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The Role of Forensic Anthropological Techniques in Identifying America's War Dead from Past Conflicts
Abstract
The Scientific Analysis Directorate of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is a unique entity within the U.S. Government. This agency currently houses the world's largest, accredited skeletal identification laboratory in the world, in terms of the size of the scientific staff, global mission, and number of annual identifications. Traditional forensic anthropology is used for the formation of a biological profile (biological sex, stature, population affinity/ancestry, and age) as well as trauma and pathologies that may be compared with historical records and personnel files. Since World War II, various scientists associated with DoD have conducted base‐line research in support of the identification of U.S. war dead, including, but not limited to, histology, the use of chest radiography and clavicle comparison, and statistical models to deal with commingling issues. The primary goal of the identification process of the Scientific Analysis Directorate is to use all available historical, field, and forensic methods to establish the most robust and defendable identification as scientifically and legally possible.
This article is categorized under: Forensic Anthropology > Age Assessment
Forensic Anthropology > Sex Assessment
Forensic Anthropology > Ancestry Determination
... Forensic Odontology and dental records are further sources of identifying information. In mass casualty cases with victims of similar biological profiles, dental conditions can be more varied, allowing greater insight into individual identities than the biological profile alone (Belcher et al., 2021). ...
... Antemortem and postmortem dental charts may be compared, with matches contributing to a positive identification. Dental charts are common in individual personnel files, documenting any dental anomalies (i.e., cavities, crowns, missing teeth, etc.) noted via dental chart, although x-rays were extremely uncommon if nonexistent throughout WWII (Belcher et al., 2021;Shiroma, 2016). In a study on identifications of victims of the USS Oklahoma, Shiroma notes that common discrepancies such as differences in documentation of surface restorations, antemortem tooth loss, interproximal restorations, errors in the dental charts themselves, and dental restorations performed on deciduous teeth may all be factors that may affect the accuracy of identification (Shiroma, 2020). ...
In the aftermath of World War II, the US was faced with the monumental task of finding and identifying over 405,000 service members who did not survive the conflict (McDermott, 2005, p. 1). Of these 405,000, 81,000 remain missing and 2,498 remain unidentified in cemeteries across Europe alone (American Battle Monuments Commission, 2022). Often, these individuals were interred and disinterred multiple times, crossing the continent in the journey from loss incident or battlefield to their final resting place. Commingling, the accidental mixing of remains, is an ever-present concern in the forensic identification of individuals from mass casualty incidents (Belcher et al., 2021). Each instance of disinterment and movement is an opportunity for commingling to occur. DNA testing is an oft relied upon method for distinguishing between individuals in these cases but can be time consuming and expensive. Further, when tests are conducted and results do not indicate a match with a suspected individual, this can compound the difficulty in establishing the unknown individual's identity. This project aims to establish a foundation for a spatially oriented approach to addressing commingling in these cases and aid in creating a "shortlist" of suspected individuals that may be a positive match. Through the creation of a geospatial tracking system, each unknown individual's path is traced in relation to known locations of origin and interment and can be analyzed in tandem with all unknown individuals that they have crossed paths. Likelihood of identification is inversely proportional to the interval between death and forensic analysis (Steere & Boardman, 1957). This is to say that identification becomes increasingly difficult and less likely to succeed as time grows between the death of an individual and an attempt at identifying them. Ultimately, time, volume of effort, and funds are limited resources in the mission to identify the US's remaining missing service members. The creation of tools that require fewer resources and can ease more intensive identification methods is a pursuit highly relevant to our efficiency in identification. Advisor: William R. Belcher
... Forensic anthropology played a very important role in cases of human rights violations both in historical and forensic context. The field's contribution is especially evident in cases of personal identification of US soldiers that died during World War II [12]. Another example are the results of search, recovery and analysis that lead to identification of the Second World War heroes of different nationalities that died across the present country's borders [13]. ...
