05-09-2005
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/anthropology/1.html
The Bones of 29 Young Men
By Katherine Ramsland
Dead man walking. The title of this article is The Bones of 29 Young Men by Katherine Ramsland. This article is about John Wayne Gacy in Des Plaines, Illinois. This article is about someone that first they dug up an arm bone. Then in another corner of the crawl space, they found a kneecap. They called the medical examiner to confirm that they'd unearthed human remains. He gave the go-ahead, and in December 1978, a team of police officers began the excavation that marked all of their careers as the most sensational apprehension of a murderer they'd ever experienced. From the ground around and under the house at 8213 Summerdale Avenue in Des Plaines, Illinois, they would bring up twenty-nine separate bodies of young men in all different states of decomposition. Several more were dredged up from the river, and John Wayne Gacy was charged with first-degree murder. The final official total of his victims was 33. To put together a solid case and to bring closure to families who had been waiting as long as six years for news of a missing relative, investigators had to begin the painstaking task of identifying the bodies. Some families came forward with photos, X-rays and dental records, and in other cases, driver's licenses and other forms of identification belonging to the victims were found in Gacy's home. Because few parents of missing boys could believe that their sons would engage in the kind of homosexual activity that Gacy claimed happened, it became clear that some would offer no assistance. Detectives had to use dental records, fingerprints, and X-rays of missing persons and assumed victims to get leads on the identities of many of the corpses. When after six weeks they had succeeded with less than half of the bodies, they turned to a specialist in bones, forensic anthropologists Charles P. Warren and Clyde C. Snow. Since Gacy had piled some bodies on top of others, their first task was to sort and separate individual bones. In the end, it turned out that the typical victim was a Caucasian male in his teens or early twenties---and one had even been married. Warren made charts for each body and examined the bones for unusual osteological features. Forensic odontologists helped with the identification of teeth.
Anthropology is the study of humans and it consists of several sub-fields:
Physical anthropology – the study of the primate order, past and present, such as primate biology, skeletal biology, and human adaptation
Cultural and linguistic anthropology – the study of the aspects of human society and language, past and present
Archaeology – the study of past cultures via material remains and artifacts
To some degree, forensic anthropologists draw on each of these fields, but generally rely on knowledge from physical anthropology to apply their expertise to skeletal remains. According to the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, "Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology to the legal process. The identification of skeletal, badly decomposed, or otherwise unidentified human remains is important for both legal and humanitarian reasons. Much of what occurs in forensic anthropology comes from the area of osteology, or the study of bones, although some forensic anthropologists may also specialize in body decomposition and entomology (the study of insects). Forensic anthropologists generally work with forensic pathologists, odontologists, and homicide investigators to point out evidence of foul play and assist with time of death estimates. The human body has 206 bones. They weigh about twelve pounds for the average male and ten pounds for females. To calculate factors about the bones, they're laid out on an ostiometric board, which allows measurements to be made with calipers. For comparison purposes, they had few records of the living Mengele. There were no dental x-rays, and while the number of fillings had been noted in his files, no other characteristics were included. Snow and Helmer decided to use a technique called "video skull-face superimposition," which was Helmer's expertise. Piecing together the shattered skull, they marked it with pins at thirty points of comparison. They did the same with photographs of Mengele, and set the skull and photo side-by-side for cameras. If all thirty points lined up, then they could say they had a positive identification of the Nazi fiend. The cameras recorded and then superimposed the images, and the experts carefully examined the matching areas. Finally, they pronounced the exhumed skull as that of war criminal Josef Mengele. Some time later, Mengele's dental X-rays were located and compared to the teeth in the skull. They proved a match, supporting the video superimposition. Then a DNA analysis confirmed once again that the methods of anthropology had proven reliable and accurate. From two dimensions to three, let's have a look at forensics culture. It's controversial as to who actually made the first successful facial reconstruction, but it's often credited to the German anatomist, W. His, who published the results of his studies in 1895. He had acquired a skull said to be that of the late composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and from it, he sculpted what turned out to be a very good facial likeness. To find out the general depth of the skin and muscles over the skull, His had plunged oiled needles into the faces of corpses.
