Skeletal remains of Dr. Eugenio Antonio Berríos Sagredo

It is often noted that even a well-designed osteological technique may not provide accurate results when applied to single forensic cases. Case studies are ideal to test if this concern is valid, and forensic anthropology is a testing ground for applying a population based standard to individual skeletal remains. Secondly, the increasing role anthropologists have played in forensic sciences has aided the medicolegal disciplines in a number of ways. For example, identification of skeletal remains is now more accurate than ever before. Many of these cases have brought perpetrators to court for justice.The purpose of this paper is to use osteological techniques to analyze skeletal remains and make a positive identification. The victim was found partially buried in the sand near El Pinar, Uruguay in 1995. The analysis indicated that the victim was a 45-year old, white, male who was about 170cm tall. Based on preliminary evidence that the victim might be Dr. Eugenio Antonio Berríos Sagredo, a digital superimposition was made using the victim's photograph and the unknown skull. This examination revealed that the skull corresponded consistently with the individual in the photograph. Results were supported by the fact that personal belongings, such as a medal and wrist watch, also pointed to the same individual. Dental records and radiographs when made available later also indicated the same identity. Dr. Berríos was accused of making nerve gas during the dictatorial regime of former Chilean President General Augusto Pinochet. It was also alleged that he made bombs that killed a Spanish diplomat in his laboratory and a Chilean diplomat in Washington, DC. Many complex techniques are often needed to make a positive identification and such was the case for this study. Because of the nature of anthropology as a holistic discipline, such complexity is an integral part of human biology and behavior and can be used successfully in the forensic sciences and medicolegal investigations.     

Skull-photo superimposition and border deaths: identification through exclusion and the failure to exclude

We report on the application of video skull-photo superimposition as an identification method in a case from Ajo, Arizona in which five individuals died after crossing into southern Arizona from Mexico. Initial analyses at the Pima County Forensic Science Center in Tucson, Arizona determined that the disarticulated skeletal remains represented two adult Hispanic males and three adult Hispanic females. Based on biological profiles, both the males and one of the females were tentatively identified and assigned names. The other two females were too similar in age and height, making skeletal separation and identification difficult. As a result, the Michigan State University Forensic Anthropology Laboratory assisted in the identification efforts by performing video skull-photo superimposition on the two unknown females. The skulls were compared to a photograph reported to be one of the missing females. By evaluating facial proportionality and by comparing a number of morphological features of the face and skulls, one skull was excluded as a possible match and one skull was not excluded as a match to the antemortem photo. Because this case was presumed to be a closed disaster, the exclusion of one skull and the failure to exclude the other represented circumstantial identifications.     

Identification procedures as a part of death investigation in Turkey

Forensic identification techniques include the examination of ID cards, the decedent's private belongings, fingerprints, footprints, lip marks, dental findings, red blood cell enzymes, performing photograph matching, facial reconstruction, visual identification, and DNA "fingerprinting." As part of forensic examinations, the identification of corpses that are fresh, decomposed, fragmented, or skeletonized as well as individual body parts and human remains can be requested. Identification becomes a challenging task for forensic terms particularly in mass-disaster situations. Each identification case should be considered to its own merit and the way to do that should be based on the effectiveness and cost of each method used. In Turkey, one of the major duties of the medicolegal system on the investigation of deaths is to identify the deceased if unknown.This study is undertaken to investigate the procedures, as well as their validities, used to deal with individualization of dismembered bodies directly sent to the Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, for autopsy and/or visual identification, as well as those received from peripheral districts for forensic identification. According to the Turkish Penal Procedural Law, a positive identification of the deceased is mandatory before performing an autopsy. According to the law, the ID cards are not taken to be sufficient for recognition of the deceased, and the major way of identification in daily practice is visual identification by a relative or any recognizant person to approve the identification to the prosecutor. If visual identification fails, fingerprints, dental x-rays or body x-rays, and DNA "fingerprinting" can be used to establish identity when compared with known records of the individual obtained by law enforcement.This retrospective study was carried out into 421 dismembered bodies, among 3063 autopsies performed in year 2002 by the Department of Morgue at the Council of Forensic Medicine, with particular insight into the identification procedures undertaken and their results. The overall negative identification rate was 30.4%, and in 1% of the cases, the visual identification by relatives were not confirmed by DNA identification and taken as misidentified.     

