Outside the town of Shelby Township, Indiana was a woman’s body lying in the woods of a wildlife refuge. The body was stumbled across by a wildlife refuge worker on September 6, 2010. It was covered in dirt and leaves when found on site. The victim was covered with 3rd degree burns leaving very little room to determine the ethnicity. The hands and feet were shown to be missing and the tibia, pelvis, skull, humerus, and ribs were retrieved. The hands and feet were never found but a knife was left with no blood or fingerprints left on the knife. This was believed to be a murder case considering the hands and feet were chopped off in an unnatural way. The victim was found to be wearing a floral dress and a red clutch with no identification …show more content…
The measurements of the found Tibia and Humerus, perfectly matched the estimated traits.
The ethnicity of this individual was determined, very thoroughly, through a series of observations and tests regarding the skull, and nasal cavity. The patient is concluded to be of African American ancestry based on the percentage of results that match up with certain African American ethnicity structural traits, such as, the shape of orbital openings and their nasal index. The nasal index of an the victim was calculated to be 0.85mm and the normal expectations of African American ethnicity (>.53) point straight the conclusion that the victim is of African American heritage. The height of an individual is most often determined by the examination of the long bones, such as the femur and tibia. In order to determine the height of this victim, measurements of the Tibia and Humerus were collected, each were then calculated to form an approximated height. For a female of african american background, the tibia was 35 cm long and calculated a height around 5 feet. After measuring the length of the recovered humerus (29 cm), using a specific formula, the approximate height, for this skeleton, is about 4’8” to around 5’3”.
Age, is not always the most accurate thing to determine in a forensic anthropology lab. Determining a person's age is dependent on many bones. At birth, all humans have about 405 bones,
As a forensic anthropologist, Brennan main focus is to assist law enforcement agencies with her knowledge to inspect skeletons. Her main motive in this case was to determine individual 's age, sex, time of death, and physical condition from their skeleton remains. It is extremely crucial that Brennan diagnoses the skeleton remains accurately, as the legal investigation greatly depends on it. Brennan refers to multiple biological anthropology methods while she was assessing
Nevertheless, the unidentified person may have had malnutrition, which would lead to stunted growth in certain areas that happened to not affect the humerus or femur. Back to how the results came out, the students plugged the measurements into certain formulas according to race and gender. By having these differences in formula, it made it more accurate because each race and gender, due to genetics, can make the height different.
Especially with identifying the demographic characteristics of the bones, and it was made a point that even though Dr. Brennen knew approximately what the sex, age, ancestry, and stature of the remains were, they were not completely certain, because of the intermediate traits that were indistinguishable. No tests for the demographic characteristics are 100% accurate. They can give you a good estimate but will not be exact. Estimating sex using the skull is only 90% effective, while using the os coxa is 96%. But, it is better to use the entire skeleton, if it is available. In Dr. Brennen’s case, she did not always have the complete skeleton; the privy remains only provided her with the os coxa, and not the skull or hands, which could have been used in identification of the victim. Dr. Brennen, however, did not describe using the os coxa for sex estimation, just the skull. And another thing that is not very accurate is her using histology as a method for determining the sex of the individual. Histology is not used often and is very time consuming and expensive to
I think that that Customer C killed Fannin. The first piece of evidence that proves Customer C killed Fannin is that that the cash register had been rung up to 8.75 this is the exact total of Customers B, C, and D. This had to have been done before the murder, because the heel to toe footsteps that belonged to Ernie show that he walked to the cash register after mopping (footstep trail Y.) This was done before the robbery, because the only two reasons that he would’ve opened the register would be to either check someone out, or to give someone money during a stick up. We can tell that he wasn’t getting robbed, because the money’s still there.This allows us to rule out customer A. The second piece of
If you were a forensic anthropologist and were studying human remains, what information would you look for in the bones? Why would this information be helpful?
In conclusion, the bones that were found did not matcb any of the three missing persons that were provided. At the time of death, this victim was a caucasion female approximately four feet, ten inches tall and around the age of 18 years. All of the evidence provided was carefully and thouroughly gathered and will be used to testify in
America has some of the most infamous serial killers who marked history, serial killers who once didn’t even think to harm any human being. Many people grow up differently from others, some people grow up in a safe environment surrounded with caring people and others grow up in a completely different environment being missed treated by others, therefore are serial killers made or born?
Forensic anthropologists examined Kennewick Man’s skull and compared it to other skulls of Polynesians and native Americans. His skull is large and narrow with a projecting face. This does and resemble skulls of Native Americans. Scientists also created a clay facial reconstruction of the Kennewick Man using the information from his skull. The reconstruction shows similar features and facial structure to Polynesians, not Native Americans. The skull shows no resemblance to Native American skulls in structure. The morphology of the Kennewick Man’s skull further allude him as a Polynesian. (Achenbach,
were the bodies of both Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. There was a large amount
4. Serial killers also show signs of a psychopath though this is not always the case. Psychopaths lack empathy and guilt, are egocentric and impulsive and don’t conform to social, moral, or legal norms. Psychopaths have a distinct set of rules for themselves. They appear normal and are often very charming and charismatic.
Solving a crime is difficult for detectives. Homicides are even harder cases to solve, the only person that can really tell what happened is dead. So many people are afraid to step up as witnesses, they fear their life would be in jeopardy for helping the detectives. For homicide detectives, the first forty-eight hours is the most critical part for solving a case. After that, the probability of solving the case reduces by fifty percent. Each passing hour gives suspects more time to get away, witnesses more time to forget what they saw, and crucial evidence more time to be lost forever. There are several steps to take in solving a homicide.
but it is connected to money. There is no victim in it but the villain
Nothing is more crucial to any investigation than the actions of the first officers on the scene and the actions they take regarding the preservation of the crime scene, detention of witnesses and an arrest if possible. The immediate objective of the first officers on the scene must be the safety of all parties involved and all else follows
From the beginning of time there have always been crimes against persons. People went by the saying “An eye for an eye”. You stole from your neighbor, they stole from you. You hurt someone, they hurt you. It wasn’t until the 1940’s people started taking a closer look into these crimes against person, which they later called victimology. This paper will look into victimology and their theories as we go back into the past and how victimology is now.
From an early age, children are taught that murder is morally wrong. In today’s complex society that is impeded by unsettling periods of civil unrest, it is an expectation for everyone to acknowledge and accept that murder is one of the worst crimes individuals can commit. Perhaps it can be said that the death penalty is one of our legal system’s biggest contradictions of itself, as, if someone commits murder (or another heinous crime of that caliber), such ‘murderers’ will, in states that have capital punishment laws, be sent to Death Row and ultimately murdered in order to prevent potential future crimes by such perpetrators. I believe that the death penalty is wrong not only as it is immoral to take a life, but also, such ineffective laws waste money and do not deter crime.