Forensic Archaeology

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dana D. Kollmann.

Patricia Calloway was reported missing from Henderson, Kentucky on March 3, 1993. She was last seen in the company of her brother-in-law, Gene Calloway. On October 17, 2012, arrest warrants were executed for Gene and his wife Debra for the felony counts of homicide, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and retaliation against a participant in a legal process. Debra was convicted, but Gene died while awaiting trial. Prior to his death, Gene prepared a crudely drawn map of the body disposal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Courtney Mower. Anna Dhody. Kimberlee S. Moran. Shanan S. Tobe.

The Shuar, native to Northern Peru and Southern Ecuador, prepared shrunken heads to serve as trophies following battle, in response to their cultural beliefs. Authentic shrunken heads (tsantsas) were prepared in a precise manner and exhibit key morphological characteristics. Forgeries, including primates and inauthentic human preparations, were marketed to tourists and private collectors to profit from the "savage" image surrounding the Shuar. Inauthentic shrunken heads were prepared in a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Marie Mires. Claire Gold.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) database lists approximately 100,000 missing persons in the United States. Many of the people who go missing in the United States are victims of homicide. In many cases, the investigation begins only when human remains are found. DNA technology has helped decrease the number of unidentified cases but still, many “unfound” cases remain unsolved. Victims of homicide have no choice as to where their bodies are placed and often suffer violations before and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dana Kollmann.

Archaeological excavations are much like crime scene investigations in that to study them, is to destroy them. Consequently, full-scale documentation, cataloguing, and proper packaging techniques are critical components of archaeological and forensic fieldwork. Archaeologists have the additional benefit to law enforcement of being trained to conduct line and grid searches, interpret soils for evidence of disturbance, and perform exhumations using standardized excavation techniques. Law...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Craig Goralski. Alexis Gray.

Despite being stakeholders with many shared goals, the working relationships between forensic anthropologists, forensic archaeologists, and their colleagues in law enforcement are often strained. The authors argue that cultural differences among the groups have contributed to the underuse and misuse of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists both in the United States and elsewhere, resulting in investigations that are neither as anthropological nor as scientific as juries and the public are...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin DuBois. Tony Waldron. Kate Bowers. Carolyn Rando.

In the field of forensic science, the investigation that follows an explosive attack is one of extreme importance. There are, however, few universally accepted methods for the location and recovery of human remains after an explosion, especial in the cases of an IED or suicide bomb attack. This explains the paucity of available research and guidance on the subject. The research presented here aims to improve practice both in terms of recovery of the victims and in determining the characteristics...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexis Gray. Craig Goralski.

Fueled by the media and uniformed academic advisors, students are flooding into the field of forensics, often with unrealistic expectations of success and future employment. Although careers in forensic anthropology and archaeology are difficult to attain, today’s practitioners have the responsibility to prepare and train the field’s future members. This paper discusses the 2014 field season of the Unidentified Persons Project, a twenty-three student forensic archaeology field school that took...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Marie Mires. Claire Gold.

Forensic archaeology can be a useful tool when searching for "unfound" missing persons. Forensic Archaeology Recovery (FAR, non-profit) has worked on a number of missing persons cases in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Three case studies are presented that highlight FAR’s involvement and assistance in generating new knowledge. The first case study is the search for Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts student who went missing in 2004. The second case is Melanie Melanson, a fourteen year...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mike Groen. Nicholas Marquez-Grant. Rob Janaway.

Forensic archaeology is mostly defined as the use of archaeological methods and principles within a legal context. However, such a definition only covers one aspect of forensic archaeology and misses the full potential this discipline has to offer. This paper will focus on the perception of forensic archaeology as practiced in different countries, intergovernmental organisations or NGO’s. It will show that the practice of forensic archaeology differs worldwide as a result of diverse historical,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kimberlee Moran.

In 2004 the first symposium dedicated to forensic archaeology was organized at the Society for American Archaeology’s annual meeting. At that time, forensic archaeology was struggling to be defined within the archaeological community and was mostly non-existent to forensic practitioners in the USA. The events of 9/11, several domestic high profile mass casualty events, missing persons and some homicide investigations began a gradual momentum towards the recognition of archaeology’s use within...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shanan S. Tobe. Courtney Mower. Anna Dhody. Carolyn Rando. Kimberlee S. Moran.

Forensic biologists utilize the latest DNA technologies to deal with low level, difficult, and degraded samples on a regular basis. In fact, forensic testing is specifically designed and validated to be robust under conditions that would cause most other genetic testing to fail. It is therefore no surprise that forensic genetic techniques can assist museums with research questions regarding their collections. Here we discuss how, using forensic techniques and testing, we were able to analyze...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Seidemann. Christine Halling.

