Narrabeen: A Forensic Study

In January 2005, construction workers discovered a pile of bones whilst digging a gas pipeline in Sydney. Initially, they believed the bones to be the result of a recent murder and were shocked to find out they were the remains of a 4,000 year old Aboriginal man. Narrabeen man probably lived close to the ocean for most of his life, we know this because an analysis of his bones showed that ate mostly fish, seaweed and shellfish. Using the lengths of the remaining bones, Dr.Donlon came to the conclusion that he was 183cm tall. This was considered unusually tall for a man of his time (average height being 170cm). His front two teeth hadn't been removed during what scientists believed to be a traditional ritual that was performed in the Sydney

Soon this interest expanded beyond paintings and photographs. Scientists attempted to obtain human bodies for research and exhibitions. From position of her Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality, Truganini feared that, when she died, her body would be cut into pieces for scientific purposes as it had already happened to other Aboriginals. She also feared that her remains would be displayed in a museum for public viewing. Truganini pleaded to authorities for a respectful burial. Despite her request, her body was taken to the Hobart Museum and put on display. After multiple protests it was locked in museum stores. “Bury me here, in this place, promise me. Don’t let them cut me and bury me behind the mountains.” (‘Truganini’, https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/first-australians-episode-2/)

Dr. William Bass is considered to be the Leonardo da Vinci in the field of forensic anthropology. Famous for creating the Anthropology Research Facility, to the majority of us known as the Body Farm, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Born in Staunton, Virginia, Bass received a BA in psychology from the University of Virginia in 1951, an MS in anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1956. Thus, half a decade he received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. Originally the thought of anthropology didn’t cross Bass it was until his junior year of college is when he changed majors to anthropology thanks to his mentor Dr. Charlie Snow, who introduced him out on his own forensic case to analyze a corpse

The outcome of the case was Matthew Holding, the man accused of the double murder of his grandmother and mother, was found guilty by the evidence that the Forensic Soil Science team of South Australia, known as, “Centre for Australian Forensic Soil Science”, provided. The team concluded matches of the soil found on the shovel from the trunk of his car, that Matthew used to buried his mother and grandmother with the soil where the bodies were found.

The Narrabeen man started his l as a costal dweller where he lived near the sea all his life. It was unusual that he was 183cm tall which is over the average of a aboriginal man. Unfortunately he died approximately 2000 BCE which was 4000 years ago. He died by 3 types of spears. The first one cut the intestine including the kidney, the second spear was thrown behind his spine and the third spear bounce off the skull. His body was discovered in the North of Sydney, Octavia Street and Ocean street near a bus shelter. The Narrabeen man wasn’t preserved that well because the sand was warm and dry, which covered the Narrabeen man and the skeleton was covered in sand 4000 years after he died. His body is now in the hands of The Narrabeen

Forensic anthropologist examine skeletal remains for elements of a skeleton that can give clues to the person it belongs to. The Kennewick man’s skeleton was found in surprisingly good condition meaning the damage to the skeleton was done in his life, not due to deterioration. The skeleton showed a projectile point lodged in his hip, five broken ribs that did not properly heal, two small dents in his skull, and a bum shoulder. These wounds show an insight to the lifestyle

Ivan Milat is often considered Australia’s worst serial killer of modern times as he is infamous for the “Backpack Murders” spanning from 1989 to 1992. Yet his two year manhunt didn’t start until September 19, 1992 when a man taking part in an orienteering event discovered a decomposing corpse in the Belanglo State Forest. The police found a second body the next day and started a thorough search which resulted in investigators ruling out the possibility of further discoveries. In October 1993, a local Bruce Pryor discovered a human skull and thigh bone which resulted in the police finding two more bodies. After finding multiple bodies over the next year, the authorities still remained stumped by the case until in November 13, 1993 when the

The remains of a skeleton were located on Octavia St in Narrabeen in January 2005. Testing of the skeleton revealed that it was that of an Aboriginal man from 4000 years ago! 'Narrabeen Man', as he became known, had five small sharp bone points lodged in his spine as well as a head injury. Experts concluded that Narrabeen Man was not buried in a normal way but was probably murdered.