In the early days of World War II, many of the prominent and influential people of Polish nationality from the Free City of Danzig were arrested by the Germans and sent to the nearby concentration camp KL Stutthof. Nearly a hundred of them died within the next seven months upon their arrival, and were buried in a clandestine mass grave in a nearby forest. However, the exact nature of their death is unknown, as it is unclear what the attitude of the aggressors was toward the victims. We do not know whether there was only one executioner or there were several assassins, nor if the killing methodology was consistent with the other state-regulated executions. The studied material represents the commingled remains of a minimum thirty-four people, possibly all male, aged from under eighteen to over sixty at the time of death. Perimortem traumatic lesions are shown mainly on the skull bones. We asked whether the perimortem trauma lesions visible on the victims' skeletons could be informative on the cause and manner of their death. Our results show the prevalence of the perimortem trauma inflicted by a blunt object are on the parietal bones above the Hat Brim Line (HBL), which is commonly associated with a violent attack. The gunshot trauma was usually localized on the occipital bone or posterior parietal, which could indicate a shot to the back of the head, and this was commonly encountered during executions. No signs of defensive injuries can be explained either by restraining of the hands or by a surprise attack. The abundance and variability of the trauma type can be evident of multiple assailants. Moreover, the multiple impact points detected on several crania prove unnecessary overkill and brutality, which reflects the personal attitudes of the executioners towards the victims.
During times of war, the remains of fallen U.S. military service members overseas are often difficult to track postmortem as they move from their recovery location to a permanent cemetery. After a recovery, remains are typically sent to multiple temporary cemeteries, morgues, and/or identification points before reaching their final resting place. Repeated disinterments and reinterments among vast numbers of remains in multiple temporary locations may lead to unintended commingling. This analysis is meant to examine the postmortem movement of multiple U.S. military members and assess their potential for commingling based on historical records and identification reports supplied by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). The movements of five individuals are depicted using a geographic ArcGIS map where the association between individual remains can be assessed visually. When the data are available, these movements can be tracked to a grave plot-specific level. Placing basic cemetery templates over the satellite image of actual temporary and permanent cemeteries creates an interactive visual tool for assessing potential commingling by assessing possible mixture/commingling with nearby plots. This visual aid will be paired with temporal data regarding the affiliation between a set of remains and a temporary location in order to better determine the chance for any overlap between two individuals based on proximity of grave plots and commingling. This project is useful in DPAA accessioned cases where extra skeletal elements (e.g., two left ulnae) may be present or when DNA analysis determines that one case has remains from two or more individuals or is inconsistent with a proposed name association. Advisor: William R. Belcher
Isotope analysis has become an increasingly valuable tool in forensic anthropology casework over the past decade. Modern-day isotopic investigations on human remains have integrated the use of multi-isotope profiles (e.g. C, N, O, H, S, Sr, and Pb) as well as isotopic landscapes (“isoscapes”) from multiple body tissues (e.g. teeth, bone, hair, and nails) to predict possible region-of-origin of unidentified human remains. Together, data from various isotope analyses provide additional lines of evidence for human identification, including a decedent’s possible region-of-birth, long-term adult residence, recent travel history, and dietary choices. Here, we present the basic principles of isotope analysis and provide a brief overview of instrumentation, analytical standards, sample selection, and sample quality measures. Finally, we present case studies that reflect the diverse applications of isotope analysis to the medicolegal system before describing some future research directions. As shown herein, isotope analysis is a flexible and powerful geolocation tool that can provide new investigative leads for unidentified human remains cases.
This edition of the internationally acclaimed guide to forensic stable isotope analysis uses real-world examples to bridge discussions of the basic science, instrumentation and analytical techniques underlying forensic isotope profiling and its various technical applications. Case studies describe an array of applications, many of which were developed by the author himself. They include cases in which isotope profiling was used in murder, and drugs-related crime investigations, as well as for pharmaceutical and food authenticity control studies.
Updated with coverage of exciting advances occurring in the field since the publication of the 1st edition, this 2nd edition explores innovative new techniques and applications in forensic isotope profiling, as well as key findings from original research. More than a simple update, though, this edition has been significantly revised in order to address serious problems that can arise from non-comparable and unfit-for-purpose stable isotope data. To that end, Part II has been virtually rewritten with greater emphasis now being placed on important quality control issues in stable isotope analysis in general and forensic stable isotope analysis in particular.
