jimtrue.com : school : CJT1111 : 2003-07-02: Establishing Identity (Ch 6)
Posted by jamestrue at July 2, 2003 06:13 AM. Last Updated September 1, 2005 10:11 PM
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Measuring a skeleton or bones, measure from heel to crown (the top of the crown), cartilage and skin increases the height of the body.
P.130, in this business when you find a body, in most cases, sometimes you won't be able to identify the body. You'll post a notice in the paper, friends and family members will often do the identification. But we don't want to do it this way; majority of people do not have their DNA in CODIS or fingerprints in AFIS.
Projectile through the guts, bullet will go through the guts and not remain in the body.
Try to identify the body without the relatives. In the cases of missing persons and missing children, don't join the search party. Dust the bedroom for fingerprints, hair from combs and toothbrushes. Hopefully you'll have a set of parents for identification purposes, but you might not. Also collect garbage, toddlers, diapers for DNA.
Dead person in the State of Florida; how long to be a skeleton? 7 days, the bugs will clean him to the bone. Blow fly in 10-20 minutes. You learn so much from the bugs; location of the body and time of death through linear regression.
If people are laid out in a dry air and heat, they will actually mummify. Skin will harden and dry out. Everything will evaporate; skin will become like leather. Mummification in attics. Will get SOME decomposition fluids that will leak through, and then they will mummify. A/C will cause them to rot.
In wet areas, Adipocere will form. Skin will slip off, fat will become like wax. Flesh around the bones will just slip off. Greek word that means 'fat wax'.
Identifying a body after mummification: go for fingerprints. When fingers are all dried up, you can do a couple of things. If not too bad, take a needle and insert at center joint (middle knuckle, beside the bone - not too close to the skin) and squirt water under the fingerprint. Ink and paper, or fingerprint powder and tape lifting.
Real bad, may have to soften the hands up. Glove oil on the fingers; you can put them Kodak Photoflo or in liquid fabric softener. Will add moisture back to the fingerprints. Sometimes you may have to cut the hand off. Often only have to cut the fingers off at the tips. Slide the finger off and slide onto your hand (with gloves on) and roll the fingerprints.
Try to give it your best shot to identify the person before calling the relatives in. Medical Examiner: body cannot be transported across state lines without Medical Examiner or Funeral homes permission.
Two layers of skin: epidermis (outside) and the dermis (the inside).
Physical remains: two types of things you can get: physical characteristics of the body, age, sex, size, old injuries. Identity.
Never, ever, believe what's in the wallet. All kinds of stories where people have killed people and taken their place.
Floaters, people in the water: they will bloat up a tremendous amount. In Florida they will float in 2 days. Fresh water bloats up sooner than salt water. If you have a 120 lb person that goes in the water, they could increase up to 300 lbs when coming out of the water.
Open the body bag, go into the water, float the body into the body bag. Like a chicken that's been cooked so long that body falls off the bone.
In Florida 2-3 days because of the temperature; in Michigan, 7 days before they float, if they float at all. 127 sailors that went down in the Edmund Fitzgerald, never floated because the temperature never got warm enough.
Body Changes After Death
Be very careful when you put a description in the paper.
Hair: The sun and heat, hair will change color (reddish). In water, will maintain hair at the same color. Contrary to popular belief, hair and fingernails do not continue to grow. Skin dries up around it and the hair and fingernails look longer.
Dead body will sometimes get goosebumps; tightening of the skin. Pulls the hair follicles closer together as we cool, and will get goosebumps.
Eyes: In most cases, 24 hours after death, you cannot tell the color of the eyes. Sometimes even less than that. Eyes get hazed over and will shrink back in on themselves when the fluid leaves them.
Noses: Can expand or contract with short periods of time. Usually within 24 hours.
Ears: Change very little after death. When photographing always want full frontal and right and left profile. Do closeups on the ears, with scale and do overlays with high school pictures, etc. Good photographs of the ears will make a difference.
Clothing: Look at the clothes for description of the clothing, size, etc. Also Trace evidence, ALS for hairs and fibers. Let clothes dry before packaging. No newspaper in the clothes because newspaper has inks. No stapling of the bloody clothes.
Photograph tatoos. Do not want to prop the body up and hold them against the height boards.
Ultraviolet and Infrared imaging photographs will pick up injuries on the skin (bruising, ligature marks, bitemarks) that you can't see with the naked eye.
Make sure you get Dental and body x-rays if you don't know who the person is. Talk to ME, Coroner, etc. to make sure the XRays are taken. Might find a bullet :)
Teeth: Teeth are resistant to everything. Might have to pull the pulp out of the teeth to get the DNA. Winkle, did a dig 5 acres, buried people fairly deep. Took the ladie's head and pulled out the teeth and threw them out while driving down the highway.
Dental exams can determine the age of the deceased. Deciduous teeth. Marks and trades can determine from the body (calluses, etc.). Almost no ridge detail on people work with paper: tellers, secretaries.