The identification of a dismembered human body: a multidisciplinary approach

A criminal case was directed to a multidisciplinary forensic team for identification, concerning a victim whose head, having two gunshot wounds, had been separated by a sharp instrument and was recovered 6 months later. The purpose of this research was to determine the sex and age of the victim for human identification. Primarily, macroscopic examination of the skull, tooth, and DNA analysis was conducted for sex determination. A rough assessment of age was made from the skull based on anthropological findings, however a more definitive result of age estimation was determined utilizing dental morphology. The dental data showed an age range of 32-37 from the mineral examination and the formulation of microscopic measurements. The results obtained from the skull and dental analysis matched with the physical characteristics of the victim's body, the known personal data of this person, and with the superposition of the photos gathered by a formal request. Besides, the result of DNA profiling of the victim showed male gender and direct relationship with the victim's presumed wife and daughter. Generally, research on human identification consists of sex and age determination. The sex characteristics can be precisely proved from DNA tests. However, age can be estimated by skeletal, and dental analysis. In this case the performed sex and age analysis lead the research to the selective matching of the missing person's identity.     

Human Identification by Oral Prosthesis Analysis with Probability Rates Higher than DNA Analysis

Several techniques are used to perform an appropriate and reliable human identification. Forensic dentistry has achieved great relevance over the past years. The aim of this article is to report the method used for the identification of a male body found in the colliquative stage of putrefaction. The identification of the victim was succeeded confronting the dental findings found in the corpse with the data present on dental records provided by his dentist. The major elements for the identity′s recognition were a metal core and a prosthetic crown that were being fabricated. These elements associated with the dental records were compelling for the elucidation of the case, and a positive body identification was achieved with high levels of probability. In the present case, cadaveric analysis of stomatognathic system structures achieved a probability value higher than DNA identification techniques, emphasizing the importance of forensic dentistry.     

Identification of Human Remains by DNA Analysis of the Gastrointestinal Contents of Fly Larvae

Dipterous fly larvae (maggots) are frequently collected from a corpse during a criminal investigation. Previous studies showed that DNA analysis of the gastrointestinal contents of maggots might be used to reveal the identity of a victim. However, this approach has not been used to date in legal investigations, and thus its practical usefulness is unknown. A badly burned body was discovered with its face and neck colonized by fly larvae. Given the condition of the body, identification was not possible. Short tandem repeat (STR) typing was performed using the gastrointestinal contents of maggots collected from the victim and was compared to STR profiles obtained from the alleged father. The probability of paternity was 99.685%. Thus, this comparative DNA test enabled the conclusive identification of the remains. This is the first reported case of analysis of human DNA isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of maggots used to identify a victim in a criminal case.     

Forensic evaluation of occupational marks in establishing identity—A case report

The livings have responsibilities for the dead; and in particular, civilized societies recognize the need for identity both during life and at death, particularly in circumstances when an unknown body is summoned for medico-legal autopsy. There are numerous tools for identification of an unknown body which includes visual identification, fingerprints, medical prostheses, odontological techniques, DNA fingerprints and to include in the list is the occupational marks over the body sustained during the course of his or her profession. The medico-legal investigators should possess comprehensive knowledge of such occupational marks, which aid in identification. We are highlighting a case of rare entity, where a forensic evaluation of occupational marks was done to establish the identity of an unknown elderly male, who committed suicide by ligature hanging.     

Identification of decomposed human remains by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiling

After routine methods failed to establish positive identification of a decomposed homicide victim, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) typing techniques using blood from the victim and putative parents of the victim were used. This is the first report in the literature of a case using DNA fingerprinting in a "parentage" context to establish identity of unidentified, decomposed human remains.     

A homicide in the Ukraine: DNA-based identification of a boiled, skeletonized, and varnished human skull, and of bone fragments found in a fireplace.

