9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil

Helen Kocur

9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil

This article is about a 9,000 year old decapitation that was discovered in southeastern Brazil in an area known as Lapa do Santo.  This discovery found the oldest decapitation in the New World and researchers used forensic anthropology, which assists in the study of locating human skeletal remains, to find exactly how the remains were interred with such sophistication.  These remains were found in a rock shelter.  The bones date back to 9,000 years and were dated using accelerated mass spectronomy on a sample of the sphenoid bone, an area near the forehead that forms the eye socket.  Accelerated mass spectronomy is a technique for measuring long-lived radionuclides that occur naturally in our environment, and from this information it is possible to date back bones.   The area in which these bones were founded contains evidence of human habitation as far back as 12,000 years ago,  about the time when experts say the land bridge between Asia and North America were closed off by rising sea levels. Strontium analysis was used to compare the isotopic signature of the remains to other specimen found at Lapa do Santo.  Similarities were found, which suggests that the remains were from a local group and part of a burial ritual and not an event that might take place after a war with outsiders.   

This discovery is very significant.  Because of  this discovery of a decapitation, a whole new discovery was made about this specific ancient civilization.  The analysis of these decapitations caused some experts to reevaluate what is commonly accepted and thought about prehistoric burial rituals.  Researchers found amputated hands arranged over the face in a very particular way.  This suggested that the group practised a defined burial ritual.  If this is true, this might be some of the earliest evidence for advanced mortuary techniques in the new world.     

This article was very interesting to read.  It was very helpful that they put diagrams and pictures of what the decapitations and bones looked like.  One weakness of this article is that the author did not do a very good job with defining the scientific terminology, which I had to look up myself to write this review.  This article could be improved if it further described why the civilization would bury there decapitations in a certain way.  This would have made the article a lot more interesting to read.  Overall, I enjoyed reading this article as it enhanced my understanding of how forensic anthropology works.    

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/09/9000-year-old-decapitation-discovered-brazil

"9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil." Forensic Magazine. Ed. Sean Allocca. N.p., 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics

The article, ‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics, shares a heartbreaking story on how a toddler was found in a plastic bag on the beach in Massachusetts. The case remained unsolved, until two months later. The pollen particles on the girl have been a tremendous help in solving this case, as to how and why this girl was killed and left on the beach. The pollen particles found on the girl's clothing and body was detected to be from around the area that she was left, around boston. Forensic palynology, or the scientific method of establishing “pollen prints” is now the main resource for solving this investigation. Vaughn Bryant, the director of the palynology laboratory at Texas A&M University said, “You’re looking for a combination of things – the percent of pine, the mixture of the different spores… every place has a unique pollen print. When it works, it works really well.” Figure out what happened to this young girl, and where she is from has been a lot easier using the forensic palynology.

Forensic Palynology is not used very often in the United States, but outside of the States it is used frequently. Bryant said it should be used more in the United States, and one key reason being, pollen won’t erase from your clothes even if you wash them. This article is relevant and important to our lives and forensics because it shares the importance Forensic Palynology, which is rarely used here in the US. Forensic scientists have used Palynology for the Baby Doe case, and identifying the home regions of immigrants who die in the desert and have no means of identification, but that is about it. The effect it had on the Baby Doe case is huge, and it should prove to scientists here in the United States to use this method more often.

I thought this was an overall very interesting and insightful article. I thought it could have included a lit more information about the Baby Doe case, and could have gone into more depth about how it all played out. It could have explained how she died, and who the parents were. I thought it had a lot of good information, and great reasoning behind the fact that this type of forensics should be used here in the United States. I really enjoyed this article, and thought the story behind it was very interesting.

Augenstein, Seth. "'Baby Doe' Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics."Forensic Magazine. N.p., 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/08/baby-doe-breakthrough-showcases-pollen-forensics?cmpid

‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics

The article, ‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics, shares a heartbreaking story on how a toddler was found in a plastic bag on the beach in Massachusetts. The case remained unsolved, until two months later. The pollen particles on the girl have been a tremendous help in solving this case, as to how and why this girl was killed and left on the beach. The pollen particles found on the girl's clothing and body was detected to be from around the area that she was left, around boston. Forensic palynology, or the scientific method of establishing “pollen prints” is now the main resource for solving this investigation. Vaughn Bryant, the director of the palynology laboratory at Texas A&M University said, “You’re looking for a combination of things – the percent of pine, the mixture of the different spores… every place has a unique pollen print. When it works, it works really well.” Figure out what happened to this young girl, and where she is from has been a lot easier using the forensic palynology.

