Forensic scientist’s career stretches from FGCU to cable TV | BonitaNews.com
Reading bones for the truth
Fort Myers -
By Laura Kadechka
Heather Walsh-Haney is one of about five forensic anthropologist in Florida. She has hundreds of cases under her belt, including the Value Jet crash of 1995 and identifying remains after 9-11. However, her efforts in helping law enforcement reaches beyond her work in the field. She's now working to help better train investigators in Florida when it comes to the who's and why's of unidentified remains.
Walsh-Haney, who is also a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University says her field of forensic anthropology is an important one, "I think it's important because none of us want to believe how touched by death we are..."
Her latest case, crack the mystery behind the discovery of eight skulls and what's been called a "remarkable number" of bone fragments in Fort Myers last month. There was no clothing, no jewelry...only what Walsh-Haney knows best. Bones. She explained to WINK News how she usually goes about her investigations, "We read and look at different types of trauma that can appear on the bone...whether it's blunt force trauma, sharp force trauma, or maybe even evidence of a gunshot would or strangulation." She cannot reveal much about the skulls investigation, although theories vary from the work of a serial killer to a funeral home dumping. All speculation.
The bones remain at the Lee County Medical Examiners office where she's putting in a lot of hours to help find out what happened to those eight people. It is still not known how long the bones had been in the Fort Myers field and DNA results are not due back for weeks, even months. Walsh-Haney's job, read the bones...and she doesn't need very many tools to do that. She said, "Forensic anthropology is particularly important in tropical and sub-tropical environments like we have here in southwest Florida because soft tissue a medical examiner will use to establish who a person was or how they died will be gone in a matter of weeks."
That's why she's helping to create a body farm at Florida Gulf Coast University. It will become the second in the country, behind the University of Tennessee. She says it will give Florida law enforcement real life training using donated bodies set up in different crime scene scenarios. Essentially, teaching them the science of reading bones found in Florida's balmy climate. Walsh-Haney said, "I'd like to make sure we continue to train people who can speak for the individuals that would otherwise go nameless."
If you're thinking you've heard her name before, you're right. Walsh-Haney has co-hosted "Mummy Autopsy" on the Discovery Channel and will soon appear on a new National Geographic show called "Conspiracy Test". She's also going another step further to help law enforcement, soon to release an almanac to help investigators distinguish human bones from non-human. By the way, the book is published by a Southwest Florida Publisher, CRC Press.
Skeleton Keys: How Forensic Anthropologists Identify Victims and Solve Crimes
Heather Walsh-Haney
United States
7 June 2002
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To forensic anthropologists, the analysis of human bone opens the portal of scientific truth that enables the justice system to discover the facts and circumstances surrounding criminal acts. Trained in anthropology, archaeology, human osteology, and chain-of-evidence procedures, forensic anthropologists are primary players in forensic science both in the field and in the laboratory.
The resolution of civil or criminal trials can depend upon the systematic recovery and collection of physical evidence in the field, rigorous scientific analysis in the laboratory, and protection of the integrity of the evidence. Typically, federal, state, and county evidence response teams collect and analyze physical evidence, including the human skeletal remains. However, forensic anthropologists are often called upon by such agencies to help in this endeavor. As such, forensic anthropologists have used their skills in the analysis of victims of homicides, accidental deaths, natural deaths, and mass fatalities.
Our archaeological training, in particular, comes into play in the field as we methodically search and meticulously recover human remains and other physical evidence from a crime scene. This is especially crucial because the recovery process itself is destructive. Scene responders have one "contamination-free" chance to recover all of the physical evidence, photograph the human remains, bullet casings, or cigarette butts in place, map these items relative to each other and other scene features, and collect the necessary data.
In the laboratory, forensic anthropologists use their knowledge of human osteology and anatomy to help medical examiners or coroners identify the victim, reconstruct what happened at the time of death (e.g., was there foul play?) and what occurred after death (e.g., did animal scavengers chew on the victim?s hands and feet?). The victim?s bones are visually, stereoscopically, and radiographically examined so that we can determine the age, sex, stature, and ancestry of the victim.
But forensic anthropologists also realize that the biological profile derived from skeletal examination has the potential to reveal the victim?s personal history. For example, fine horizontal grooves on the victim?s front teeth (incisors) indicate that the victim may have been very ill or malnourished when these teeth were developing during childhood. Fractures to bones of the face, ribs, and hands that are in various stages of healing may suggest a history of violence in the domestic setting, while the presence of orthopedic implants in the knee may have resulted from sports-related injuries. As such, creation of the victim?s biological profile often uncovers clues regarding the victim?s life history, a revelation that will hopefully facilitate the victim?s positive identification.
Once the biological profile of the victim is completed, the next step is the forensic anthropologist?s analysis of trauma that occurred around the time of death. Skeletal trauma analysis is a time-intensive process. If done correctly, this analysis can reveal secrets surrounding the circumstances of death. Yet, identifying whether a mark was caused by a knife stabbed into the victim at the time of death or by lawn mower blades hitting the bones months or years after death can only come from the experience of years spent evaluating thousands of bones, whether in a morgue, laboratory, or museum. For this reason, coroners, medical examiners, and other forensic specialists rely upon the expertise of forensic anthropologists.
Forensic anthropologists are also trained to evaluate and recognize how environmental conditions alter the appearance and composition of bone over the span of time since death. For example, an untrained eye can mistake the chafing or erosion of the braincase by water or wind for a wound that occurred at the time of death. Similarly, conical depressions and tiny parallel grooves can be interpreted as knife wounds, but may actually be tooth marks from carnivores or rodents, respectively. Thus, skeletal trauma analysis differentiates between patterns of violent trauma caused by a weapon at the time of death and fracturing or breakage caused by animals or weathering after death.
Because forensic anthropologists are typically better equipped to locate and map the human skeletal remains and eliminate rocks, sticks, and animal bones from the evidence collection, our activities allow investigating agencies to reallocate their resources to other facets of the investigation. For example, many of the forensic anthropologists called to help in the recovery of victims of the 11 September World Trade Center attack (of which I was one) were tasked with sorting the human remains from the incomprehensible volume of nonhuman material, rocks, sticks, and other debris. Although we did not use our skills to positively identify the victims in this case, our work sped up the identification process conducted in large part by DNA and dental experts. For these reasons, forensic anthropologists have become scientific linchpins for many forensic investigations, helping in the recovery and analysis of the victims of mass fatalities in addition to tying the perpetrators of crime to the victim and weapon by using our knowledge of tool marks on bone.
The inclusion of forensic anthropologists early in an investigation helps to ensure maximum recovery and protection of the human skeletal remains and allows the evidence response team members to focus upon other lines of evidence (fingerprints, fibers, DNA). Furthermore, a forensic anthropologist?s skeletal analysis helps to identify the victim and determine how the victim may have died. Because of the nature of the cases that they work on--victims that are badly decomposed, skeletonized, or when body parts are missing--the forensic anthropologist is often the victim?s last chance for identification and justice.
Monica Caison
CUE Center for Missing Persons
PO Box 12714
Wilmington, NC 28405
(910) 343-1131
(910) 232-1687 24 Hour Line
Email: cuecenter@aol.com
Website: http://www.ncmissingpersons.org/
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