The Role of Forensic Anthropology During a Mass Fatality Incident

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The Role of Forensic Anthropology During a Mass
Fatality Incident

• Laura C. Fulginiti, PhD, D-ABFA
• Region IX DMORT
• April 20, 2004
• NDMS National Conference

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Photographs Dos and Donts

• First off, There are NO Dos!
• All of the photographs in this presentation were
  either borrowed or given to me as part of an
  approved package.
• DMORT personnel are expressly not permitted to
  photograph during an event

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What is a mass fatality event?

• Rule Number One
• Disaster Chaos
• Rule Number Two
• All Are Equal

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What is a mass fatality event?

• An incident where more deaths occur than can be
  handled by local authorities
• -www.dmort.org
• Transportation accidents
• Hurricanes/Tornados
• Floods
• Epidemics
• Other (Noble, GA)

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Local Government Role

• Fire Rescue
• Law Enforcement
• Environmental Cleanup

• Medical Assistance
• Recovery
• Victim Identification

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• The NTSB coordinates and provides additional
  resources to the
• airline and local government to help victims and
  their families while
• preserving local responsibility and jurisdiction

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What is DMORT?

• A regionalized system of teams designed to
  respond to mass fatality events
• Composed of pathologists, anthropologists,
  dentists, radiograph technicians, fingerprint
  DNA technicians, death and crime scene
  investigators, information technology experts,
  recovery personnel and funeral directors

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How does DMORT respond?

• Utilize the mobile morgue to assist in the
  examination and identification of the persons
  involved in mass fatalities
• Provide trained personnel to staff the morgue,
  the Family Assistance Center or the incident
  location as necessary or requested
• Provide computer support for antemortem and
  postmortem records data entry, interpretation
  and storage

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Forensic Anthropology

• Forensic anthropology is one of the several
  disciplines contributing to identification of
  mass fatality incident victims.

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What is forensic anthropology?

• Identifies human skeletal remains for medicolegal
  purposes
• Determines biological attributes of the human
  skeleton
• age, sex, ancestry, stature, skeletal pathology,
  trauma etc.

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How do Anthropologists fit in a mass fatality
incident?

• Forensic Anthropologists assist in two primary
  ways
• Scene Search and Recovery
• Examination in the mobile morgue

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Search and Recovery

• Goals
• To achieve maximum recovery of victims while
  preserving the context as much as possible
• To ensure a systematic approach to the recovery
  site
• To provide the best possible chance for 100 ID
• field recognition and recovery of commingled,
  fragmentary and mutilated remains

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Documentation of position important for
survivability factors
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Approaching the Recovery Site

• Consider method of search
• Mapping of site
• Locating remains
• Documentation of remains
• Logging of evidence and remains
• Packaging and shipping
• Maintaining Chain of Custody

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Scene Investigation

• Secure area
• Walk through
• Document area
• Flag
• Photograph
• Grid/Sketch (GPS markings)
• Evidence Collection

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Search and Recovery(Grid System)
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Important Considerations

• Remember that the search pattern will be dictated
  by several factors
• Topography
• Weather conditions
• Number of personnel
• Time
• Condition of the recovery site

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Examples from different accidents

• Guam Topography and Personnel
• Alaska Airlines Ocean Recovery
• Georgia Weather and Personnel
• Pennsylvania Time and Terror

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Transitioning to Morgue Site

• Purpose of mobile morgue is to assist local
  ME/Coroner
• Examination and documentation of all recovered
  remains
• Systematic approach to achieve ultimate goal of
  identification

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The Mobile Morgue

• A Virtual Tour

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Morgue Triage

• Ensure continuity of established numbering system
• Initially sort remains to determine whether
  features exist to assist in the estimation of
  sex, age, stature, and other distinguishing
  characteristics

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Anthropology in the Morgue

• Separate commingled remains
• Make assessments for biological profile
• age, sex, ancestry, stature
• descriptions
• patterns
• radiographs

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Biological Determinations from the Skeleton

• Biological features used in identification
• Age (pelvis, growth plates, general condition)
• Sex (pelvis, skull, long bones)
• Ancestry (skull)
• Stature (long bones)
• Idiosyncrasies (all)

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Biological Determinations from the Skeleton

• Complete remains are useful
• Skeletal elements provide detailed info
• Fragmentary remains or portions of bones can be
  used as well

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Biological Determinations from the Skeleton

• FAs take measurements, examine certain areas of
  the skeleton, and make comparisons of size and
  shape of the bones to aid in determining the
  biological profile.

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Anthropology in the Morgue

• Work with radiology section to obtain views
• age estimation
• unique skeletal characteristics
• comparisons with antemortem radiographs

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Anthropology in the Morgue

• Describe crash-related injuries
• Analyze skeletal structures for trauma and other
  medicolegal evidence

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Assistance for Morgue Stations

• Assist in obtaining DNA samples from soft tissue
  and bone
• Assist the radiologist in taking and interpreting
  radiographs

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Identification Meetings
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Positive Identification
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Other Forms of Identification

• Dental
• Fingerprints
• Radiography
• Personal effects
• Visual
• Physical characteristics

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Accident Considerations

• Human factors
• Mechanical factors
• Environmental factors

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Crash Survival Investigation

• Factors affecting crash survival
• Injury correlation

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Patterns

• Control injuries- fractures of fingers, hand,
  wrist, lower legs, ankle and/or feet
• Restraint and/or mechanical injuries
• Ejection injuries
• Thermal injuries

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Types of Injury

• Decelerative injury
• Impact
• Intrusive
• Thermal

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• The G forces of injury- The gravitational
  forces against the body or the amount of force
  pushing down on the body in a deceleration manner
• 0G Weightlessness
• 1G Body weight
• 4G Typical roller coaster ride
• 18G Force of an ejection seat

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Example

• 20-40Gs Spinal cord compression, C1-C2
  fractures, majority internal injuries
• 50-80Gs Tearing of aorta, skull fractures
• 100-200Gs Pelvic fractures
• 200-300Gs Vertebral body fractures
• 350Gs Total body fragmentation

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Impact Injury

• Injuries due to man-machine interaction
• Blunt force trauma
• Lacerations
• Flailing injuries The result from free
  (uncontrolled) movement during the crash sequence
  and/or impact

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Intrusive Injury

• Rotor or propeller blade
• Trees, wires, etc
• Aircraft strike

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Thermal Injury

• Pugilistic attitude
• Fractures and/or amputations

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Analysis of Injury

• Individual or groups of injuries in relation
  to the overall accident scenario, I.e. how did
  one injury result in or cause other injuries how
  do occupant injuries relate to aircraft
  deformation

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What is a mass fatality event?

• Rule Number One
• Disaster Chaos
• Rule Number Two
• All Are Equal

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Be Prepared

• For Anything

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The End