Forensic Anthropology - Criminal Justice Collaboratory

Forensic Anthropology

Forensic textbook study comes to life with hands on analysis of the everyday world.

Instructor Dr. Lin Davis-Stephens

Next student post here.

Aaron Schriner
Information on Forensic Anthropology

“Forensic science is a catch-all for many distinct disciplines that may be used to help in the determination of a court case. Lists of ‘forensic disciplines’ are usually a mixture of scientific fields, tasks, occupations and services such as anthropology, ballistics, biology/DNA, chemical criminalistics, clandestine laboratories, crime scene examination, document examination, fingerprints, illicit drug analysis, computer forensics, digital imaging, audio video analysis, entomology, mortuary services, odontology and toxicology.”

Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. The field of forensic anthropology is relatively new but made popular in recent years by many television dramas. Forensic anthropology is a special sub-field of archaeology which is the study of people through their artifacts (bones, tools, etc.) and/or physical anthropology which is the study of human remains. With their training in archaeology, they are also knowledgeable about excavating buried remains and meticulously recording the evidence.
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Forensic anthropologists use their knowledge of culture, biology, and science when human remains or a suspected burial are found. Forensic Anthropologists identify human remains, along with pathologists, homicide detectives and other specialists. The forensic anthropologists are called upon to gather information from the bones and their recovery context to determine who died, how they died, and how long ago they died. A forensic anthropologist's knowledge plays an important role in establishing the cause of death in an investigation. Their knowledge of the human body contributes to the outcome of a death investigation by providing law enforcement agencies with expert answers and conclusions, which ultimately aids in the outcome of any given case.

The techniques forensic anthropologists use to answer questions in criminal cases can be applied to the skeleton and remains of any length of time whether recent or ancient. For example, the forensic anthropologist can determine the age of the deceased by examining the bones and teeth to ascertain the stages of growth and development that occur during a person’s lifetime. The skull can be used to determine gender of the skeleton but the best evidence for the gender of the person is in the shape of the pelvic bones. Abnormal changes in the shape, size and density of bones can indicate disease or trauma. The bones will be photographed wherever they were found as part of the evidence. This also helps provide a visual record of the site. Once the bones are removed they are typically photographed again and X-rayed. Some remains may undergo CT scanning or be examined with high-powered microscopes. These techniques provide detailed information about remains without altering them.
The trained anthropologist is also able to identify skeletal clues of ancestry. Even certain activities, diet, and ways of life are reflected in bones and teeth. DNA analysis may be used to help establish identity. This type of testing is most often used in modern forensic case work. However, mitochondrial DNA in bones and teeth can be used to confirm relationships of old remains with deceased or living descendants. Other chemical analyses, such as those involving isotopes, can provide information about the age of bones and a person’s diet.

Bones marked by injuries, such as unhealed fractures, bullet holes, or cuts, can reveal cause of death or help establish a timeline of events. If the body was scavenged by animals post mortem a forensic scientist would be able to tell based on the marks on the bones.
The data gathered is studied and combined to draw conclusions about the deceased individual. For a modern case, photos of the skull may be superimposed on photos of missing people to look for consistencies between the bone and fleshed form. Even in cases where no photos exist, the face can be reconstructed based on the underlying bone structure and known standards of facial tissue thicknesses.
If you have interest in becoming a Forensic Anthropologist the first step is to earn a Bachelor’s Degree. This degree should include classes in mathematics, English and especially science. They should also strongly consider majors in anthropology or archaeology. The next step is to complete a Master's Degree Program and then enroll in a Doctorate Program. This process could take many years to complete. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t provide job data specific to forensic anthropologists salary but it does provide data for the related occupation of forensic science technicians, who earn a median salary of $52,840 per year.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/technique/forensic-anthropology/
https://www.americananthro.org/
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/technique/forensic-anthropology/
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/social-studies/forensic-anthropology
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/social-studies/forensic-anthropology-bone-whispering
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/social-studies/bones-and-forensic-anthropology
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/written-bone
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/written-bone/forensic-case-files
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/written-bone/forensic-case-files/modern-forensic-case-file
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/written-bone/forensic-anthropology
https://study.com/articles/Become_a_Forensic_Archaeologist_Education_and_Career_Roadmap.html
https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/criminal-justice-careers/forensic-anthropologist/
https://work.chron.com/education-required-forensic-anthropology-6835.html
https://www.anzpaa.org.au/forensic-science/forensic-sciences/forensic-science-disciplines
https://www.britannica.com/science/physical-anthropology