Since the inception of the Louisiana Department of Justice’s human remains acquisition program in 2007, two Tibetan kapalas have been recovered from illegal sales. This commodification of human remains constitutes technical violations of the law, but the nature of the remains makes for an awkward fit to the existing laws. The forensic, bioarchaeological, and cultural analysis of these remains are difficult due to their altered nature, leading to problems of disposition. Questions inherent in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric E. Young.

As the use of archaeologists in forensic matters grows, it is important to define the role the archaeologist ought to play in such situations. Archaeologists should educate law enforcement personnel as to their utility in investigations. It is important that archaeologists understand their usefulness in criminal matters, and even more importantly, archaeologists should understand their limitations in investigations. There is a need to establish guidelines as to what archaeologists should/should...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Craig T. Goralski.

This paper explores the training and education that forensic anthropologists and forensic archaeologists have traditionally received, and how it is put into practice in forensic contexts. The substantial differences in theory, method, and practice between the two sub-disciplines will be summarized and how these differences shape what each can contribute in the field will be discussed. This paper will argue that although some overlap between the two sub-disciplines exists, contemporary...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Seidemann. Christine Halling.

Unlike many other aspects of archaeology, forensic archaeology and anthropology is, in part, only as effective as the courts believe it to be. While peer review is the gold standard for assessing the integrity and viability of the scientific aspects of forensic archaeology and anthropology, passing muster in a court of law can be a different—and sometimes counterintuitive—standard. Although some recent research in this area has examined the impact of court attempts to “police” the integrity of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sharon Moses.

African magic rituals among the graves of the recently dead in the South and elsewhere may not be as rare as one might think. This paper is an exploration of a case wherein the author was called in as a forensic archaeologist and consultant to law enforcement investigating a case of cemetery desecrations with supernatural overtones. Further, during the course of this investigation, possible connections between the author's historical archaeological research excavation of a slave street on a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sharon Moses.

In Fall 2012, I was contacted by a county sheriff's department in South Carolina and their Coroner as well as by the family members of a missing person, to request my assistance as a forensic archaeologist in a body recovery. A 54 year old male had been missing for nearly two years until a timber worker stumbled upon a human bone in the course of marking trees for harvest. What followed was a body recovery wherein I witnessed growing tensions between family members towards law enforcement...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dana Kollmann.

Many students eager to begin a career in the forensic sciences have never been on a crime scene and it is even more unlikely that they have ever had the opportunity to process one. This paper details the unusual circumstances that enabled Towson University students to partner with law enforcement and work on both active and cold cases that have necessitated the search for human remains and associated evidence. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kimberlee S. Moran.

In 2009 the National Research Council released a damning report on the state of forensic science in the United States. The end result has been a six year mission to develop national standards and best practice for the myriad of forensic specialties. Coordinated by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), scientific working groups (SWGs) brought together practitioners, academics, and other stakeholders from around the country to draft documents outlining standard terminology...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly Kaplan.

Beginning in 2006 as a response to California Senate Bill 297, the Unidentified Persons Project is the first statewide attempt to apply modern DNA analysis to cold cases in San Bernardino County. In 2014 the project became an accredited field school through the Institute of Field Research and proceeded to have two consecutive field seasons in the summers of 2014 and 2015. This paper will present a student’s perspective on the most-recent 2015 field season and will discuss both the rewards and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Martin. Blair Tormey.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) results can factor into the decision to excavate in the search for a clandestine grave. Most published research and case studies focus on the successful location and recovery of human remains, while relatively few examples have been published showing negative results. This presentation highlights a cold case where the data interpretation led to excavation, but did not produce the target sought. Information from a confidential informant led investigators to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Craig Goralski. Alexis Gray.

In 2014, the Unidentified Persons Project transitioned from being a small scale volunteer-based project to a twenty-three student forensic archaeology field school, allowing for the exhumation and DNA sampling of a much larger number of individuals than had been previously possible. This paper will summarize the opportunities and challenges associated with this transition from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, and will discuss the evolution of the project’s research questions and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Martin McAllister. Brent Kober.

Law enforcement officers working for agencies not directly involved in land management, such as county sheriff’s departments, traditionally have not been trained to recognize evidence of crimes related to resource protection, for example, artifacts and human remains stolen in the commission of archaeological crimes. In a recent class presented by our firm and cohosted by the Lake County, California Sheriff’s Department and two California tribes, sheriff’s deputies and evidence technicians...