In an apartment, bone fragments were found in a fireplace. Furthermore, a varnished skull was found elsewhere in the same apartment. The tenant confessed to a murder and stated that the head of a victim, a girl, was boiled for 12 hours. He stated that the soft tissue was then removed and the skull was varnished. Other parts of the body were burned to ashes in an open field. Comparison of loci D19S252, CD4, CYAR04, TII01, F13A01, F13B, and D6S366 from the skull and the bone remains to loci of the mother of a missing girl showed that the skull came from that missing child. Biological maternity was calculated as 99.99%. The bone pieces were DNA typed as male and did not share alleles with the mother in several systems. Therefore, they belonged to a different (human) victim.     

Human identification by comparison if skull roentgen image

Comparison of X-rays was found to provide information just as accurate as dactyloscopy for person identification, which is attributable to the high variability of the skeletal system. Reported in this paper is the case of an unknown dead female whose body was found in a condition of advanced decay. That is why conventional methods of criminological identification were not practicable. Only inadequate results were obtained from a muscular sample, while no findings at all were obtainable from DNA analysis of two molars. Identification was achievable only after six months had passed from discovery of the corpse, when two X-rays of the presumed person's skull were retrieved. This case of successful identification has once again provided evidence to the fact that even in our era of DNA research X-ray comparison has retained a firm position in forensic diagnostics.     

Chapter 2: The Legal Position and Organizational Forms of Forensic Psychiatric Expert Examination

The practical task of forensic psychiatry, which is one of the subdivisions of psychiatry, is to give an expert evaluation, on assignment from investigatory agencies and courts, and to devise and recommend measures for the prevention of socially dangerous acts by the mentally ill. Forensic psychiatric expert examination, like forensic medical, criminal, or any other type of expert examination, aids agencies of justice in establishing the facts in a case. Forensic psychiatric expert examination is called upon to assist the investigator and the court in determining whether an individual is a criminal or a legally irresponsible, mentally ill person; whether a person sentenced to a prison term should, because of mental illness, be released before his time is served; whether the investigator and the court may pursue the interrogation of a witness or victim with mental disorders, and whether the testimony of such persons may be used as court evidence. Such an expert examination is necessary in a civil suit in deciding the question of an individual's competence.     

An unusual case of cranial image recognition

We encountered an unusual practical case of craniofacial identification recently. The peculiarity of the case was that the skull itself was not available for examination unlike other such common cases. The supplied material exhibits were, a nearly front view photograph of a skeletonized face and a front view face photograph of the suspected victim. Further, the condition of the skull during taking its photograph was such that its lower and the upper jaws were not in a normal closed condition. The procedure involved in dealing with such a complicated craniofacial identification problem would be quite interesting from a forensic investigator's point of view, since standard methods of skull identification like photo/video superimposition techniques were not at all applicable here. As such, the present case report provides the details of the multiphase procedure adapted by us in dealing with this abnormal case. A solution to this unprecedented craniofacial identification problem was worked out by appropriate exploration of a newly introduced digital image processing technique that is based on craniofacial symmetry perception. The procedure leads to the reconstruction of a superimposable cranial image with upper and lower teeth in normal closed condition for establishment of its identity in usual way.     

Combined Statistical Analyses of Forensic Evidence in Sexual Assault: A Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature

DNA analysis has been widely used in the forensic field in order to contribute to identifying the perpetrator of a crime. Forensic investigation in sexual assaults usually focuses on locating and identifying biological fluids, followed by DNA analysis. The identification of certain compounds present in condoms can be useful to reconstruct the occurred event, especially in cases of sexual assaults where the DNA analysis did not show the presence of a male profile and where RNA analysis did not show the presence of sperm markers. Herein we describe the case of a woman reporting to be victim of sexual assault, who was not able to provide accurate information concerning the dynamics of the event; she remembered only forced penile–vaginal penetration by a single perpetrator. We performed short tandem repeat (STR) analyses and mRNA typing for forensic genetics testing on vaginal and rectal swabs collected on the victim, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) followed by chromatographic analyses for the detection of condom compounds on the same swabs. The STR analysis showed only the victim’s genetic profile, and RNA analysis showed only the presence of vaginal and skin markers. In this situation, the identification of condom compounds residues on vaginal swabs became important as it complemented other collected evidences allowing the Court to reconstruct the events. A proposal of likelihood ratio (LR) calculation for the assessment of the weight of evidence in this case is described.     