Bruce Johnson
Use of drones to find burial sites

The use of drones in forensics is just now beginning to have studies done on the use of Near infrared (NIR)( Currently, Marilyn Isaacks, a recent graduate of Texas State University (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.’s anthropology program, has been looking into how drones and other remotely controlled aircraft can be combined with NIR to track down hidden remains on the surface. As a body decomposes, it introduces nutrients to the soil, creating a concentrated area, or “island,” of fertility known as a cadaver decomposition island (CDI). Isaacks is researching how such CDIs show up in the NIR spectrum and how time effects how well they show up on that spectrum. Her current study is exploring how long NIR cameras mounted on unmanned aerial systems last and their usefulness in locating human remains. ) Ms Isaacks is using the Texas State University Body Farm to fly a drone with video equipment to measure both visible light and near-infrared light. During here examination of the resulting images, Ms. Isaacks found that the differences between visible light and infrared images was dramatic. With visible light you can see where the body sites are but with using near-infrared, the body positions show up even after the body has been moved.

The reason the near-infrared equiped drones can pick up the body position is because of when the body decomposes, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) equipped with near-infrared (NIR) sensors could be used to effectively and expediently locate surface depositions for up to 2 years based on differences in the reflectance of the surrounding area and the CDI. Cadaveric fluids purged out of the decomposing body seep into the soil causing it to become organically rich, which produces a different spectral signature in NIR than the surrounding soil and vegetation.

However, drones have been in use since 1995 to get aerial views of disasters to document the scene before any clean up begins. These early use of drones was used by insurance companies to determine the cause of the accident and whom may be at fault for claims to be paid.

The NTSB(National Transportation Safety Board) have began using drones to solve airplane crashes as a overhead view of the scene provides a better outline of happens when a plane crashes on the ground. The area of the crash may be in areas of where the grass is two to three feet high and someone walking the area can miss important evidence. The results of the drone survey and be used to build a 3-D model to give investigators a (live view) of the site. The 3-D model can provide measurements and direction of the plane when the accident happened.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313479711_Using_drones_for_three-dimensional_on-site_body_documentation

A Study done by a government organization used drones to locate bodies that had fallen off a cliff. The pictures from the drones provided pictures of the site and the condition of the bodies that were found. Using 3-D technology, the government organization was able to provide a (photo) of the crime scene and provided investigators a picture of what was there and where to find it once the investigators arrived on the scene.

How does this new technology help Forensic Anthropology, by providing another tool that can be used to provide a higher picture of a crime scene, find buried bodies, get to areas that are very hard to transverse, and any number of other uses that can used in solving a crime.

https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/business-innovation/humanitarian-sky-drones-disaster-response

From Kansas to the USA

Cole Wachendorfer
The Concept of Bone Structure
So, as this class is forensic anthropology, I decided on going a generic route. We all know that the main premise of this field of study is to be able to systematically differentiate differences in osteological signs via skeletal remains. These are things that can help you as to find who the victim or remains may belong to. Other things are first deciphered to distinguish this. Things like gender, age, stature, and race are all common bits of information gathered from a skeleton to be later used in court as evidence. Now this field is all surrounding one aspect and that is information gathered from the skeletal remains. Funny thing is that not just everyone can tell you the differences between even a bear’s paw and a human hand. Granted, this task isn’t as easy as it may sound.

