Forensic Anthropology in Los Angeles County, California 19982003 Elizabeth Miller, Ph.D. Consulting

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Forensic Anthropology in Los Angeles County,
California1998-2003Elizabeth Miller,
Ph.D.Consulting AnthropologistLos Angeles
County Department of CoronerandAssistant
Professor of AnthropologyCalifornia State
University, Los Angeles
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Forensic Anthropology is

• The application of anthropological techniques to
  modern human remains for law enforcement.
• In general, the forensic anthropologist provides
  a basic biological profile to aid in
  identification of the decedent.
• Your textbook uss the definition of skeletal
  remains resulting from unexplained deaths. Why
  would this be incorrect?

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The ten questions (Ive added to the original
ten codified by Snow (1982). My additions are in
red).

• Is it bone?
• Is it human?
• Is it of forensic value?
• What bones are present?
• What is the MNI?
• What is the sex?
• What is the age?
• What is the ancestry?
• What is the height?

• Are there any anatomical anomalies, pathologies,
  etc.?
• Are there any indicators of behavior?
• What is the PMI?
• Evidence for cause of death?
• Evidence for manner of death?

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Five Main Objectives

• Ancestry, age, sex, and height
• Trauma information to determine cause and manner
• Postmortem interval
• Locating and recovering buried or surface remains
• Positive identification

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History

• Thomas Dwight (1843-1911)
• Father of Forensic Anthropology in the United
  States
• Wrote articles and essays and lectured on human
  skeletal identification
• Researched determination of height, sex, stature,
  age at death

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Formative Period

• Early 1800s to 1938
• Parkman murder of 1849
• Oliver Wendell Holmes I and Jeffries Wyman
• Leutgert case of 1897
• George Dorsey
• Harris Wilder, Bert Wentworth, Paul Stevenson,
  Ales Hrdlicka, Earnest Hooton, T. Wingate Todd,
  Robert Terry

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Consolidation Period

• 1939-1971
• Began with publication of Guide to the
  Identification of Human Skeletal Material by
  Krogman
• Written for the FBI
• WWII dead were badly decomposed, but needed to be
  identified, so CILHI was established
• Korean War dead, new CIL in Japan, several
  studies and publications
• Research in depth on military dead

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Modern Period

• 1972 to present
• Establishment of the Physical Anthropology
  Section of the American Academy of Forensic
  Sciences in 1972
• American Board of Forensic Anthropology created
  in 1977
• Forensic Anthropology Data Bank at UT Knoxville

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Data Gathering Methods

• Anthroposcopy Visual inspection of the human
  body
• Osteometry measurement of human bone
• Chemical methods
• Histology study of the microstructure of bone
  and teeth

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• Decision table helps researchers judge the
  relative importance of information
• Range chart uses multiple ranges of estimates so
  a central tendency can be determined
• Indexes use numerical expressions of shape to
  compare between groups
• Discriminant functions calculate a numerical
  expression of shape
• Regression uses one value to determine another

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Forensic Anthropology in LA

• Six basic types of cases on which I work
• Human vs. Non-human identification
• Wet Cases
• Decedent Searches
• Skeletal Remains/Surface Field Recovery
• Buried Body Recovery
• Burned Body Recovery

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For The Other Types of Cases

• Decedent Searches
• Skeletal Remains/Surface Field Recovery
• Buried Body Recovery
• Burned Body Recovery
• There is SORT, the Special Operations Response
  Team

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The Special Operations Response Team

• SORT founded in 2001
• SORT grew out of the former Los Angeles County
  Coroner Disaster Response Team (DRT), which was
  started in 1996
• DRT covered only mass fatalities
• All members of DRT were also members of the
  federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response
  Team (DMORT)
• Because of the large number of special cases
  the DRT was expanded into the present SORT

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SORT
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SORT

• Mass Fatality Incidents
• Multiple Decedent Assistance
• Special Decedent Recovery (includes burned
  bodies)

• Buried Body Recovery
• Decedent Searches
• Public Relations Events

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Investigations

• Traditionally one Coroner Field Investigator was
  assigned per call regardless of the type of case
  or number of fatalities involved.
• The Investigator on cases involving specialized
  resources was forced to rely on other agencies
  personnel, equipment, and resources, and
  therefore often lost control of the crime scene
  and lost decision making power as the other
  agencies moved in to assist in the processing of
  the scene.
• SORT provides all necessary equipment and
  personnel to the Investigator.

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Criminalistics

• SORT provides skilled manual labor available 24
  hours a day to assist the Criminalist, with team
  members able to recognize items of potential
  evidential value and thereby prevent accidental
  contamination of a scene by support staff.
• In addition, the pre-organized SORT allows for
  efficiency in processing a scene.

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Pathology

• From the pathologist's perspective, the
  importance of a team such as SORT is twofold
• The team will effectively document the recovery
  and the scene
• The pathologist knows the team understands
  his/her requirements and preferences and will
  maximize the evidence collected to be used in
  his/her efforts

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Anthropology

• The main concern of the Archaeologist in the
  field is total recovery of the decedent, no
  matter how scattered, total recovery of artifacts
  associated with the decedent, and total recovery
  of associated evidence.
• SORT allows the Archaeologist more flexibility in
  applying archaeological methods and techniques to
  the scene.

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• The Anthropologist requires remains as complete
  as possible to construct a biological profile and
  aid in positive identification of the decedent.
• Knowing that a specially-trained team is
  performing the recovery allows these consultants
  to concentrate on their jobs, not on what
  everyone else is doing.
• The trust engendered allows a recovery to proceed
  at a fast pace without the consultants constantly
  having to check the efforts of other personnel.

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Problem Cases Prior to SORT

• Buried body recovery, decedent searches, and
  recovery under special circumstances were
  especially difficult prior to SORT.
• Without the proper personnel or equipment, ready
  on short notice, personnel present at scene must
  take on tasks for which they may not have proper
  training, or for which they are unprepared.

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Outside Agencies

• Even after the formation of SORT, but prior to
  wide publication of its existence, outside
  agencies often assumed and/or maintained control
  of scenes in which a body was found.
• Such circumstances made complete recovery and
  identification of decedents more difficult for
  Coroner personnel.