive statistics of the 6'8O values from the water and archaeological samples. * Bershaw et al. (2016); Buzon et al. (2011); Flusche et al. (2005); Gagnon et al. (2015); Rohrmann et al. (2014); Turner et al. (2009); Webb et al. (2013).

Table 21.2 Summary of the results, comparing the test water samples against the three models generated using the training water sample dataset. * Less than 0.07% of the predictions for linear regression were less than —20%o. These strongly negative predictions are likely the result of sensor errors of isolated pixels in the DEM and do not significantly affect the results. This is also true of the 9.1 value in the uncertainty surface.

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UN CONFLICTO? GENOCIDIO Y RESISTENCIA EN GUATEMALA

by USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research and

Septiembre 11-14, 2016 Diciembre del 2016 marcará el 20º aniversario de la firma de los acuerdos de paz culminando así treinta y seis años de guerra civil en Guatemala. El Centro para la investigación avanzada de genocidio de la... more

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Retrospective analysis of free-fall fractures with regard to height and cause of fall

by Mario Slaus

Fig. 1. Frequency of fractures per body region in different height groups (frequency of the top three fractured regions is listed). In the second part of the analysis we tested whether fractures, regardless of their number, tended to cluster in a specific body part or if they were randomly scattered throughout the body. In the lowest height group (1.5-3.5 m), most cases (n= 28 or 88%) had fractures localised in the upper and middle body (38% of them presenting fractures of the head and/or neck). In the second height group (4-10m), the majority of cases (n=38 or 59%) again exhibited fractures localised in the upper and middle body. In the persisted in height both below 10 m, and above 10.5 m. Seventy seven percent (n = 20) of facial fractures occurred in victims that fell from heights higher than 10.5m. Although linear and comminuted fractures appeared in the same frequencies in the total sample, linear fractures were more common in falls below 10 m (70% of fractures sustained from falls from lower heights were linear) while comminuted fractures were more common in longer falls (74% of these fractures was comminuted). Vault bones injured during falls showed some height related differences. Falls from lower heights (<10 m) were characterised by occipital (n = 20 or 28%), temporal (n=20 or 28%) and parietal (n=19 or 27%) fractures, while falls above 10.5 m are characterised by a visible increase in frontal fractures (n = 16 or 36%), that are followed by parietal fractures (n= 10 or 23%), temporal (n=9 or 21%) and occipital (n = 8 or 19%). Cervical and thoracic spine fractures were recorded more frequently than lumbar fractures in both height groups. Lumbar fractures were present in 15% of cases, and 67% (n = 8) of them occurred from heights above 10.5 m. Similarly, rib fractures differ significantly with height with bilateral fractures increasing significantly in higher falls. In falls from heights up to

Fig. 2. Number of cases with unilateral and bilateral extremity fracture per height category and cause of fall. The results of this study demonstrate that height is the major factor influencing the pattern and extent of fractures in fatal falls. At the level of the complete sample the most frequently affected body regions in our study were the thorax (73%) and head (55%). At the same time, the regions that showed the greatest variations in fracture frequencies dependent on the height were the thorax, extremities, and pelvis. This has been additionally confirmed by logistic regression analysis where no significant relationship was noted between head fractures and height. While a number of studies noted that head trauma dominate in falls, regardless of the heights from which these falls have occurred [20-22], others have found that head injuries exhibit a height-dependent pattern, and predominate in falls suffered from heights bellow 10 m and above 30m [15,18], or just in lower falls with no concomitant increase of head fractures in falls from greater heights [13]. In our study the frequency of head fractures remained relatively constant in all height categories (around 55%) suggesting that height has a minimal effect on the frequency of head injuries. The frequencies of thoracic and extremity fractures, on the other hand, increased significantly in our sample with height, suggesting that feet-first, A noteworthy difference was observed when comparing the patterns of fractures in the extremities in suicide and accident victims (Fig. 2). In this analysis the sample size was considerably reduced (n = 66) as not all victims sustained fractures to this part of the body. Despite this, suicide victims in both height groups exhibited a number of bilateral fractures - fractures to the extremities occurring on both the right and left side of the body

Suicide falls and accidental falls distribution by height group.