One of the first steps in any investigation is to confirm that the remains are indeed human. Now with the skull this might not be hard, but with scattered remains you may come into some tough spots. However, this isn’t a very difficult task for someone with the necessary background. There are generally a few tricks for just the average person whom may come across a set of remains. Humans have varying forms of skeletal morphology, but that’s more for the professionals. Morphology of animal’s skeletal systems are easier to spot. Some things like the density of the material can be a hint, depending on what part of the anatomy it comes from. The morphology of the bones comes from different aspects of life like how you eat, protection from predators, and ways of getting around. One thing that separates the different classes of mammals is how they walk. Humans ourselves are bipeds that use plantigrade flexion, meaning that we walk upright with two feet. Chimpanzees and other knuckle walkers are quadrupeds. Other quadrupeds like deer and some insects use something called unguligrade flexion. While others like dogs use digitigrade flexion.

These joint formations are much different than ours, and they tend to make the animals move much faster.
We as humans too have remarkable differences in our bone structure that can tell an awful lot about whom the remains belong to. Just imagine being able to decipher the age, sex, stature, and race of a victim just by doing some measurements and calculations. This is exactly what these great people can do. Sometimes leading to a family finding peace other times allowing patrons to rest easy after making a huge break in a cold case, and not only that, but you may be helping to make a breakthrough in ancient archaeological discoveries. One of the many things they use to classify and differentiate is through the skull and racial classification system. Lately this is beginning to with come some criticism as it only classifies into Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid, some now adding Latino. These all have a magnitude of variances, ones like that Negroid osteological tissue is much denser. Another factor is oddly enough the incisors. The incisors of a mogul are shovel shaped. The nose provides multiple race indicators as well. Caucasoid nasal aperture is long and narrow, with a high bridge and a sharp nasal sill. Negroid nasal aperture is short and wide with a low bridge and a guttered or trough-like nasal sill. As you can see there are tons of elements to the field of forensic anthropology, or even osteology. These people take years of their lives to attempt to perfect their profession. They help teams in solving crimes and can be a part of some scientific breakthroughs, be them archaeological or forensic.
https://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/racial-differences-in-skull-shape/

http://forensicoutreach.com/library/three-ways-to-tell-animal-bones-from-human-bones/

Dead Men Tell No Tales
Dead men do tell tales is a mystifying book of many nonfiction stories. All of which are personal accounts of a renowned forensic anthropologist, William R. Maples Ph.D. He and Michael Browning put together this collection via the mass of curious and, often, gruesome cases that Dr. Maples has experienced throughout his career. I will briefely cover some of these pecular cases that caught my attention.

Flotsam and Jetsam
The term does not only refer to the vile eel servants of Ursula it is also used to describe marine wastes. The reason I believe Dr. Maples labeled the chapter is due to the gruesome nature of dismemberment, when a body is cut, torn, ripped, or otherwise apart into pieces. The reason people might dismember their victim is to destroy the victim’s identity. This is when the forensic anthropologist comes in handy. In this chapter. In this chapter, he recalls some of the different dismemberment cases that he has dealt with. He claims that in his profession dismemberments are far from out of the ordinary, in fact he recalls an average of four or five cases a year. He claims that some of the most challenging cases he has been a part of were dismemberments.

The tsar of all of Russia
This one was an interesting one because it goes deep into the early history of Russia and its cabal of a government. This had almost an ominous tone to it as you read along. The whole premise of the chapter is when the Russian government invited several forensic anthropologists to attempt to identify 9 bodies found in a mine shaft, presumed to the last tsar and his family. All in all, 9 bodies were recovered all fitting the description of the family members and servants. This Is one of the greatest or most secretive mysteries of the 20th century. After some of the people who had invited Dr. Maples had given their renditions of the story, which to no surprise matched up, he concluded that one of the stories fit the bodies perfectly. The bodies were to be covered in acid and burned, which is redundant, then finally buried by a mineshaft in the area. When the firing squad finally tried to dispose of the bodies they realized that they didn’t have the time. Instead, the cleaners decided a quick burn and a couple of grenades would do the trick. In hindsight, this was the farthest thing from a good idea. They could’ve never been found had the grenades not sent a piece of human shrapnel flying out of the hole and into the surrounding environment. The identifying of these victims proved to be somewhat difficult ending with the doctor going into DNA to solve the mystery. Oddly enough, because of the tsarina’s lineage, they sectioned out a piece of DNA, the mitochondrial DNA, that is transferred by mothers to child in every case. Through her relation to Queen Victoria and through the mitochondrial DNA of others from the linage, they could determine these were the remains of the tsar and his family.