At the top of each needle, he attached a cork. Once the needle hit bone, the cork rested at the skin's surface. He then pulled the needles out, measured them and made drawings based on the measurements. That way he managed to compose a depth map, which would aid anthropologists of succeeding generations in making portraits from skulls. (Modern researches now use ultrasound, not corpses, for tissue-depth studies.) Another sculpture was made by a police anatomist in 1916 when a skeleton was recovered in Brooklyn. He placed the skull on some rolled newspaper, put some fake eyes into the sockets, and covered the bones with flesh-colored plastic. A sculptor added sufficient details for the accurate identification of a missing woman. It was in Russia, however, where the technique of forensic sculpture was more fully developed. Mikhail Gerasimov headed the department of archaeology at a museum and he experimented with the skulls in his care. By 1935, he had become fairly adept at taking a skull and reforming it into a face that people recognized. Four years later, he helped to solve a murder. In 1950, the USSR established the Laboratory for Plastic Reconstruction, and for years they were the renowned experts in the field. Perhaps the most famous sculpture was the one that American sculptor Frank Bender did of the missing John List. In 1971 in New Jersey, List had murdered his wife, three children, and aged mother, and then fled. Detectives on the case failed again and again to find productive leads. They did some photographic enhancements to try to replicate a likeness of how List might have aged, but it was the sculpture that Bender did that finally turned the tide. For a television show, America's Most Wanted, he created a three-dimensional face based on a number of factors that helped him to imagine what List would look like in 1989—almost two decades after the murders. When this was shown on TV, a former neighbor of "Bob Clark" in Colorado called in what she knew. Through fingerprints, Clark was identified as List, and he was charged and convicted. Briefly, the technique involves first making a cast of the skull (or sometimes using the skull itself). Where there's no skull, the artist must rely on computer-enhanced photos to replicate a skull clay bust. Using the skull or replica, small holes are made for thin wooden or vinyl pegs to be inserted for measuring the skin depth. Then modeling clay fills in the muscles and features around the nose, mouth, cheeks, and eyes, and a thin layer of plastic or clay goes over the skull. Facial features are molded to capture the person's basic look, and a wig and artificial eyes are added, along with make-up similar to what an embalmer might use for cosmetic enhancement. Another technique is to set the skull on a turntable. As it turns, information is fed into a computer via a laser beam and assembled into a likeness, based on information from other faces with similar measurements and racial origins.
"Most frequently the forensic entomologist is asked to estimate the postmortem interval based on insect activity," Goff points out. "This is actually an estimate of the period of insect activity, not the actual postmortem interval. The two are often quite close, as the insects arrive and begin their activity shortly following death. In some instances, there may be factors that serve to delay the onset of insect activity, and these must be considered."
Other contributions include:
Determining if the body has been moved following death
Assessing wounds in terms of before, during, or after the death took place
Individualizing a crime scene
Serving as alternate specimens for toxicological analysis
Providing DNA materials from the gut contents of parasitic insects
Documenting periods of abuse and/or neglect in children or the elderly
Supporting or contradicting an alibi
That was a lesson about the limitations of databases: Any given case may have distinct characteristics that throw the data off.
As time passes, different groups of insects come and go in the process of assisting corpse decomposition. As each feeds on the body, it changes the body for the next group, which is attracted to those particular changes. Entomologists agree that there are four main types of direct relationships: The necrophagous species (flies and beetles) that feed directly on the corpse, and their stages of development over about two weeks helps to indicate how long the person has been dead. Predators and parasites of the flies and beetles (other types of beetles that prey on eggs and maggots). One type of blow fly can feed on either body tissue or maggots. Wasps are also parasitic on the maggots, and since they tend to specialize, it's easy to tell what kinds of flies had been on the body. Wasps, ants, and beetles that feed on both the body and the maggots. (Wasps that capture too many flies can actually delay decomposition). Spiders that use the body as a habitat to prey on other insects. "The relationships of the insects to the body, in terms of how they make a living," Goff explains, "are determined by the biology of the insect. Parasites remain parasites, although in some cases the tissue-eaters have been known to switch to predation as the body is consumed. Yet habitat and climatic factors can alter their periods of activity on the body. If the particular insect feeds on dried tissues, it may appear earlier in a hot, arid habitat and possibly not appear at all in a moist habitat. These changes may affect the pattern of succession, but the roles of the individual insects are set by their evolution."
The job of the forensic entomologist is to interpret these various relationships in order to offer information to law enforcement officers that will assist in leads. "At present," says Goff, "entomology is relatively well accepted by crime scene investigators. When I first began, we were regarded as having limited value. Over the years, with educational outreach and careful work, we have become a recognized discipline."
The author wrote this article because In 1984, he and several other forensic entomologists began meeting informally, and eventually they decided to form a certifying board. "We modeled ourselves after similar boards in anthropology, odontology and pathology. It was finally incorporated in the State of Nevada in 1996 as the American Board of Forensic Entomology." In the future, Goff believes that advances in technology will make a significant contribution to the discipline. "For example," he says, "the use of DNA technology to identify immature specimens and extract material from gut contents to allow for individualization of both suspects and victims. Also, we need to focus on standardizing techniques for determining basic life cycles. At present, the data are quite varied, leaving gaps when cases come to trial. Yet even within the relatively new area of drug detection, there have been improvements that allow for more precise analyses. I think it's going to get even more exciting in the relatively near future." Forensic anthropologists appear to have a considerable range of skills for assisting in death investigations. From art to bugs to bones, they make their mark.