Relationship between different types of fractures and 4 independent factors (height, cause of fall, sex, age) tested by logistic regression (significant p values are bolded).

Possible regions: head, neck, shoulder, upper extremity, thorax, pelvic area, lower extremity. Number of fractured body regions with regard to height group. Table 4 Table 3 * p<0.05.

Frequency of fractures in deliberate and accidental falls in two analysed height groups.

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Witness to Genocide جرم باستان شناسی: شاهدی بر یک نسل کشی

by Arvin Maghsoudlou

A Persian Translation of:
Pringle, Heather. ‘Witness to Genocide - Archaeology Magazine Archive’. February 2009.

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A Study of Sexual Dimorphism in the Femur Among North Indians*

by Vineeta Saini

2011, Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Human remains found in two wells: a forensic entomology perspective

by Paola Magni

2013, Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology

When estimating the time since death or manner of death, the identification and the pathological evaluations of a body are generally impeded by post mortem changes. Research and case studies help experts to achieve a more accurate... more

L larva, L3 third instar larva, P pupa, Pu puparium, A adult Table 1 Taxon list of the insects collected in Case 1 and Case 2

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Human Bite Marks

by BAŞAK KOCA ÖZER

2017, Human Bite Marks

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The Effect of Time on Bone Fluorescence: Implications for Using Alternate Light Sources to Search for Skeletal Remains

by Angi Christensen

Bones fluoresce when exposed to certain wavelengths of shortwave light, and this property can be useful in locating and sorting skeletal remains in forensic contexts. The proteins in bone collagen are largely responsible for its... more

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Population Affinities of 19th Century Cuban Crania: Implications for Identification Criteria in South Florida Cuban Americans

by Ann Ross

2004, Journal of Forensic Sciences

Identification criteria, specifically discriminant function formulae derived from traditional craniometrics, currently used in South Florida for Cuban Americans and other "Hispanic" groups, are unsuitable to provide adequate biological... more

FIG. 1—Mean landmark locations after GPA of modern Cubans (dark gray), Precontact Cubans (medium dark gray), Spanish (medium light gray), and Terry Blacks (light gray). Lines connect grand mean locations. See Table 2 for landmark identification. Figure 2 is the lateral view of the same overlay and illustrates that basion and opisthion are more inferiorly placed in modern Cubans, while the orientation of basion and opisthion is completely distinct in Precontact Cuban crania from all the modern series. Bregma is more posterior and opisthocranion is more superior in modern Cubans than the Spanish series. This is also clearly illus- trated in Fig. 3, which presents the difference between the Modern Cuban mean configuration and the Spanish mean configuration as magnified (X2) difference vectors. The difference vectors show the direction and magnitude of the difference between one form and another. The lateral view displays the antero-inferior location of basion and opisthion, the posterior placement of bregma and

FIG. 2—Lateral view of data in Fig. 4. See Table 2 for landmark identi- fication.

FIG. 6—Mean landmark differences shown as vectors from modern Cubans (light gray) to Precontact Cubans (dark gray). Vectors mag- nified X2. FIG. 4—Anterior view of data from Fig. 3. FIG. 3—Mean landmark differences shown as vectors from modern Cubans (light gray) to Spanish crania (dark gray). Vectors magnified X2.

FIG. 5—Mean landmark differences shown as vectors from modern Cubans (light gray) to Terry Black crania (dark gray). Vectors mag- nified X2.

TABLE 1—Materials used in present study.

* Not significantly different. All other distances are significant > 0.001.