In all this was a fantastic book that I would like to pick up and finish one day. Dr. Maples goes in to such detail with this novel it’s hard to not want to sit down with this and the Forensic Anthropology in Medicine book going back and forth determining what it all means. The style of writing he uses can be a bit slow at times, but like I said he doesn’t want to miss out on any details. I really do firmly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Forensic Anthropology.

book review

Joe Lubick

I decided to read the book “Bare Bones” by Kathy Reichs. This book was very interesting to me, because it told about a very successful anthropologist, who was from North Carolina. She was getting ready to take her first vacation in years. She was about to leave when she unfortunately got a call that kept her from going on this much-needed vacation. She responded to a call about finding child remains in a stove, hidden. The first initial question was to who was the killer. The first and most obvious suspect would be the mother, who was Tamela Banks. Questions arose when she was nowhere to be found. She herself was also very young. The other questions that came about was she also a victim in a homicide, or the killer. Then, a shallow buried grave for a said to believe “dog” was found on a lakeside at a barbecue in North Carolina. The remains weren’t all a dog’s bones. There was human leg and arm bones in place of the dog’s bones. As well as human ribs. Then, to top it all off, Kathy tells the story about the plane crash that touched down in North Carolina as well. She talked about the struggles from all the scattered human remains that the plane crash caused. Putting the right remains with each individual was a difficult process, especially because there was a lot of decapitations.

In the world of anthropology, there is many various and different premises of the field. The subject in which I’m doing my project on is the forensic field techniques of human remains. This fascinated me a lot, because I have always wondered how the bones are dealt with when found. Dealing with the remains of a human is by far the most daunting field of police work. Mostly, investigators and policeman get only one chance to collect and document all the required material with regards to their investigation. Therefore, it is extremely important to follow the correct path. It is crucial to follow the required procedures and also call in the specialists at the right time.

When human remains or a suspected burial are found, forensic anthropologists are called upon to gather information from the bones and their recovery context to determine who died, how they died, and how long ago they died. Forensic anthropologists specialize in analyzing hard tissues such as bones. With their training in archaeology, they are also knowledgeable about excavating buried remains and meticulously recording the evidence. Forensic anthropologists have used these bones to develop standards for determining sex, age and ancestry in unknown remains. The collections are used as comparative materials in cases where interpretation of certain features is difficult. All of this information may be compared to the medical records of known individuals to aid in confirming or disputing the identity of the skeletonized remains. Dental records in particular often prove beneficial in identifying an individual who cannot be identified by any other means, providing they have had dental work carried out and have some dental records stored somewhere in a database. This helps determine who's remains they are.

Codi Guillory

Forensics For Dummies

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Book Review 1
For the first book review I have decided to read “Forensics For Dummies” by D. P. Lyle, MD. This book covers many of the parts pertaining to Forensic investigations but I will be covering just a few of them. First covers working the scene, then comes Fingerprinting, and how to trace drugs and poisons in the body. Working the scene starts from the moment you arrive police officers have to follow strict protocols when it comes to an investigation they must be careful to not disturb anything and preserve it for when forensic workers arrive. When they do they them must document the procedure tis includes taking any pictures and or photos of the scene before sketching it. Once the crime scene has been booked and documented then you start to look for evidence. If you are to come across fingerprint you must be careful to not disturb it. There are many different parts to fingerprinting including Marking and matching fingerprints long with classifying them. You can determine a fingerprint and who it belongs to through ridge parents and submitting the fingerprint to the criminal data base. Finals one of the points that this book covers is blood stains. Blood is more thick than water witch but they share the same type of spatter and physical properties than water. When someone is stabbed or shot blood follows the rules of gravity. It moves downhill and accumulates in low spots. The size and shape of the blood spatter can revel the angle at witch they struck the object they were projected on.