The Bones of 29 Young Men
By Katherine Ramsland
Dead man walking. The title of this article is The Bones of 29 Young Men by Katherine Ramsland. This article is about John Wayne Gacy in Des Plaines, Illinois. This article is about someone that first they dug up an arm bone. Then in another corner of the crawl space, they found a kneecap. They called the medical examiner to confirm that they'd unearthed human remains. He gave the go-ahead, and in December 1978, a team of police officers began the excavation that marked all of their careers as the most sensational apprehension of a murderer they'd ever experienced. From the ground around and under the house at 8213 Summerdale Avenue in Des Plaines, Illinois, they would bring up twenty-nine separate bodies of young men in all different states of decomposition. Several more were dredged up from the river, and John Wayne Gacy was charged with first-degree murder. The final official total of his victims was 33. To put together a solid case and to bring closure to families who had been waiting as long as six years for news of a missing relative, investigators had to begin the painstaking task of identifying the bodies. Some families came forward with photos, X-rays and dental records, and in other cases, driver's licenses and other forms of identification belonging to the victims were found in Gacy's home. Because few parents of missing boys could believe that their sons would engage in the kind of homosexual activity that Gacy claimed happened, it became clear that some would offer no assistance. Detectives had to use dental records, fingerprints, and X-rays of missing persons and assumed victims to get leads on the identities of many of the corpses. When after six weeks they had succeeded with less than half of the bodies, they turned to a specialist in bones, forensic anthropologists Charles P. Warren and Clyde C. Snow. Since Gacy had piled some bodies on top of others, their first task was to sort and separate individual bones. In the end, it turned out that the typical victim was a Caucasian male in his teens or early twenties---and one had even been married. Warren made charts for each body and examined the bones for unusual osteological features. Forensic odontologists helped with the identification of teeth.
Anthropology is the study of humans and it consists of several sub-fields:
Physical anthropology – the study of the primate order, past and present, such as primate biology, skeletal biology, and human adaptation
Cultural and linguistic anthropology – the study of the aspects of human society and language, past and present
Archaeology – the study of past cultures via material remains and artifacts
To some degree, forensic anthropologists draw on each of these fields, but generally rely on knowledge from physical anthropology to apply their expertise to skeletal remains. According to the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, "Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology to the legal process. The identification of skeletal, badly decomposed, or otherwise unidentified human remains is important for both legal and humanitarian reasons. Much of what occurs in forensic anthropology comes from the area of osteology, or the study of bones, although some forensic anthropologists may also specialize in body decomposition and entomology (the study of insects). Forensic anthropologists generally work with forensic pathologists, odontologists, and homicide investigators to point out evidence of foul play and assist with time of death estimates. The human body has 206 bones. They weigh about twelve pounds for the average male and ten pounds for females. To calculate factors about the bones, they're laid out on an ostiometric board, which allows measurements to be made with calipers. For comparison purposes, they had few records of the living Mengele. There were no dental x-rays, and while the number of fillings had been noted in his files, no other characteristics were included. Snow and Helmer decided to use a technique called "video skull-face superimposition," which was Helmer's expertise. Piecing together the shattered skull, they marked it with pins at thirty points of comparison. They did the same with photographs of Mengele, and set the skull and photo side-by-side for cameras. If all thirty points lined up, then they could say they had a positive identification of the Nazi fiend. The cameras recorded and then superimposed the images, and the experts carefully examined the matching areas. Finally, they pronounced the exhumed skull as that of war criminal Josef Mengele. Some time later, Mengele's dental X-rays were located and compared to the teeth in the skull. They proved a match, supporting the video superimposition. Then a DNA analysis confirmed once again that the methods of anthropology had proven reliable and accurate. From two dimensions to three, let's have a look at forensics culture. It's controversial as to who actually made the first successful facial reconstruction, but it's often credited to the German anatomist, W. His, who published the results of his studies in 1895. He had acquired a skull said to be that of the late composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and from it, he sculpted what turned out to be a very good facial likeness. To find out the general depth of the skin and muscles over the skull, His had plunged oiled needles into the faces of corpses.
