8 Body Parts Forensic Scientists Use to ID a Body

Carolyn Friedman has a very cool blog at Forensicsciencetechnician.org. I thought the subject of this post, 8 Body Parts Forensic Scientists Use to ID a Body, was particularly pertinent to Halloween! O.K. I'm a bit ghoulish..

8 Body Parts Forensic Scientists Use to ID a Body

1. Fingers – Fingerprints still continue to be the most universally used forensic evidence around the world. In most places, fingerprint examination cases out rank any other forensic examination casework totaled. It increasingly has grown to be the most respected method for identifying persons. Over ten thousand people daily have been added to fingerprint repositories in just America alone. Fingerprint identifications have lead to numerous positive identifications of bodies than any other human identification procedure.

2. Teeth – Forensic dentists can use teeth for identification or in some cases a single tooth can be used. If no dental Xray is available, digital photographs can be taken of the teeth to compare to a smile in a photograph during the victim’s lifetime. These dental examinations are quite often key in identifying an person through specific characteristics in the make up of the teeth and can be used to identify the remains of a person, even when entirely distorted from fire and water damage to body.

3. Bones – When skeletal remains are found, a Forensic scientist needs to establish from the beginning if the bones are human. If so, different bones can identify things such as sex, race, and age. Leg or arm bones can determine stature and weight. Also, any pathology of the skeleton must be start in order to make an identification of the remains, determine the cause of death and, if homicide is involved, could even identify the murderer.

4. Skull – Computer graphics are used to perform a facial reconstruction to estimate the dead person’s appearance. Like other bones, scientists can determine a person’s sex and race from skull features. The difference is , with the aid of these graphics, they can also discover much about the soft tissue in the ears and nose and how much fat the person had on his or her face. The image is then usually distributed for identification

Read the rest of the post -- and numbers 4-8  HERE:

Thanks, Carolyn, for posting and allowing a repost.