Jetta Smith

Dead Men Do Tell Tales

I read and reviewed the book Dead Men Do Tell Tales The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist by William R. Maples, PH.D. and Michael Browning. Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist is a mixture of William Maples's most famous and interesting cases and the story of his career. It starts with his interests in forensics as a young boy going all the way to cases he worked on in the 1990s before he died in 1997. Maples's book is for those with strong stomachs, he goes into very detailed descriptions of rotting skeletons and how the human body burns when cremated. The explanations of how murder weapons can be identified by the markings they make in human bones and the reconstructed murder cases are pretty gruesome. However, they are an integral part of a tale about a man intimately connected to the human body and its core structure, the skeleton. The book is very well written, and it is not meant to confuse the reader with the large words and how detailed it is but to strike an interest in young readers who want to be a forensic anthropologist.

Maples, William R., and Michael Browning. Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Print.

Lexy Meyer
Book Review 2

During Race Week a body is found in a barrel of asphalt near Charlotte Motor Speedway. The next day a NASCAR crew member, Wayne Gamble comes to Temperance’s office at the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner and tells her the story of his sister’s disappearance 12 years ago. He was wondering if the body could be his sister Cindi Gamble or her boyfriend Cale Lovette. Lovette kept company with the Patriot Posse, a group of right wing extremists. At the time of his sister’s disappearance the FBI joined the investigation, ending it weeks later. No conclusion was found regarding the disappearance of the two young adults. At the same time an employee of the Center for Disease Control goes missing during Race Week. Tempe cannot overlook the coincidence.
Once the body was extracted from the barrel it was determined using the skull and other skeletal analysis that it was a male adult 30 to 40 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches tall. Using additional forensic analysis Tempe determined that the victim had poor oral health and was a smoker. An autopsy was performed and stomach lesions were found, but the cause of death was not determined. The body then disappeared from the lab. After checking with staff it was discovered that the FBI had confiscated the body, taking the case file and all forensic evidence on the case. The body was later accidentally cremated, destroying all forensic evidence. Tempe and her boss were angry about this and became determined to discover why this case was of so much interest to the FBI. (It was later determined that ricin poison caused the stomach lesions and could have been the cause of death. That played a major part in the FBI’s interest in the case.)
The body in the barrel appears to be somehow connected to the disappearance of Cindi Gamble and Cale Lovette. There were several possible theories about what had happened to the Cindi and Cale. One, they left voluntarily either to join the militia or to marry or that Cale killed Cindi and then went into hiding. Two, Wayne Gamble thought that his sister had dumped Cale and feared for her life. Three, either Cindi or Cale were working under cover for the FBI. It was theorized that the Patriot Posse learned of this and killed them both. Four, learning that Cindi or Cale had been compromised as a confidential informant, the FBI had placed them into witness protection. Five, Cale did something illegal with the Patriot Posse, then he and Cindi went into hiding.
Tempe continues to track leads in the case working with a colleague named detective Slidell. Together they continuing to investigate the disappearance of Cindi and Cale. They discover people that knew Cindi and Cale said they loved NASCAR and wouldn’t leave Charlotte. Grady Winge, a worker at the track, said he saw Cale and Cindi get into a blue Mustang at six o’clock the day they disappeared. The blue Mustang could not be found after the disappearance and no license plate number was noticed. Also that day, Cale clocked into his job at the race track but didn’t clock out. However, another witness, Poteat, said he had seen Cindi and Cale after the left the track at the airport. Meaning they could both still be alive!
An ex-cop named Cotton Galimore now joins Tempe in her pursuit of the truth. He was unhappy with the lack of closure in the disappearance of Cindi and Cale years ago when he had been on the task force. Following up on a lead they interview a Mr. Fries. Mr. Fries offers contradictory information about Cindi and Cale. He said he served them food at the snack bar at eight o’clock. When he told his story to the authorities he was threatened by an anonymous caller who said he better change his story or his life would be destroyed. Fries later found his dog dead on his porch with a slug in his head. Two days after that, his house burned down. Fries had left town fearing for his life. He had lived in the west for several years, only recently returning to the Charlotte area. If Fries was being truthful, then Grady was lying.
Galimore and Tempe then find out that Poteat had opened up an account for his daughters with a large sum of money after he said he had seen Cindi and Cale at the airport. Wayne Gamble, Cindi’s brother is then murdered. Galimore and Tempe then talked with Cale’s father, Craig Bogan, who still lives in the area. Bogan has a landscaping business and a large greenhouse. Bogan is a racist, a NASCAR fanatic, and manages the grounds for the race track. After their talk with Bogan, Tempe gets a phone call that threatens her life.
Grady Winge has been put under surveillance. That surveillance results in the discovery of the bodies of Cindi and Cale. They had been shot execution style and buried in the forest in a shallow grave. The police now think they have the killer and have solved the disappearance of the couple. They have not! The protection provided to Temperance is discontinued and she goes out to the track to talk with Galimore who has not returned her calls. At the race track she is drugged by a poison dart. The dart was an attempt to kill her, but the dosage was weak and she is very sick and struggles to escape. When trapped in a metal groundkeepers building she finds Galimore barely breathing and incapacitated on the floor of the building. Someone did not want the case investigated any further. As it turned out, Tempe was being stalked by Cale’s father. Cale’s father was attempting to bury Tempe alive in a sink hole at the race track. Detective Slidell rescued Tempe at the last minute. Galimore and Tempe recovered, Bogan was arrested.
Bogan, Cale’s father, was the killer. He did not want Cindi and Cale to run away together. Cale’s father despised Cindi and thought Cale could be a great race car driver without her. He had killed his own son and Cindi, paid Poteat to lie about seeing them at the airport, he also killed Wayne Gamble, threatened and manipulated Grady Winge into lying about seeing the couple leave in the blue Mustang as well as making Grady bury the bodies in the woods.
Forensic terms discussed in this book include:
Immuno-assay: chemical tests used to detect a specific substance in a body fluid collection.
Proteomics: study of proteins
Genomics: study of genomes within an organism
Metabolomics: study of cellular metabolites within cells or tissues
Automated Fingerprint Identification System: AFIS, national fingerprint database