Written in a highly accessible style that will appeal to practitioners, researchers and students alike
Illustrates the many strengths and potential pitfalls of forensic stable isotope analysis
Uses recent case examples to bridge underlying principles with technical applications
Presents hands-on applications that let experienced researchers and forensic practitioners match problems with success stories
Includes new chapters devoted to aspects of quality control and quality assurance, including scale normalisation, the identical treatment principle, hydrogen exchange and accreditation
Stable Isotope Forensics, 2nd Edition is an important professional resource for forensic scientists, law enforcement officials, public prosecutors, defence attorneys, forensic anthropologists and others for whom isotope profiling has become an indispensable tool of the trade. It is also an excellent introduction to the field for senior undergraduate and graduate forensic science students.
Dental anthropologists focus on the variation around a commonly shared pattern, a variation expressed by differences in tooth size and morphology. This book centers on the morphological characteristics of tooth crowns and roots that are either present or absent in any given individual and that vary in frequency among populations. These nonmetric dental traits are controlled largely by genetic factors and provide a direct link between extinct and extant populations. The book illustrates more than thirty tooth crown and root traits and reviews their biological and genetic underpinnings. From a database of more than 30,000 individuals, the geographic variation of twenty-two crown and root traits is graphically portrayed. A global analysis of tooth morphology shows both points of agreement and disagreement with comparable analyses of genetic and craniometric data. These findings are relevant to the hotly contested issue of timing and geographic context of modern human origins.
Apart from marsupials and edentates, there is no order of mammals, living or fossil, which displays a greater diversity of locomotor and postural adaptations than extant primates. With body weight varying from about 100 grams to 200 kilograms, the Order Primates includes leapers, climbers, brachiators, knuckle-walkers and a variety of arboreal and terrestrial quadrupeds. Despite the interest which primate positional behaviour has engendered in anatomists, anthropologists and zoologists throughout this century, we still understand very little about the relationships between locomotor and postural behaviour on the one hand, and basic aspects of these animals’ biology, such as gross diet and use of forest structure on the other.
Although variation in 87Sr/86Sr has been widely pursued as a tracer of provenance in environmental studies, forensics, archeology and food traceability, accurate methods for mapping variations in environmental 87Sr/86Sr at regional scale are not available. In this paper, we build upon earlier efforts to model 87Sr/86Sr in bedrock by developing GIS-based models for Sr isotopes in rock and water that include the combined effects of lithology and time. Using published data, we fit lithology-specific model parameters for generalized equations describing the concentration of radiogenic Sr in silicate and carbonate rocks. The new model explained more than 50% of the observed variance in measured Sr isotope values from independent global databases of igneous, metaigneous, and carbonate rocks, but performed more poorly (explaining 33% of the variance) for sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks. In comparison, a previously applied model formulation that did not include lithology-specific parameters explained only 20% and 8% of the observed variance for igneous and sedimentary rocks, respectively, and exhibited an inverse relationship with measured carbonate rock values. Building upon the bedrock model, we also developed and applied equations to predict the contribution of different rock types to 87Sr/86Sr variations in water as a function of their weathering rates and strontium content. The resulting water model was compared to data from 68 catchments and shown to give more accurate predictions of stream water 87Sr/86Sr (R2 = 0.70) than models that did not include lithological weathering parameters. We applied these models to produce maps (“isoscapes”) predicting 87Sr/86Sr in bedrock and water across the contiguous USA, and compared the mapped Sr isotope distributions to data on Sr isotope ratios of US marijuana crops. Although the maps produced here are demonstrably imperfect and leave significant scope for further refinement, they provide an enhanced framework for lithology-based Sr isotope modeling and offer a baseline for provenance studies by constraining the 87Sr/86Sr in strontium sources at regional scales.
Stable isotope ratio analysis is becoming an extremely important tool for the forensic investigator. It can be particularly useful in missing persons investigations to help establish an unknown's identity by potentially reconstructing an individual's geolocational history, determining the number of individuals present in a case, and linking/separating remains from commingled assemblages. In this review article, we explore several main themes related to the use of stable isotopes in postconflict forensic identification. First, we describe what stable isotopes are and how global isotopic variation arises in human tissues via natural processes and cultural practices. Next, we discuss the selection of appropriate human tissue samples for examination based on testable hypotheses. We provide guidance on the options that exist for isotope sample preparation, analysis, and data handling; and finally, we examine which sample quality measures and quality assurance approaches should be used in isotope data reporting and interpretation. These themes are primarily presented to help the isotope data consumer understand the benefits and limitations of the technique that might not be apparent when sending samples to and receiving results from a high throughput, contract isotope testing laboratory. Real world examples of forensic stable isotope ratio analysis are provided within the article to highlight many of the concepts, particularly in regard to identification applications.