In September of 1935, a bundle of human remains was found by a tourist, under the bridge of a small stream in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. The authorities were notified and police quickly recovered approximately thirty different body parts from the stream. That discovery also led to the retrieval of body parts in other dumping sites across the neighboring area (Goff, 2000). The body parts were secured in various items of clothing and some were wrapped in sheets of newspaper. The special edition of the newspaper, as well as the presence of Calliphora vicina (blowflies), found on the bodies would inevitably lead investigators to the English town of Lancaster and the arrest of one Buktyar Rustomji Ratanji Hakim (Goff, 2000).

Criminalistics is the scientific discipline that is related to collection, recognition, identification and evaluation of physical evidence. It is also concerned with the application of the natural sciences in the field of law. The scope of criminalistics includes the application of chemistry, biology, mathematics, and physics to analyze the physical evidence related to crime. Forensics is the application of science to law. With the increasing technology, every discipline has become dependent on the conclusions drawn from science. Similarly, forensic science applies the knowledge derived from the use of science and technology for the enforcement of laws (Saferstein, 2014). This paper examines the carbon dioxide in the context of

After reading endless articles on how forensic studies are applied within the legal world I decided that this is a topic I could spend a year, or more, focused on. Since Forensic Anthropology involves nearly all of anthropology's subfields, I will never get uninterested in the subject. The opportunity to engage within research on this subject matter excites me in many ways. For one, I would be able to use the many interesting techniques forensics has to offer to learn and develop my skills. I would also be able to know that this evidence is and can have an impact on court cases and legal matters which is extremely exciting. This mesh of biological and social anthropology would keep me on my feet and challenge me to new extremes: something I really look forward to. I envision working under the supervision of UMass faculty member Ventura Perez. After a careful review of each member of the University’s anthropology department, I decided upon Perez for several reasons. The first, and most obvious, being his extensive background in forensic

Forensic anthropologists use the modifications made to skeletal remains to interpret events that have occurred at outdoor crime scenes. Quantifying taphonomic modifications to human bones is a challenge currently faced by forensic anthropologists. This study aims to create and test the applicability of an objective method of quantifying taphonomy on human remains using image-analysis in GIS. To do this a standard operating procedure was created based on the requirements of having the ability to compare and combine forensic cases, incorporate current documentation methodology, and be useful across the field of taphonomy and other faunal studies. To test this protocol fifty-one outdoor crime scenes from the Mercyhurst Forensic Anthropology Laboratory

The comparison between bio-archaeology and forensic anthropology is that both subjects requires extensive knowledge of the human skeleton. A lot of archaeology recovery is to determine how the individual lived, understanding ‘during life’ past injuries (during the individual’s life time), health, and even diet.

On the shore of Somerton Beach December 1, 1948, a body was found. According to "The Somerton Man: An Unsolved History,” a well-dressed man was slumped against the seawall with a half-smoked cigarette on his lapel. There was no sign of violence or a struggle. The man carried no identification (para. 1). Initially, the case only had a passing interest in the local papers; however, as the mystery of his identity and the manner of his death deepened over the next few months, public awareness of the case grew and speculation about the Somerton man, as he came to be known with so much evidence lost or destroyed over the decades, and everyone close to the case now deceased, it seems unlikely that we will ever know the truth. For almost sixty years,

Forensic anthropology is a multi-disciplinary industry where understanding biological anthropology and knowledge of human osteology is needed to assist in positively identifying an individual, (Quinney et al., 2009). The purpose of forensic anthropology is to aid in the identification process of human skeletal material by means of establishing a biological profile. A biological profile is formed by the following fundamental characteristics: age, ancestry, stature and sex. Sex determination is essential in the identification process of human remains, as the number of potential matches is halved, (Loth and Iscan, 2000) as cited by Bidmos et al., 2010. Other characteristics, such as age, are dependent on knowing the sex of the individual, (Bidmos et al., 2010).