All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes

by Sue Black

If the entire adult skeleton is available for analysis, the forensic anthropologist will probably be able to correctly assign biological sex in about 95 per cent of cases, although different ancestral groups will show variations that we must take into account.

This research tells us that it is potentially more challenging to distinguish between female and male Dutch pelves from skeletal remains.

Obviously, if the skeleton is damaged or disrupted, perhaps by fire or fragmentation, the determination of sex becomes increasingly difficult.

So we are reliant on the survival of the most dimorphic areas of the skeleton.

determining age from remains is not easy, especially when they are skeletonised or, worse, fragmented.

When puberty strikes, changes to the body make the relationship between age and size far less predictable.

So when we are examining the remains of a fetus or baby, the length of the long bones within the upper limb (humerus, radius and ulna), and the lower limb (femur, tibia and fibula) will allow us to calculate its age to within a few weeks. With a young child we will be accurate to within a few months, and in an older child to within a range of two or three years.

When all the components have fused together there will be no more growth in that bone. When all of the bones finish growing in length, we have reached our maximum height.

providing, of course, growth is proceeding as we expect.

An adult hand, for example, has around twenty-seven bones, whereas in a child of ten these will be made up of at least forty-five separate parts. This makes it a good witness in establishing age in life as well as in death. As it is also easily accessible, and the most ethically acceptable part of the body to expose to the ionising radiation of X-ray, it is often used to determine whether someone presenting themselves as a juvenile for immigration or refugee purposes really is a child.

Over half of the world’s population is born without a birth certificate and therefore no docu...

but when someone who does not have such paperwork migrates to a country where the fabric of society is dependent on official evidence of identity, they can come into conflict with the authorities.

We can be reasonably accurate to within five years with people up to about forty years old, but after that changes in the human skeleton are largely degenerative and, to be honest, we all fall apart at different rates,

With fully favourable conditions, a child will reach their height potential.

That is why we provide the full margin of error and suggest a range.

We categorise people on the basis of a variety of physical traits: the colour of their skin, their hair or their eyes, the shape of the nose or eyes, the type of hair they have or their language.

we used to be able to genetically separate the world into four basic ancestral origins.

This resulted in the four archaic classifications of Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Australoid.

things have become trickier in the more recent past and I suspect many of us would get a few surprises regarding our own histories if we investigated our genes.

Therefore it is of no value whatsoever in assisting us with assessing the ancestry of a person descended, for example, from an Indian maternal grandfather, English maternal grandmother, Nigerian paternal grandfather and Japanese paternal grandmother.

We do have computer-based systems that can process a variety of skull measurements and give us suggestions as to the most likely ancestry for an individual, but these must be viewed with some caution.

enable us to focus on a single person to the virtual exclusion of all others, using one or all of the INTERPOL-approved primary methods: DNA comparison, dental records or fingerprints.

Fingerprints are unlikely to be obtainable from skeletal remains but it is sometimes possible to retrieve them from even quite badly decomposed bodies.

hoped that the community will respond with suggestions that can be eliminated or pursued further by investigators.

An illustration of how dramatically these reconstructions can help to accelerate identification is provided by a 2013 Edinburgh case in which dismembered female remains were found in a shallow grave on Corstorphine Hill. The only clues were some distinctive rings on the fingers and some extensive dental work.

The shorter the time between a death, the deposition of remains and the identification of the deceased, the greater the potential for retrieval of evidence will be.

It may even be possible to acquire the missing person’s own source DNA, perhaps from a toothbrush, hairbrush or ponytail bobble that still holds some shed hair with cells at the base.

In the UK, we may be able to access source DNA from the Guthrie cards retained by the National Health Service. These contain small blood samples taken from almost every baby born in the UK since the 1950s, obtained by a pinprick test on the heel, blotted on to paper and used to test for a variety of genetic conditions including sickle-cell disease, phenylketonuria, hypothyroidism and cystic fibrosis.

although their use for the purpose of forensic identification is somewhat contentious as it is not one for which...

enabling identity to be confirmed and the body to be returned to the family.

The UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database (NDNAD), set up in 1995, is the largest national DNA database in the world.

A full national database of DNA for all UK citizens would be relatively straightforward to introduce and would very probably reduce the number of unidentified bodies and unsolved crimes. However, opinion is strongly divided on whether the benefits of a national system should be permitted to outweigh the right to privacy and anonymity.

Sometimes, often in cold cases, an individual’s DNA sample can result in them unwittingly helping to bring to justice an offender to whom they are related.

A recent additional complication arises, ironically, from advances in dentistry.

By contrast, many of today’s teenagers have perfect teeth. Their dental braces have ensured that every tooth is straight

Even when primary identifiers cannot assist, often there are secondary sources such as scars, tattoos, clothing, photos or other personal effects which allow us to be reasonably certain that the deceased is a match for a specific missing person.

We were asked to examine the skeletal remains with a view to formulating a biological profile (Dr Craig Cunningham), reconstructing the face (Dr Chris Rynn) and analysing the personal effects found with the remains (Dr Jan Bikker).

Why did he take his own life? What a strange phrase that is. In what way did he ‘take’ it? From whom did he ‘take’ it?

It is only in relatively recent times that desecration of the human form by dismemberment has come to be seen as repugnant and synonymous with criminality, usually murder.

A body is a very unwieldy object to handle at the best of times and its size, weight and inability to co-operate can make its disposal somewhat troublesome for anyone trying to conceal a death.

many practical problems to be addressed. Can you safely move it intact? If not, where are you going to cut it up? What are you going to use? What are you going to wrap the pieces in? Because they are going to leak, believe me. What type of receptacle will be big enough? When do you move it? Are you likely to be seen?

What kind of transport are you going to use? Where are you going to take it? How are you going to dispose of it when you get there? Can you do it on your own?

as most killings occur in the heat of the moment there is usually no forward planning.

the solution arrived at is often poorly thought through and executed on the spur of the moment.

they tend to unwittingly leave a trail of evidence for both police and scientific investigators.

If murder is regarded as perhaps the most heinous of all crimes, the deliberate desecration of remains is seen as an additional insult, a step beyond the boundaries of humanity.

Defensive dismemberment is by far the most common and occurs in about 85 per cent of cases. This odd term reflects the functional requirement to get rid of a body as quickly and conveniently as possible.

In other words, it is a means to an end, as opposed to an element of the original crime.

Statistics tell us that most killers and dismemberers are known to their victims and that the murder is most likely to occur in the home of either the victim or the offender.

a receptacle specifically tailored to the size and shape of the human body. So in a case of suspected criminal dismemberment, most scene-of-crime officers (SOCOs) will start their investigation in the bathroom.