This article is categorized under: Forensic Anthropology > Anthropology in Mass Disaster & War Crime Contexts
Forensic Biology > Interpretation of Biological Evidence
Forensic Chemistry and Trace Evidence > Emerging Technologies and Methods
This chapter provides some background and applications of stable isotope analysis in the context of humanitarian forensic science to illustrate the contribution that isotopic profiling can make to an investigation of an unidentified decedent. It also describes a few of the isotopic tools and data resources currently available to forensic investigators. Human tissues can be categorized into tissues with a longer‐term memory such as bone and teeth and tissues with a shorter‐term memory such as hair and nail. Isotopic profiling of human hair has received a good deal of attention in the past decade, and a rich repository of published knowledge exists on the particular challenge that is H isotope abundance analysis of hair. The isotopic profiles of human tissues such as bone, teeth, hair and nail hold great potential for forensic investigations by providing valuable information regarding an unidentified decedent's life history that cannot be obtained by any other analytical method.
In 1949, the American Graves Registration Service Pacific Zone proposed the identification of 27 sets of remains (skulls/crania/mandibles) based on comparisons with written dental records. All were denied, and the remains were buried as unknowns. In 2003 and 2015, the remains were exhumed by the DPAA. Currently, 26 individuals previously recommended for identification have been positively identified. The DPAA Science Director's opinion corresponded with 24 of their recommendations, while DNA excluded three. Caution should be taken by the forensic scientist when building assemblages through skeletal and dental articulation. The forensic odontologist must always consider variations in restorative care/extraction patterns and the possibility of documentation errors when reviewing/interpreting historical and current day dental records used for AM/PM comparisons. The odontologist should base their opinion on the strength of the antemortem/postmortem comparison, number and type of concordances, and distinct dental care and extraction patterns.
Rationale
Strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) in human fingernail keratin tissues have been underexplored for region of origin and travel history reconstruction studies. Here we investigated ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in fingernail keratin to establish baseline measurements in a resident group and to examine how ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios changed with relocation.
Methods
Fingernail clippings were collected from resident (n=10) and non‐resident/traveler groups (n=4 and n=4) that were part of a larger study in Salt Lake City (UT, USA) from 2015 to 2016. Strontium abundance and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios were determined via MC‐ICP‐MS. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) isotope ratios from the traveler participants were compared to examine temporal patterns.
Results
Strontium abundance and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in fingernails from the resident group established a baseline against which we could evaluate potential differences in non‐resident/traveler groups. Resident ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios remained constant over the study period and were consistent with previously measured tap waters for the area. ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio changes in non‐resident/traveler groups were rapid and reflected the current location of the individual within 4‐5 weeks of arrival. Lastly, δ¹⁸O and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of the same fingernail clippings did not exhibit similar temporal patterns, since fingernail δ¹⁸O ratios required more time to attain values characteristic of the new environment.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that strontium is incorporated into fingernail tissues differently from hair and this could be advantageous to forensic investigations. We found that ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O ratios of the same fingernail clippings revealed two different time points reflecting an individual's residence over a short (4‐5 weeks, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios) and long‐term (3‐5 months, δ¹⁸O values) time scales. It is likely that the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of fingernail clippings reflect exogenous signals that are incorporated through bathing waters and that these signals change rapidly with movement to a new location. Our results may aid future forensic studies in the determination of region of origin in unidentified remains.
Global travel has increased, and having a diagnostic tool to distinguish residents from visitors would be valuable. This study examined stable isotope biomarkers of fingernail tissues of resident (n = 26) and nonresident (n = 22) participants in Salt Lake City (SLC), UT, from 2015 to 2016. The purpose of this research was to determine whether fingernail isotopes could be used for reconstructing geolocation movements and to examine the convergence in nonresident fingernail isotopes to that of the resident signal following their arrival to SLC. Resident isotope values defined a baseline to make comparisons to. Initial nonresident hydrogen and oxygen isotope values were correlated with precipitation isotopes of their prior location. Fingernail isotope turnover rates were rapid and nonresident isotopes were indistinguishable from residents after ~71-90 days. The results of our study highlight the utility of stable isotope measurements of fingernail clippings to examine travel history reconstruction that could aid in identification of human remains.
