35 Forensic osteology

35 Forensic osteology by Christopher Alexander Briggs BSc, PhD Denise Donlon BSc, DipEd, BA(Hons), PhD Walter Barry Wood MBBS, BSc [Dr Wood wishes to acknowledge the drawing skills of his daughter Mrs Anne-Maree Stewart (BPhy) who has provided the illustrations for this chapter, except for Figure 6.] 35-1 Update: 51

EXPERT EVIDENCE Author information Christopher Alexander Briggs completed his BSc in 1970 and PhD in 1974. He was appointed to the position of lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Melbourne in 1975 and is currently Associate Professor. He became staff anatomist and consultant in physical anthropology/osteology at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in 1991 and is Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Monash University. He has assisted in crime scene examination and investigation of skeletal and otherwise unidentified remains, and in cases of homicide, and has given expert evidence in court. He has been a consultant physical anthropologist with the United Nations in East Timor and has participated in the recovery of skeletal remains from archaeological sites in Turkey and Britain. Dr Briggs is a member of the Centre for International Forensic Assistance (University of Glasgow), the National Institute of Forensic Scientists (Australia), the Anatomical Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. His publications include Anthropological Analysis of Skeletons from Sos Höyük (1999) and the chapters Cranio-Facial Anatomy, Anthropological Assessment and Recovery of Remains in the book Cranio-facial Identification in Forensic Medicine (1998). Denise Anne Donlon has degrees in Science, majoring in anatomy and zoology, in Arts, majoring in archaeology, a Diploma of Education and a doctorate in physical anthropology. She is a senior lecturer in the Disciplines of Anatomy and Histology at the University of Sydney and Curator of the Shellshear Museum of Physical Anthropology in the same department. For the past 17 years she has researched and taught both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in forensic osteology and comparative anatomy and has also acted as a consultant to the New South Wales Police Service and the New South Wales Institute (now Department) of Forensic Medicine. She also acts as a private consultant in human bone identification to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Association, to museums and to archaeologists. She is a Squadron Leader in the RAAF Specialists Reserves. She has acted as an expert witness in court and also has given evidence at the HMAS Sydney II Commission of Enquiry. Dr Donlon is a member of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the Australian Society for Human Biology, the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists, the Australian Archaeology Association, the Forensic Specialists Management Committee (MAFC) of the RAAF and the Anthropology Scientific Working Group for SMANZFL (Senior Managers of Australian and NZ Forensic Laboratories). Fieldwork has included the detection and excavation of clandestine burials, exhumation of graves for the New South Wales Police, excavation of prehistoric Aboriginal graves, excavation of World War II sites for the Australian Defence Forces and excavation of large-scale historic cemeteries. Her publications include The Development and Current State of Forensic Anthropology: An Australian Perspective (2009); Forensic anthropology in Australia: A brief history and review of casework (2008); Physical Anthropology and legislation in Australia (2010); The Skeletal Remains Manual (2002); The Value of Infracranial Nonmetric Variation in Studies of Modern Homo Sapiens: An Australian Focus (2000); and The 35-2 Expert Evidence

Value of Dental Metrics in the Assessment of Race and Sex in Caucasoids and Mongoloids (2000). Walter Barry Wood holds degrees in both Medicine (1960) and Science (1966). From 1963 to 1972 he held the position of head of the Department of Anatomy at the Papuan Medical College and the University of Papua New Guinea Medical School, Port Moresby. Following this, he was appointed to the position of senior lecturer in anatomy at the University of Queensland which he held until his retirement in 2001. In 1990 he was appointed an adjunct professor of forensic anthropology at the University of Tennessee. For many years he has acted as a consultant in the area of forensic anthropology and human bone identification to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Pathology, the Queensland Institute of Forensic Pathology and the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage. His publications include An Aboriginal Burial Ground at Broadbeach Queensland: Skeletal Material (1968); Metrical Features of Australian Aboriginal Crania and Mandibles from Broadbeach, South East Queensland (1977); Microscopic Age Changes in the Human Occipital Bone (1995); The Skeleton from the Wreck of HMS Pandora (1996); Soil Accumulation of By-Products of Decomposition (1997); Recovery of Remains (1998) and Radiographic Study of the Broadbeach Aboriginal Dentition (1998). Chapter 35 CA Briggs, D Donlon and WB Wood Published with permission of the authors 35-3 Update: 51

