The Medicolegal Autopsy Facility: Specialized Design for Specialized Needs
Medicolegal autopsy facilities represent a particularly challenging set of criteria for project design teams. The facilities generally require core spaces developed for subsections of analysis and must support a specimen processing flow.
Computerized Skull Reconstructions
CT scans and computer modeling allow for faster facial reconstructions to expedite missing persons cases.
Soil Characteristics that Impact Clandestine Graves
Analyzing soil characteristics at a potential grave site can provide forensic investigators with information about the evidence within before the digging commences.
Clandestine Graves: Geophysical Methods Used In Their Discovery and Subsequent Exposure
Geophysics involves the use of a variety of electromagnetic techniques that can be used to outline, discover, and plan an exhumation.
Piece by Piece: A Lifetime of Achievement
Dr. Hugh Berryman, an internationally recognized expert in forensic anthropology, built a powerhouse program at MTSU. Now he’s being recognized with the 2012 award for lifetime achievement in physical anthropology from the American Academy for Forensic Sciences.
It’s time to retire usage of the vernacular term “Body Farm.” The term “Body Farm” is misleading and unhelpful.
Forensic Archeology in Criminal and Civil Cases
Should it be performed meticulously by professionals with proper tools or hurriedly by trustees with shovels?
3D Scanning: A New Tool for Cracking Tough Cases
What do U.S. federal investigators and anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institute have in common? They are both pioneering the use of 3D scanning technology to solve challenging mysteries.
What Anthropology Brings to the Table
In this article, we explore how anthropology has evolved along with facility design over the years from academia to popular culture and from a single case to mass graves.
Political Changes Influence Forensic Science in Colombia
While by size and population Colombia is small in comparison to the U.S., it is one of the most violent countries in the world. Recently, Colombia has been successful in reducing the crime rate.
Case Number 03-0929: Murder In Mammoth Lakes
On May 25, 2003, a Sunday, a hiker walking his dog in the woods above the Shady Rest campground in Mammoth Lakes, California noticed the animal unusually interested in something. When the hiker went to investigate what his dog had found, he discovered a human skull.
Four Years To Day One: A Saga of Science and Inquest
How a small town murder investigation stimulated science on the forensic frontier.
Tracing Unidentified Skeletons Using Stable Isotopes
“You are what you eat” This rule also applies at the atomic level: your body’s atoms come from your food and drink. Atoms of almost all the chemical elements (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, etc. have more than one possible atomic weight.
Forensic Disaster Response: The Crash of Comair 5191
Challenges, issues, and solutions of identification in mass disasters differ with the type and scope of the catastrophe.