Forensic Palynology is not used very often in the United States, but outside of the States it is used frequently. Bryant said it should be used more in the United States, and one key reason being, pollen won’t erase from your clothes even if you wash them. This article is relevant and important to our lives and forensics because it shares the importance Forensic Palynology, which is rarely used here in the US. Forensic scientists have used Palynology for the Baby Doe case, and identifying the home regions of immigrants who die in the desert and have no means of identification, but that is about it. The effect it had on the Baby Doe case is huge, and it should prove to scientists here in the United States to use this method more often.

I thought this was an overall very interesting and insightful article. I thought it could have included a lit more information about the Baby Doe case, and could have gone into more depth about how it all played out. It could have explained how she died, and who the parents were. I thought it had a lot of good information, and great reasoning behind the fact that this type of forensics should be used here in the United States. I really enjoyed this article, and thought the story behind it was very interesting.

Augenstein, Seth. "'Baby Doe' Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics."Forensic Magazine. N.p., 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/08/baby-doe-breakthrough-showcases-pollen-forensics?cmpid=verticalcontent

posted for E. Grass

Forensic Failures At State Crime Labs May Jeopardize Cases

Emme Kerj

Current event 1, forensics science

The article explains how a lab in Illinois has been making errors in their testing. More specifically, the article explains that a man hit a couple walking across the street claiming that the couple came out of nowhere however when the Illinois lab tested the driver they found him to be under the influence so the driver was therefore facing several years in federal prison. Later on when the driver’s lawyer examined the blood alcohol tests, however, he found them to be inaccurate. This called for a revision of the lab and their scientific methods and what they found out was that there had been multiple previous cases of inaccurate testing in the Illinois lab. After the driver’s lawyer showed these results to the prosecutor, he decided not to use the blood alcohol tests in the case and the driver was found innocent. The article also quotes the driver’s concern regarding the severity of the disorganization and mistakes made in the lab since he could have ended up in jail if the lawyer had not helped to prove that the tests were inaccurate. The article also explains what kind of errors had taken place in the lab: switched test samples, mislabeled specimen, mix up of results, improper calibrations of tests and samples that had been wrongly destroyed. According to “Ramsell” the biggest problem is that the lab has been lacking a procedure in which you extra check your results after conducting a test, which is a crucial component in a lab.

Something that shocked me about the article is that the state police was aware of the lack of validation for the scientific testing in the lab and they did not report it or do anything about it. I think that this article is relevant to most people because if you ever were to get arrested for something you didn’t do, you would want to be able to rely on that chemical testing in a lab would prove you innocent. I think it’s pretty scary that labs don’t take enough precautions in order to make sure that all testing is accurate and that there are no mix ups in the lab. I also think that if you take on the responsibility of working in a lab such as the state Illinois one, it is almost disrespectful to the people who are being tested if you are not organized.

Overall, I think that the lab did a good job explaining the incident however I would have liked to know more about what exactly it was that made the test inaccurate and if they ever did a retest or such. I also would have liked to know what the police meant by that their methods are widely accepted in the scientific field.

Goudie, Chuck, and Ann Pistone. "Forensic Failures at State Crime Labs May Jeopardize Cases." ABC7 Chicago. ABC 7, 23 Sept. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/forensic-failures-at-state-crime-labs-may-jeopardize-cases/998927/?

Swatting in New Jersey

The article I read is about a recent trend of what is known as "swatting" sweeps New Jersey. Swatting is a

fake call to 911 or the FBI using a disguised voice and a fake number and claiming to have a hostage. This

causes a SWAT team to be sent to the location of the phone call. It is being used to have schools, hospitals,

and malls shut down and evacuated. According to experts on the subject, it is a relatively easy criminal

"prank" to learn to do. They say it is easy to do, and catching the perpetrator is the difficult part. The Robert

Wood Johnson  University Hospital, and several schools in Princeton, Cresskill, and West Milford were all

victim to these criminal hoaxes.