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Shane Hoyer
Forensic Anthropology

Book Review 1
In reading the book “Death Investigation” By Brad Randall I had learned many different things about Anthropology including How to identify a decomposed body, how to determine the range of fire of a shotgun, and how to establish time of death. This book has many more things to talk about but I figured I would pick just 3. First off identifying a decomposed body can be very simple yet difficult. In trying to identify a decomposed body you need to find where the victim was last seen, where the body was found, and if the person has any identification on them. There is different kinds of identification processes such as, Visual identification, if the body is recognizable a family member can be brought in to identify the body. When a body is badly decomposed or unrecognizable you can use fingerprint analysis or dental records to determine who the victim is. If the none match records kept in the data base. You must come up with a list of missing persons and try to match the detentions of the body to that of the missing persons. Determining the range of fore can be tricky. You must take a close look at the evidence at the scene and on the victim. If there is gunpowder residue on the victim that matches up with a close range shot. This is called powder burn. When shot from a further range you are less likely to find evidence of Powder burn due to the fact that the powder will fall behind the bullet. With a shot gun the wad that carries the pellets out the mussel of the gun will fall short of the target. Depending on the range of the wad it could help you determine how far away the shooter was from the victim. Establishing the time of death can be tricky. This is because it always depends on the circumstances surrounding the death and decomposition of the body. Knowing when the last time the victim was alive and when the victim was found helps aid in determining time of death. Just a few rules to follow when trying to see what time it happened is if the body is warm and still limp it could have only been a couple hours. A cool and stiff body it’s more than a few hours. While a cold and limp body is generally around a day or more. Generally, the best way to determine time of death can be founded by a autopsy. This book only covers the basics of death investigation but it is a good book for people who are just starting to get in to forensic anthropology.
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Demi Briegel