SKELETON
In general, the male skeleton is larger, heavier and more robust than the female. Female, smaller, delicate and gracile. Pelvis on a man is narrow and deep. Female wider and rounded.
Pelvic inlet, is more heart shaped on a man. Women's is more rounded. Difference is for child birth.
Sub pubic arch, thinner on a man, wider on a woman. Man's usually 70 degrees. Women, 70-110 degrees.
Greater Sciatic notch, Men 50 degrees; women 50-75 degrees.
Sub pubic concavity (front where it connects), Men is V-shaped and tied together. Females is flatter and spread out. In the handout, it is part of the pubis. Less than 90 degrees for a male; over 90 degrees for a female.
Tailbone (sacrum). On a female straight or straight down; on a male curved in. Why more females break their tailbones.
Skull. Start with the Chin. Man's chin is more square or u-shaped. Compared to a woman's which is more of a V-shape or rounded.
In most cases, Men have a receding forehead; women have a bulging forehead.
Good Identifiers: Occipital notch or protuberance. Sticks out on men, doesn't exist on women. Women CAN have them, but not as prominent.
Mastoid (behind the ear), on Men quite larger and sticks out; women, smaller and rounder.
Jawbone, back angle is usually a 90 degree angle on males. On women usually over 125 degrees.
Teeth are shovel shaped: Native American - Early Native American.
Men's skulls are thinner than women's skull. Women's skulls and pelvic bones are thicker. Women's skulls are thicker, it will take longer for the sutures to grow together. Can determine age by sutures in the skull. In a fire, will break the suture lines.
Patellas, not born with them. Calcify and grow later.
Specialists
When all you have is a dead or decomposed body or a skeleton. Might need a botanist (plant expert). Forensic Odontologist or Dentist. Anthropologist for the bones. Entomologist to do your bugs.
Bugs have life spans. Dragonfly, average life-span, 24 hours.
If you have a dead body, with bugs getting into it, you have other things getting into it. Animals. Most cases the animals drag the body downhill. Missing parts, work your way downhill first.
Bugs: if you collect these bugs and their larva and their shells, if the body has been poisoned, the bugs will have the poison. Might be able to tell you the chemical makeup of the body. Glass or plastic container with a screwtop. Live and dead bugs. Cannot do an age regression on a dead bug unless you determine how old some of the bugs at the scene are (allow them to live to maturity and track their growth).
Samples you want to take for a Botanist: Determine if the body is in the sun or the shade. Dirt sample underneath the body and a couple of feet away from the body. Plant growth, from the body and away from the body. Notation on the amount of moisture, dampness or dryness around the body. What can they tell us: the growth phase the plants in. If buried, the age of the decomposed plants that have been dug up. Nature of the plant; plants not indigenous to that area. Can also do Plant DNA.
Forensic Entomologist: Determine the number of days the body has been there, and the possible poisons.
Test next week.
Average human body has 206 bones. Some people have more; some have less.
Slides
Floater - fish face. After we die, we all turn black.
Tattoos will help identify people. Only unusual ones will work.
Photographs of the teeth as an overlay.
Digging & Burials
No such thing as a forensic backhoe. Steel pole or prod, can push into the dirt, and can feel the changes and realize there is a difference where someone has been buried. Do not dig with shovels. Dig with trowels and brushes. Concave on the bone, bullet hole.
Buried bodies, dig gently. Half-inch to an inch at a time. Measurements up and down and all around. Document what heights you find. Body on the ground, 10 ft by 10 ft area. Collect everything down to the solid dirt.
Metal detector over everything. May also be able to use ALS (hairs and fibers). Remove everything, but you don't package it all. Only keep samples. Ground penetrating radars; cadaver dogs (two types: methane gas and bone marrow).
Buried body: a compression (dug out and repackaged). Burial depression, secondary depression, damaged vegetation, cracks in soil.
Dig out a secondary area; kneepad area so he can work at the lower level. Find a dead animal, go another 6 to 8 inches and see if there might be a body underneath.
Sifting box to look for small bones. Measure across and down from 10 x 10 markings to document how deep and exactly within the grid the items are found. Dig down the kneeling pad, past the skeleton. Dig underneath and put a piece of plywood underneath the skeleton to lift at once.
Hyoid bone; someone choked, it is broke.
UV Light for finding injuries, also use for finding laundry marks.
Pathologists: remove liquid from the eyeball, fluid for DNA typing or toxicology.
Face and things that change and don't change. Lips change. Lips change rather rapidly (swell up or shrink). Entire mouth will change. Cheeks may sink in or swell out.
Odontologist - teeth
Inject the finger and fill it up with fluid. Dave's opinion - tape method is best for collecting fingerprint. Put powder on the finger, lift off with tape.
Dead bodies, fingers have a tendency to claw up. Elbow and wrist lock to get to the fingers easier.
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