Here, we discuss a relatively new investigative technique useful for identification of human skeletal remains—forensic isotope analysis. Many elements exist in multiple isotope forms, distinguished by differing numbers of neutrons. Stable isotopes contained within human tissues are related to the isotopes in drinking water and food, which can vary based on geography, environment, cultural practices, etc. It's thus possible to analyze the stable isotopes contained within tissues and collect information about someone's life history: where he/she lived, what he/she ate. This chapter presents a brief history of isotope analysis, reviewing foundational research in the fields of ecology, geology, and anthropology that set the stage for the application of stable isotopes in modern forensic investigations of unidentified human remains. It also presents a series of success stories in which forensic isotope analysis helped lead to the identification of an unknown decedent.
Tim White and Pieter Folkens, the team behind the bestselling text, Human Osteology, Second Edition, have created the ideal concise guide for professional anthropologists, osteologists, law enforcement officers, and forensic specialists working with human bones in the field or laboratory. In addition to essential text information, hundreds of photographs are included, showing a maximum amount of anatomical information and providing a valuable tool in comparing specimens for rapid identification across the broad landscapes of law enforcement, forensics, anatomy, archaeology, and paleontology. Book jacket.
Developmental Juvenile Osteology was created as a core reference text to document the development of the entire human skeleton from early embryonic life to adulthood. In the period since its first publication there has been a resurgence of interest in the developing skeleton, and the second edition of Developmental Juvenile Osteology incorporates much of the key literature that has been published in the intervening time. The main core of the text persists by describing each individual component of the human skeleton from its embryological origin through to its final adult form. This systematic approach has been shown to assist the processes of both identification and age estimation and acts as a core source for the basic understanding of normal human skeletal development. In addition to this core, new sections have been added where there have been significant advances in the field. Identifies every component of the juvenile skeleton, by providing a detailed analysis of development and ageing and a detailed description of each bone in four ways: adult bone, early development, ossification and practical notes. New chapters and updated sections covering the dentition, age estimation in the living and bone histology. An updated bibliography documenting the research literature that has contributed to the field over the past 15 years since the publication of the first edition. Heavily illustrated, including new additions.
Statistical programs have revolutionized the way in which forensic anthropologists conduct casework by allowing practitioners to use computationally complex analytics at the click of a button. Importantly, the products of these statistical programs are reproducible and contain measures of error or uncertainty, thereby strengthening conclusions. This paper is an introduction to (hu)MANid, a free, web-based application that uses linear and mixture discriminant function analyses to classify human mandibles into one of many worldwide and/or periodic reference groups. The mechanics, development, and use of the application will be discussed. Further, the program was tested against other software to compare model performances and classifications. Total correct classifications among the test cases and programs were identical. Ten mandibles were tested using both statistical procedures. Mixture discriminant analysis improved classification by an average of 9.3% and correctly identified three more mandibles than LDA. Therefore, we believe (hu)MANid will be an asset to the anthropological community.
In 2014, a morphometric capability to search chest radiograph databases by quantified clavicle shape was published to assist skeletal identification. Here, we extend the validation tests conducted by increasing the search universe 18-fold, from 409 to 7361 individuals to determine whether there is any associated decrease in performance under these more challenging circumstances. The number of trials and analysts were also increased, respectively, from 17 to 30 skeletons, and two to four examiners. Elliptical Fourier analysis was conducted on clavicles from each skeleton by each analyst (shadowgrams trimmed from scratch in every instance) and compared to the search universe. Correctly matching individuals were found in shortlists of 10% of the sample 70% of the time. This rate is similar to, although slightly lower than, rates previously found for much smaller samples (80%). Accuracy and reliability are thereby maintained, even when the comparison system is challenged by much larger search universes.