Trail of Bones
About the author:
Mary Manhein has been in the field and anthropology for 24 years, she has assisted with the hunt of two serial killers, she assisted with recovering the seven bodies of the astronauts that were killed in the Colombia space shuttle crash in 2003. She is the director of the Forensic Anthropology and computer enhancement laboratory of Louisiana State University and director of the Louisiana repository for unidentified and missing person information program.
Summary:
The book Trail of Bones by Mary Manhein is about some of the human remains she has worked with in her lab in Louisiana. Manhein talks and explains about what her job as an anthropologist consists of what her daily tasks are, she explains what her duty is in a crime scene, or what she has to do to help law enforcement explain to the family or loved ones what happened to their deceased family member. She talks about in one of the chapters her encounters about women going missing a lot of women in a town called Durango in the state of Louisiana and how she helped investigators pin point who the perpetrator was causing so much grief in the small town of Durango.

Jahany Fernandez

I chose the book Forensics for Dummies by D. P. Lyle, MD. The reason why I chose this book is because I've read a lot of "for Dummies" books and find them very helpful. Forensics for Dummies talks about a lot of aspects when it comes to Forensics. It discusses the scene, then Fingerprinting, then tracing drugs and poisons in the body. By the time a forensic anthropologist arrives, police have already began working the scene. Officers are the start of the investigation and follow the steps they were trained to follow that coincide with the state laws. Police work together to preserve and document the scene. Documentation is not only done by paper but by pictures and recording as well. After the scene has been documented then evidence begins to get collected such as DNA, hair etc. Determination of fingerprints can be done by submitting the fingerprint to the criminal data base. Blood is thicker than water but they share the same type of spatter and physical properties. When someone is stabbed or shot, blood follows the rules of gravity by moving downhill and accumulates in low spots just the way water would. The size and shape of the blood spatter tells a story within itself. It can revel the angle at witch they struck the object they were projected on.

Quinton Clymer

Skeletal trauma by Erin Kimmerle
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Skeletal Trauma was a good book for me to get into mainly because it born out of the need to recover, analyze, and present physical evidence on thousands of individual victims of large-scale human rights violations, multi-national, multi-disciplinary forensic teams developed a sophisticated system for the examination of human remains and set a precedent for future investigations. It gave a clear idea and process how they research the remains to figure out who, where and why it happened. The Conflict describes an epidemiological framework in that type of manner. Finally, it pieces together fragments of skeletal tissue and associated physical evidence to determine a mechanism of trauma in a scientific way.

Content of student mock scenarios, critical incident management, and practice drills.

Case Studies, videos, links post here.

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Shane Hoyer
Book Review 2
For the second book review I have decided to read “Forensics For Dummies” by D. P. Lyle, MD. This book covers many of the parts pertaining to Forensic investigations but I will be covering just a few of them. First covers working the scene, then comes Fingerprinting, and how to trace drugs and poisons in the body. Working the scene starts from the moment you arrive police officers have to follow strict protocals when it comes to an investigation they must be careful to not disturb anything and preserve it for when forensic workers arrive. When they do they them must document the procedure tis includes taking any pictures and or photos of the scene before sketching it. Once the crime scene has been booked and documented then you start to look for evidence. If you are to come across fingerprint you must be careful to not disturb it. There are many different parts to fingerprinting including Marking and matching fingerprints long with classifying them. You can determine a fingerprint and who it belongs to through ridge parents and submitting the fingerprint to the criminal data base. Finals one of the points that this book covers is blood stains. Blood is more thick than water witch but they share the same type of spatter and physical properties than water. When someone is stabbed or shot blood follows the rules of gravity. It moves downhill and accumulates in low spots. The size and shape of the blood spatter can reviel the angle at witch they struck the object they were projected on.

Forensic Science-Forensic Anthropology
Joe Lubick