The First Successful Use of a Low Stringency Familial Match in a French Criminal Investigation

We describe how a very simple application of familial searching resolved a decade‐old, high‐profile rape/murder in France. This was the first use of familial searching in a criminal case using the French STR DNA database, which contains approximately 1,800,000 profiles. When an unknown forensic profile (18 loci) was searched against the French arrestee/offender database using CODIS configured for a low stringency search, a single low stringency match was identified. This profile was attributed to the father of the man suspected to be the source of the semen recovered from the murder victim Elodie Kulik. The identification was confirmed using Y‐chromosome DNA from the putative father, an STR profile from the mother, and finally a tissue sample from the exhumed body of the man who left the semen. Because of this identification, the investigators are now pursuing possible co‐conspirators.     

The Effect of Image Quality and Forensic Expertise in Facial Image Comparisons

Images of perpetrators in surveillance video footage are often used as evidence in court. In this study, identification accuracy was compared for forensic experts and untrained persons in facial image comparisons as well as the impact of image quality. Participants viewed thirty image pairs and were asked to rate the level of support garnered from their observations for concluding whether or not the two images showed the same person. Forensic experts reached their conclusions with significantly fewer errors than did untrained participants. They were also better than novices at determining when two high‐quality images depicted the same person. Notably, lower image quality led to more careful conclusions by experts, but not for untrained participants. In summary, the untrained participants had more false negatives and false positives than experts, which in the latter case could lead to a higher risk of an innocent person being convicted for an untrained witness.     

3D forensic facial approximation: Implementation protocol in a forensic activity

The primary objective of this paper is to report on the successful implementation of forensic facial approximation in a real case in the forensic context. A three‐dimensional (3D) facial approximation protocol of the skull was performed with free software, applying techniques in a virtual environment that have already been consolidated in the literature. The skull was scanned with the photogrammetry technique, the digital replica was imported in the Blender software (Blender Foundation, Amsterdam) and individualized model sketches of the face were traced with the MakeHuman software (MakeHuman Org) according to the anthropological profile of the victim. The face created was imported in Blender, where it was adapted, modeled, and sculpted on the 3D skull and its soft tissue markers, using an American open‐source application of the technique in the digital environment. The face created in a virtual environment was recognized and legal identification procedures were started, resulting in the more agile delivery of the disappeared body to its next of kin. It is therefore concluded that facial approximation may not be a primary method of human identification, but it can be satisfactorily applied in the forensic field as an individual recognition resource. It has great value in narrowing the search, reducing the number of alleged victims, and leading to identification tests, therefore significantly reducing the number of genetic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) tests—which are considered costly for the State or Federation—and consequently reducing the waiting time before delivery of the body to its family.     

Implant Bone Integration Importance in Forensic Identification

Odontological identification consists of the comparison of antemortem dental information regarding a missing person with postmortem data from an unidentified corpse or human remains. Usually, the comparison concerns morphologic features that the operator chooses among all the visible characteristics because of inter‐individual uniqueness; for this reason, implants can be of enormous assistance. A case concerning the recovery of a burnt oral implant, connected to a bone fragment, among 2780 charred bone fragments, suspected to have belonged to a victim of homicide, is presented to demonstrate that dental implants and their site of bone integration represent a very precious element for personal forensic identification. Because of their morphological invariability in time and because of their morphologic uniqueness, they were used as evidence to associate unidentified human charred remains to a missing person where DNA analysis failed to do so. The case illustrates the fundamental contribution, not yet described in literature, given by the clinical aspects of tooth replacement with dental implants to a forensic discipline. Clinical practitioners should therefore be aware of the great importance of their work and of dental records in a forensic identification scenario.     

Identification of human skeletal remains by comparison of bony details of the cranium using computerized tomographic (CT) scans

A case is described where a cranium from an unknown individual is identified by comparison of antemortem and postmortem computerized tomographic (CT) images of the bony structure of the skull. While on at least one occasion CT scans of individual cranial landmarks have been used to identify unknown remains, this study is remarkable because positive identification of a deceased individual was accomplished by performing a CT scan on an unidentified cranium and comparing multiple landmarks and images with corresponding features in an antemortem CT scan of a missing man. Bony details of the frontal and sphenoid sinuses, ethmoid and mastoid air cells, sagittal cranial suture, and the torcula (the internal occipital protuberance) were exactly the same on both CT scans, confirming them as the same person.