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Les Reliques de Dante, San et Vaimaca Retiennent le Passé de leur Nation

by Pierre-François Puech

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The Effects of Household Corrosive Chemicals on Human Dentition*

by Tosha Dupras

2009, Journal of forensic sciences

There is a gap in the literature concerning the chemical effects that household products may produce on human remains. The present study examines the effects of household chemical products on teeth. A total of eight chemicals were... more

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Survey of Perimortem Vertebral Trauma in Historic Cases

by Andrea Palmiotto and

2020, American Academy of Forensic Sciences

Survey of Perimortem Vertebral Trauma in Historic Cases A. Palmiotto, PhD;1,2 B. S. Walter, PhD;2 L. F. Kennedy, PhD;2 E. Streetman, PhD2 1 Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, 15705 2 Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency... more

Survey of Perimortem Vertebral Trauma in Historic Cases
A. Palmiotto, PhD;1,2 B. S. Walter, PhD;2 L. F. Kennedy, PhD;2 E. Streetman, PhD2
1 Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, 15705
2 Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory, 106 Peacekeeper Dr., Offutt Air Force Base, NE 68113

Key Words: perimortem trauma analysis, vertebral injury, mechanism of trauma
After attending this presentation, attendees will gain awareness of: the value of incorporating vertebrae in trauma analysis; how analysts typically describe and interpret perimortem vertebral trauma; and the importance of standardization in descriptions of vertebral skeletal trauma.
This presentation will impact the scientific community by: facilitating analysis of vertebral trauma in skeletonized remains; highlighting the importance of reconstruction and articulation of fragmented remains for trauma analysis; and improving standardization of vertebral trauma analysis by presenting illustrative examples.
Vertebrae present challenges in trauma analysis because of their unique morphology and articulations within the thorax. Additionally, due to the complex structure of vertebrae, expectations based on biomechanics are of limited value. The forensic anthropological literature presents conflicting opinions regarding the importance and analytical potential of vertebral trauma. Experimental and retrospective trauma research primarily focus on the skull, long bones, and ribs. Several published case studies demonstrate that analysis of vertebral trauma can contribute significantly to overall trauma interpretation. However, in other cases, analysts cite fragmentation of the vertebral remains as precluding any useful interpretative analysis to be undertaken. The foremost objective of this study is to clarify discrepancies in the literature by assessing the value of vertebral trauma analysis in a sample of skeletal trauma analyses of various mechanisms.
Trauma analyses of historic cases associated with U.S. servicemen and civilians lost during WWII and the Korean War from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory are reviewed (n=51). Analyses were completed in the blind, and unknown individuals have since been identified and associated with air (n=18), ground (n=31), and sea losses (n=2). These cases display blunt-force (n=10), projectile (n=18), extensive (e.g., deceleration or blast; n=18), or indeterminate trauma (n=5).
Overall, analyses of affected vertebrae are highly variable. The degree of fragmentation is rarely quantified. Most analysts include photographs of vertebral trauma (65%) and incorporate adjacent skeletal regions in their analysis (63%). However, reconstruction or articulation are undertaken in less than half of cases (41%). Vertebral trauma contributes to directionality interpretations in approximately half of cases (51%).
When these results are assessed by mechanism, photographs of vertebral trauma are included more frequently in blunt-force (70%) and projectile (100%) trauma cases than extensive trauma cases (33%). More often than not, analysts incorporate adjacent skeletal regions in vertebral trauma analysis no matter the mechanism (blunt-force=60%, projectile=67%, extensive=72%). Vertebrae are reconstructed more commonly in projectile (78%) than blunt-force (30%) or extensive (17%) trauma cases, and directionality is interpreted more often in projectile (67%) and extensive (56%) cases than in blunt-force (20%) cases. These trends may reflect factors such as the condition (e.g., fragmentation) of vertebrae or the absence of standardized language and guidance for analysis of vertebral skeletal trauma. Additionally, in extensive trauma cases, analysts may not directly address vertebral trauma in an attempt to synthesize observations.
Results indicate that analyses of vertebral trauma are highly variable. Analysts are likely to consider the relationship between trauma observed on vertebrae and adjacent elements regardless of traumatic mechanism. Further, vertebral trauma analysis is underused in blunt force trauma cases, and analysts more often reconstruct vertebrae and infer directionality in projectile trauma cases.
Although vertebrae have received less attention than other elements in the trauma literature, preliminary results suggest that vertebrae are valuable in the interpretation of skeletal trauma regardless of the mechanism of injury. Reconstruction of fragmented vertebral remains and consideration of adjacent elements has the potential to improve analyses and result in more robust descriptions. Though many of the cases reviewed here present relatively complete sets of skeletal remains, these results suggest that vertebrae are valuable in cases with incomplete and fragmented remains as well. These findings facilitate a more comprehensive and standardized interpretation of injury patterns in skeletal remains and direct future research on vertebral trauma in forensic cases.