Mass fatality events can result in the intermixing, or commingling, of human remains. Commingling of human remains presents an added challenge to all phases of the forensic process. As the number of individuals increases, so does the complexity of the forensic investigation and the skills needed for case resolution. In Recovery, Analysis, and Identification of Commingled Human Remains, top professionals illustrate successful techniques for sorting and determining the number of individuals, the role of DNA, ethical considerations and data management. Instrumental to the forensic community, Recovery, Analysis, and Identification of Commingled Human Remains provides case examples and an in depth review of experiences, methods, and research related to commingling. © 2008 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
As of August 2014, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has identified the remains of 1980 previously unknown U.S. service members; 280 were from the Korean War. To determine the accuracy and completeness of the available antemortem (AM) dental records, a review of the AM/postmortem (AM/PM) dental record comparisons from 233 Forensic Odontology Reports written in support of remains identified from the Korean War was performed. Seventy-two AM/PM comparisons resulted in exact dental chartings while 161 contained discrepancies which were explainable. Explainable discrepancies include undocumented treatment (103), incorrectly charted third molars as missing (82), differing opinions of specific molars present/missing (20), and erroneous treatment documentation and/or misidentification of teeth present/missing (22, other than molars). Reassessment has revealed varying levels of completeness for our available AM dental records, the need to thoroughly review our computerized comparisons, adjust our comparisons to include molar pattern variations/third molars, and updating our database comparison program.
Assemblages of commingled human remains present special problems for the identification process. Complete biological profiles of individuals cannot be developed until the remains have been segregated into individuals. Cause and manner of death cannot be fully evaluated without access to segregated, complete skeletons. Segregation is also a goal for reasons extending beyond the need for comprehensive analysis, as in forensic applications when remains must be returned to next of kin for disposition. Although the presence of soft tissue can, in some cases, usefully inform the process (e.g., hair color and texture, skin tone), most of the information used to resolve commingling is obtained from the skeleton. Charles Snow (1948) provided an early comprehensive overview of methods for sorting commingled skeletons that is still relevant today, although it predates some important new technologies such as DNA analysis. The primary categories of information used to sort commingled remains are age, articulation, visual pair matching, size (osteometric sorting), robusticity (“build”), taphonomy, and DNA profile data. Osteometric sorting is but one of the many tools available to the anthropologist for sorting commingled remains.
This is a comprehensive and accessible overview of what is known about the structure and mechanics of bone, bones, and teeth. In it, John Currey incorporates critical new concepts and findings from the two decades of research since the publication of his highly regarded The Mechanical Adaptations of Bones. Crucially, Currey shows how bone structure and bone's mechanical properties are intimately bound up with each other and how the mechanical properties of the material interact with the structure of whole bones to produce an adapted structure. For bone tissue, the book discusses stiffness, strength, viscoelasticity, fatigue, and fracture mechanics properties. For whole bones, subjects dealt with include buckling, the optimum hollowness of long bones, impact fracture, and properties of cancellous bone. The effects of mineralization on stiffness and toughness and the role of microcracking in the fracture process receive particular attention. As a zoologist, Currey views bone and bones as solutions to the design problems that vertebrates have faced during their evolution and throughout the book considers what bones have been adapted to do. He covers the full range of bones and bony tissues, as well as dentin and enamel, and uses both human and non-human examples. Copiously illustrated, engagingly written, and assuming little in the way of prior knowledge or mathematical background, Bones is both an ideal introduction to the field and also a reference sure to be frequently consulted by practicing researchers.
The mission of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is to conduct global search, recovery, and laboratory operations to identify unaccounted-for Americans from past conflicts in order to support the Department of Defense’s personnel accounting efforts. Currently, JPAC focuses mainly on World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Of these major conflicts, the Korean War generates about half or more of JPAC’s identifications each year. There are multiple ways JPAC gets access to the unaccounted-for American remains from the Korean War, such as exhumations of the Korean War unknown remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific or recovery missions in North Korea. In this chapter, we focus on a large-scale commingled assemblage of missing Americans from the Korean War called “the Korea 208” (K208) that the United States government received from the North Korean government in the early 1990s. The goal of this chapter is to present the analytical procedure of the K208 assemblage that originally contained as many as 600 commingled individuals.
Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains provides an integrated and comprehensive treatment of pathological conditions that affect the human skeleton. There is much that ancient skeletal remains can reveal to the modern orthopaedist, pathologist, forensic anthropologist, and radiologist about the skeletal manifestations of diseases that are rarely encountered in modern medical practice. Beautifully illustrated with over 1,100 photographs and drawings, this book provides essential text and materials on bone pathology, which will improve the diagnostic ability of those interested in human dry bone pathology. It also provides time depth to our understanding of the effect of disease on past human populations.
The Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) is one of the leading laboratories in the world for the processing of degraded skeletal remains. Extended efforts have been made to develop protocols and standards that will hold up to the intense scrutiny of both the scientific world and the U.S. legal system. Presented in this paper are the specifics of the in-house systems and procedures that have allowed AFDIL to streamline the processing of degraded skeletal remains and family references for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. These include the development of our in-house bioinformatics systems by which every package and sample that passes through the laboratory is tracked; protocols designed specifically for both questioned and reference samples; and the difficulties inherent in this type of organization. Two case studies presented involve one of ancient remains and one on the recent event of September 11, 2001. Finally, future directions available to both AFDIL and the DNA analysis community as a whole are discussed.
Copyright © 2004 Central Police University.
During the Korean War, the Office of the Quartermaster General's Graves Registration Service (GRS) was responsible for the recovery, processing, identification, and repatriation of US remains. In January 1951, the GRS established a Central Identification Unit (CIU) at Kokura, Japan. At the Kokura CIU, postmortem dental examinations were performed by the dental technicians. Thirty-nine postmortem dental examinations performed at the CIU were compared to the findings documented in the Forensic Odontology Reports written at the JPAC Central Identification Laboratory (CIL). Differences were noted in 20 comparisons (51%). The majority of the discrepancies was considered negligible and would not alter the JPAC decision to disinter a set of unknown remains. Charting discrepancies that were considered significant included the occasional failure of the Kokura technicians to identify teeth with inter-proximal or esthetic restorations and the misidentification of a mechanically prepared tooth (i.e., tooth prepared for a restoration) as a carious surface.
Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Diet is a leading modifiable risk factor for chronic disease, but it remains difficult to measure accurately due to the error and bias inherent in selfreported methods of diet assessment. Consequently, there is a pressing need for more objective biomarkers of diet for use in health research. The stable isotope ratios of light elements are a promising set of candidate biomarkers because they vary naturally and reproducibly among foods, and those variations are captured in molecules and tissues with high fidelity. Recent studies have identified valid isotopic measures of short- and long-term sugar intake, meat intake, and fish intake in specific populations. These studies provide a strong foundation for validating stable isotopic biomarkers in the general US population. Approaches to improve specificity for specific foods are needed; for example, by modeling intake using multiple stable isotope ratios or by isolating and measuring specific molecules linked to foods of interest. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Nutrition Volume 35 is July 17, 2015. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
The objective of this paper is to compare patterns of osteon organization in human and nonhuman bone. A linear organization of Haversian systems in nonhuman bone, where osteons line up in rows, has been reported but has not been quantified. The present research provides a quantitative examination of this observation through a comparative analysis of the femoral midshaft from human and nonhuman bone. Femoral midshaft thin sections from 60 humans were compared to femoral midshaft sections from nine sheep and six miniature swine. The presence or absence of osteon banding was recorded and, if present, described. Results indicate that 2 out of 60 human sections and 5 out of 15 nonhuman sections exhibit osteon banding (chi2 = 9.46; p < 0.01). Further, the type of banding present in the human and nonhuman samples is easily distinguished, indicating that human and nonhuman bone can be distinguished where handing is present in this study.
This review covers isotope ratio and trace element analyses of human and animal hair. The topic areas include hair structure and its survival in archaeological and forensic contexts, isotope ratios of animal hair, both in controlled, experimental situations and through collections from wild populations, anthropological studies on modern and historically collected primate and human hair, health and medical applications of hair isotope and trace element analysis, applications to archaeological hair samples, the use of isotope ratios from hair in forensic investigations, and finally a discussion of geography and temporal dynamics in hair oxygen isotope ratios.