EXPERT EVIDENCE DEFINITION AND SCOPE... [35.50] HISTORY OF FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY... [35.60] CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION AND SKELETAL RECOVERY... [35.90] Recovery from watery environment... [35.100] Recovery from ground surface... [35.105] Recovery from burial... [35.110] Recovery from fire scene... [35.115] RECOVERY PROCEDURES... [35.118] Surface recovery... [35.120] Burial recovery... [35.130] Fire scene recovery... [35.140] After recovery... [35.150] LABORATORY MANAGEMENT OF SKELETONISED REMAINS... [35.190] Laboratory techniques employed in skeletal examination... [35.200] HUMAN OR NON-HUMAN?... [35.220] HOW MANY INDIVIDUALS?... [35.230] DETERMINATION OF RACE OR ETHNIC AFFINITY... [35.240] Racial determination from the cranium and mandible... [35.260] The Caucasoid cranium and mandible... [35.265] The Australian Aboriginal cranium and mandible... [35.270] The Mongoloid cranium and mandible... [35.280] The Negroid cranium and mandible... [35.290] The Polynesian cranium and mandible... [35.300] The Melanesian cranium and mandible... [35.305] Racial determination from the post-cranial skeleton... [35.310] Racial identification from the teeth... [35.312] Racial identification in juvenile bones... [35.315] The determination of pre-contact or tribal Aboriginal status... [35.320] The location and method of disposal... [35.330] Associated artefacts... [35.360] Skeletal and dental evidence... [35.370] Other evidence... [35.380] DETERMINATION OF SEX FROM THE SKELETON... [35.420] Sex determination from the adult pelvis... [35.440] Sex determination from the cranium and mandible... [35.460] Sex determination from other bones of the skeleton... [35.470] Sex determination in foetal and juvenile bones... [35.480] Sex determination from DNA analysis... [35.485] ESTIMATION OF AGE FROM THE SKELETON... [35.490] Age estimation in foetal and juvenile skeletons... [35.500] Age estimation in adult skeletons... [35.510] Age estimation by bone histology... [35.520] Age estimation by bone radiology... [35.530] Osteoarthritis and age estimation... [35.540] Cranial suture closure and age estimation... [35.550] ESTIMATION OF STATURE... [35.560] ASSESSMENT OF BONE INJURIES... [35.610] ASSESSMENT OF HEAT EFFECTS ON BONE... [35.630] IDENTIFICATION OF BONE PATHOLOGY AND ANOMALIES... [35.640] ESTIMATION OF THE TIME SINCE DEATH... [35.650] Physical state of the remains... [35.660] The environmental context... [35.670] Associated entomology... [35.675] Associated vegetation... [35.680] Associated artefacts... [35.690] 35-4 Expert Evidence

TABLE OF CONTENTS Soil stratigraphy and soil sampling... [35.700] Chemical tests... [35.710] ESTABLISHING IDENTIFICATION FROM THE SKELETAL EVIDENCE... [35.720] Radiographic matching techniques... [35.730] Photographic matching and skull face superimposition techniques... [35.740] Facial reconstruction techniques... [35.750] Disaster victim identification (DVI)... [35.800] The role of the anthropologist in DVI... [35.810] PLATES Plate 1 Sieving grave-fill to look for small bones, teeth and associated artefacts... [35.900] Plate 2 Non-human left femora... [35.920] Plate 3 Right side of cranium showing peri-mortem injury probably from a machete... [35.940] Plate 4 Body of a human sternum showing a sternal aperture... [35.960] Plate 5 Cast of a skull with tissue depth markers prior to reconstructing the face with clay... [35.980] BIBLIOGRAPHY 35-5 [The next text page is 35-51] Update: 51

EXPERT EVIDENCE 35-6 Expert Evidence

DEFINITION AND SCOPE DEFINITION AND SCOPE [35.50] [35.50] Forensic osteology or anthropology is the study of skeletal remains for medico-legal purposes and especially for the identification of unknown individuals. Whereas the forensic pathologist is trained to determine the cause of death from fleshed remains, the forensic anthropologist is usually consulted once soft tissue structures have decomposed or been destroyed or mutilated beyond recognition. The forensic anthropologist carries out the examination of any remaining hard tissues in an attempt to establish not only the identity of the individual but also the circumstances surrounding the individual s death. If teeth or dentures are present, then their evaluation falls mainly within the scope of the forensic dentist see Ch 34 Forensic Dentistry from [34.10]. Forensic anthropology encompasses the field recovery of partly or completely skeletonised remains and their laboratory management and analysis. It involves the determination of whether the skeletal remains are of animal or human origin; the number of individuals represented; the race, sex, age and stature of the individuals concerned; the pathology, injuries and anomalies that are present; the identification of unique individual characteristics; the estimation of the time since death and manner and cause of death; and the investigation of the individual s identity by matching of post-mortem skeletal evidence with ante-mortem records or portraits. Forensic anthropology as a discipline is a relative newcomer to the field of forensic science and was first formally recognised by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1972 with the establishment of a Physical Anthropology Section of the Academy. The American Board of Forensic Anthropology was formed as an accreditation body in 1977, sponsored by the Physical Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the Forensic Sciences Foundation, which is the research and educational arm of the Academy: Kerley (1978). Within Australia and the United Kingdom, forensic anthropology is not as advanced nor as well organised as it is in the United States. Two States, Victoria and Western Australia, currently have full-time forensic anthropologists with responsibilities for both domestic cases and disaster victim identification. Other States and Territories have anatomists (osteologists) or physical anthropologists who have a broad interest in the origins and variability of the human species (human biology). Many have studied and worked with skeletal populations from the past and apply the techniques so developed to the modern forensic situation. Presently there is no representative body or system of formal training or accreditation available for people wishing to work in the field of forensic anthropology within Australasia or the United Kingdom. However, a Medical Sciences Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) was established in 2008 consisting of forensic anthropologists, mortuary managers, forensic odontologists and forensic entomologists (Blau, 2010, personal communication). The objectives of the SAG are to provide a definition of forensic anthropology in the Australian context, as well as finalise guidelines and a code of conduct for forensic anthropology practitioners in Australia. The organization is in the process of developing a process for registration of forensic anthropology practitioners. 35-51 [The next text page is 35-1051] Update: 51

[35.50] EXPERT EVIDENCE 35-52 Expert Evidence