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Subjective with a Capital S? Issues of Objectivity in Forensic Anthropology

by Allysha P Winburn

After attending this presentation, attendees will appreciate the presence of subjectivity in forensic anthropology, and understand how to constrain this subjectivity by acknowledging sources of bias, developing new research and... more

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A reevaluation of the sex prediction accuracy of the minimum supero-inferior femoral neck diameter for modern individuals

by Christopher Stojanowski

1999, Journal of forensic sciences

Stojanowski CM, Seidemann RM. A reevaluation of the sex prediction accuracy of the minimum supero-inferior femoral neck diameter for modern individuals. J Forensic Sci 1999;44(6):1215-1218.

TABLE 2— Evaluation of sexual dimorphism in UNM Documented sample.

TABLE 1— Evaluation of femoral neck differences between the Hamann-Todd and UNM Documented collections. * Includes two Hispanics, three Native Americans, and 11 individuals of unknown ancestry.

TABLE 3—Classification matrices for UNM Documented sample.

TABLE 5—Classification matrices for UNM African American sample.

TABLE 6— Classification matrices for UNM total sample.

TABLE 4— Classification matrices for UNM Caucasian sample.

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The “Unidad Especial de Identificación Forense” and Human Rights in Chile (pp. 32-41)

by :: Cadernos do GEEvH :: Notes in Human Evolution ::

2012, Cadernos do GEEvH 1(2)

This communication presents the Unidad Especial de Identificación Forense (Special Unit of Forensic Identification) to the international scientific community, focusing on its origins and organizational structure. It also reviews the... more

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Bone weathering patterns of metatarsal v. femur and the postmortem interval in Southern Ontario

by Martyna Janjua

2008, Forensic Science International

Twenty-five defleshed pig femora and 25 metatarsals were placed outdoors and observed over 291 days to establish: (1) bone weathering patterns for use in estimating time since death in Southern Ontario and (2) whether larger (femora) or... more

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A Retrospective Study of Intentional Body Dismemberment in New York City: 1996–2017

by An-Di Yim

2019, Journal of Forensic Sciences

A review of New York City dismemberment cases occurring between 1996 and 2017 was conducted, which resulted in a total of 55 dismembered decedents in a 22-year period. Annual trends indicate an average of 2.5 dismembered decedents.... more

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Beyond metrics and morphology: the potential of FTIR-ATR and chemometrics to estimate age-at-death in human bone

by Mariana Pedrosa

2020, International Journal of Legal Medicine

In Forensic Anthropology, the application of traditional methods for estimating the biological profile of human skeletal remains is often hampered by poor preservation and skeletal representativeness, compromising their reliability. Thus,... more

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Differential Decomposition Patterns in Charred Versus Un-Charred Remains

by Tal I Simmons

2012, Journal of Forensic Sciences

Although researchers have examined many aspects of fire modification, the rate and pattern of decomposition in charred remains have not been studied previously. This study utilized 48 domestic pigs, divided into 24 charred (head, neck,... more

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Genomic identification in the historical case of the Nicholas II royal family

by Andrey Goltsov

2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Accurate unambiguous identification of ancient or historical specimens can potentially be achieved by DNA analysis. The controversy surrounding the fate of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, and his family has persisted, in part,... more