At the top of each needle, he attached a cork. Once the needle hit bone, the cork rested at the skin's surface. He then pulled the needles out, measured them and made drawings based on the measurements. That way he managed to compose a depth map, which would aid anthropologists of succeeding generations in making portraits from skulls. (Modern researches now use ultrasound, not corpses, for tissue-depth studies.) Another sculpture was made by a police anatomist in 1916 when a skeleton was recovered in Brooklyn. He placed the skull on some rolled newspaper, put some fake eyes into the sockets, and covered the bones with flesh-colored plastic. A sculptor added sufficient details for the accurate identification of a missing woman. It was in Russia, however, where the technique of forensic sculpture was more fully developed. Mikhail Gerasimov headed the department of archaeology at a museum and he experimented with the skulls in his care. By 1935, he had become fairly adept at taking a skull and reforming it into a face that people recognized. Four years later, he helped to solve a murder. In 1950, the USSR established the Laboratory for Plastic Reconstruction, and for years they were the renowned experts in the field. Perhaps the most famous sculpture was the one that American sculptor Frank Bender did of the missing John List. In 1971 in New Jersey, List had murdered his wife, three children, and aged mother, and then fled. Detectives on the case failed again and again to find productive leads. They did some photographic enhancements to try to replicate a likeness of how List might have aged, but it was the sculpture that Bender did that finally turned the tide. For a television show, America's Most Wanted, he created a three-dimensional face based on a number of factors that helped him to imagine what List would look like in 1989—almost two decades after the murders. When this was shown on TV, a former neighbor of "Bob Clark" in Colorado called in what she knew. Through fingerprints, Clark was identified as List, and he was charged and convicted. Briefly, the technique involves first making a cast of the skull (or sometimes using the skull itself). Where there's no skull, the artist must rely on computer-enhanced photos to replicate a skull clay bust. Using the skull or replica, small holes are made for thin wooden or vinyl pegs to be inserted for measuring the skin depth. Then modeling clay fills in the muscles and features around the nose, mouth, cheeks, and eyes, and a thin layer of plastic or clay goes over the skull. Facial features are molded to capture the person's basic look, and a wig and artificial eyes are added, along with make-up similar to what an embalmer might use for cosmetic enhancement. Another technique is to set the skull on a turntable. As it turns, information is fed into a computer via a laser beam and assembled into a likeness, based on information from other faces with similar measurements and racial origins.
"Most frequently the forensic entomologist is asked to estimate the postmortem interval based on insect activity," Goff points out. "This is actually an estimate of the period of insect activity, not the actual postmortem interval. The two are often quite close, as the insects arrive and begin their activity shortly following death. In some instances, there may be factors that serve to delay the onset of insect activity, and these must be considered."
Other contributions include:
Determining if the body has been moved following death
Assessing wounds in terms of before, during, or after the death took place
Individualizing a crime scene
Serving as alternate specimens for toxicological analysis
Providing DNA materials from the gut contents of parasitic insects
Documenting periods of abuse and/or neglect in children or the elderly
Supporting or contradicting an alibi
That was a lesson about the limitations of databases: Any given case may have distinct characteristics that throw the data off.
As time passes, different groups of insects come and go in the process of assisting corpse decomposition. As each feeds on the body, it changes the body for the next group, which is attracted to those particular changes. Entomologists agree that there are four main types of direct relationships: The necrophagous species (flies and beetles) that feed directly on the corpse, and their stages of development over about two weeks helps to indicate how long the person has been dead. Predators and parasites of the flies and beetles (other types of beetles that prey on eggs and maggots). One type of blow fly can feed on either body tissue or maggots. Wasps are also parasitic on the maggots, and since they tend to specialize, it's easy to tell what kinds of flies had been on the body. Wasps, ants, and beetles that feed on both the body and the maggots. (Wasps that capture too many flies can actually delay decomposition). Spiders that use the body as a habitat to prey on other insects. "The relationships of the insects to the body, in terms of how they make a living," Goff explains, "are determined by the biology of the insect. Parasites remain parasites, although in some cases the tissue-eaters have been known to switch to predation as the body is consumed. Yet habitat and climatic factors can alter their periods of activity on the body. If the particular insect feeds on dried tissues, it may appear earlier in a hot, arid habitat and possibly not appear at all in a moist habitat. These changes may affect the pattern of succession, but the roles of the individual insects are set by their evolution."
The job of the forensic entomologist is to interpret these various relationships in order to offer information to law enforcement officers that will assist in leads. "At present," says Goff, "entomology is relatively well accepted by crime scene investigators. When I first began, we were regarded as having limited value. Over the years, with educational outreach and careful work, we have become a recognized discipline."
The author wrote this article because In 1984, he and several other forensic entomologists began meeting informally, and eventually they decided to form a certifying board. "We modeled ourselves after similar boards in anthropology, odontology and pathology. It was finally incorporated in the State of Nevada in 1996 as the American Board of Forensic Entomology." In the future, Goff believes that advances in technology will make a significant contribution to the discipline. "For example," he says, "the use of DNA technology to identify immature specimens and extract material from gut contents to allow for individualization of both suspects and victims. Also, we need to focus on standardizing techniques for determining basic life cycles. At present, the data are quite varied, leaving gaps when cases come to trial. Yet even within the relatively new area of drug detection, there have been improvements that allow for more precise analyses. I think it's going to get even more exciting in the relatively near future." Forensic anthropologists appear to have a considerable range of skills for assisting in death investigations. From art to bugs to bones, they make their mark.
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