Ancestry assessments using cranial morphoscopic traits currently rely on subjective trait lists and observer experience rather than empirical support. The trait list approach, which is untested, unverified, and in many respects unrefined, is relied upon because of tradition and subjective experience. Our objective was to examine the utility of frequently cited morphoscopic traits and to explore eleven appropriate and novel methods for classifying an unknown cranium into one of several reference groups. Based on these results, artificial neural networks (aNNs), OSSA, support vector machines, and random forest models showed mean classification accuracies of at least 85%. The aNNs had the highest overall classification rate (87.8%), and random forests show the smallest difference between the highest (90.4%) and lowest (76.5%) classification accuracies. The results of this research demonstrate that morphoscopic traits can be successfully used to assess ancestry without relying only on the experience of the observer.
Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice-winner of a 2015 Textbook Excellence Award (Texty) from The Text and Academic Authors Association-approaches forensic anthropology through an innovative style using current practices and real case studies drawn from the varied experiences, backgrounds, and practices of working forensic anthropologists. This text guides the reader through all aspects of human remains recovery and forensic anthropological analysis, presenting principles at a level that is appropriate for those new to the field, while at the same time incorporating evolutionary, biomechanical, and other theoretical foundations for the features and phenomena encountered in forensic anthropological casework. Attention is focused primarily on the most recent and scientifically valid applications commonly employed by working forensic anthropologists. Readers will therefore learn about innovative techniques in the discipline, and aspiring practitioners will be prepared by understanding the necessary background needed to work in the field today. Instructors and students will find Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice comprehensive, practical, and relevant to the modern discipline of forensic anthropology. Winner of a 2015 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association Focuses on modern methods, recent advances in research and technology, and current challenges in the science of forensic anthropology Addresses issues of international relevance such as the role of forensic anthropology in mass disaster response and human rights investigations Includes chapter summaries, topicoriented case studies, keywords, and reflective questions to increase active student learning.
This paper describes a computerized clavicle identification system primarily designed to resolve the identities of unaccounted-for U.S. soldiers who fought in the Korean War. Elliptical Fourier analysis is used to quantify the clavicle outline shape from skeletons and postero-anterior antemortem chest radiographs to rank individuals in terms of metric distance. Similar to leading fingerprint identification systems, shortlists of the top matching candidates are extracted for subsequent human visual assessment. Two independent tests of the computerized system using 17 field-recovered skeletons and 409 chest radiographs demonstrate that true-positive matches are captured within the top 5% of the sample 75% of the time. These results are outstanding given the eroded state of some field-recovered skeletons and the faintness of the 1950's photofluorographs. These methods enhance the capability to resolve several hundred cold cases for which little circumstantial information exists and current DNA and dental record technologies cannot be applied.
During the Korean War, the American Graves Registration Service, U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, developed an innovative system to recover, identify, and repatriate deceased U.S. servicemen. In doing so, the U.S. armed forces returned their dead to the United States during major combat operations for the first time in military history. This article describes and analyzes the handling of the Korean War dead. It concludes that the wartime program exemplified the country's adaptation to limited war during a time of prosperous insecurity.
This study is novel in that it is the first of its kind to compile a reference sample of isotopic values associated with known natal regions to be utilized in forensic work. Stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen, strontium, and lead were examined to determine if natal origins could be assessed isotopically between Southeast Asian and American dental remains as well as regionally within the United States. Teeth believed to be of East Asian origin were compared to the extracted third molars of recent American dental patients. Living subjects completed surveys detailing physiological, behavioral, and residential information that affect isotope values. The least squares means for all isotope values examined exhibited significant differences between the East Asian and American cohorts. Based on this information, a discriminant function was created that correctly classified individuals, through resubstitution and cross-validation, as belonging to one of these two groups by 95% or better. American strontium values displayed a distinct trend toward homogenization, with the mean value for Sr87/Sr86 varying only slightly from that of seawater. In order to identify natal origin among Americans, nine regions were created within the United States based on O18 values. Good discrimination was noted between the mountain states and the southern states. A discriminant function analysis proved disappointing though, and additional sampling from most states is needed to improve the statistical robusticity of the model. The results of this study will have wide-reaching effects across the medico-legal spectrum. This body of research will serve as the foundation for a database of modern, human, geolocational isotope values that will assist not only in the identification of fallen servicemen and women, but in the identification of victims of mass fatality incidents, undocumented aliens who perish attempting entry into the U.S., and local skeletal "Jane and John Doe" cases.