The wave of fake calls plaguing New Jersey is likely only to be stopped by a large scale investigation by an

agency such as the FBI. The FBI wants to make the penalty more severe for people caught doing this

because of how costly it is to the public safety. Most instances of swatting are reported to have computer

generated voices in the call. Dallas Texas had a similar problem, they had a spree of hoax calls that lasted

years. The man behind it was Matthew Weigman. He was tried and sentenced to 11 years in a federal

prison, at the age of 19. A concern was expressed by a few different police agencies that fake calls were

being used to observe police resources.

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2015/06/swatting_easy_to_do_harder_to_investigate.html?

Can DNA Testing Determine Age?

Augenstein, Seth. "Can DNA Testing Determine Age?" Forensic Magazine. Forensicmag, 10 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2015.

This article presents an event that brings humanity a step closer to solving crimes faster. DNA forensic technology is continuously exploring the human genome, which allows scientists to determine gender, race, hair and eye color, and now age. For the first time, age is being determined by blood and tooth samples. This technique can be used in future investigations to determine the perpetrator. The margin of error for blood samples is 3.75 years and 4.86 for teeth. The prediction error is smallest for younger children and larger for individual as they increase in age. One of the authors, Bram Bekaert, said that this is probably due to the effect of the environment on the epigenome. “The longer people live, the longer their epigenome is influenced by the environment, and consequently the larger our prediction error will become.” The amount of genetic material needed to make a prediction is decreasing while knowledge on this topic is increasing.

This article is significant to humanity because it will allow investigators to determine the criminal faster and with less genetic material. In the very near future, fewer criminals will be roaming the streets and the information on this topic will increase in capacity. The more tests scientists do using this technique, the smaller the prediction error will become. “This paper reports the highest prediction accuracy we’ve seen for estimating age from biological samples, and we are excited about the possibilities this could bring to the field of DNA phenotyping, namely informing the age we assign to our Snapshot composite images,” stated the Parabon CEO, Steven Armentrout.

This article was strong in stating the affects on society from the acquirement of this DNA testing. Also, the explanations about the prediction errors were well expressed and left the reader wondering if it will ever be perfect. Nevertheless, the article did struggle with presenting the background of DNA testing thoroughly and efficiently, it just explained what this new technology can do for criminal cases and the government. This article could improve the quality of the information and its relevance to the main idea. Overall, I was pleased with this article and enjoyed reading it.

Posted for S. Dubbini

Non-Lethal Child Physical Abuse

Banheiro R, Pereira EC, Pereira CP (2015) Injuries of Non-Lethal Child Physical Abuse to the Crania and Orofacial Regions: A Scientific Review. J Forensic Res 6:285. doi: 10.4172/2157-7145.1000285

 

The article I read was about Injuries of Non-Lethal Child Physical Abuse and how to detect it. It describes how dentists should be able to recognize the indicators of injury by maltreatment. You can see signs from external lesions of the head or neck or intraoral lesions. It had been concluded through a gather of scientific research that there would be scientific evidence of maltreatment form the oral cavity, head and neck regions that could have possible injuries by maltreatment of children or young children. It describes how child abuse and neglect is a failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which could lead to physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or prevailing four main forms of child abuse: physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and neglect. This article describes ways that are forms of physical abuse. SBS, shaken baby syndrome, is a form of abuse where a baby is shaken so hard that it kills them or leaves long term health and development issues. It leads to traumatic brain injury and disabilities such as seizures, spasticity, blindness, and mental retardation. Changes in behavior are typically signs of abuse.

The article is very important because it teaches people how to see the signs of abuse within children or adults. There are a lot of kids who are afraid to speak up about what is going on, but there are so many signs of seeing what is happening. There is an ad in New York City that I saw over the weekend and it was a little girl looking out and she looked like a normal girl. SHe had on a pink shirt with jean pants. She wasn’t smiling and her hair were in nice pigtails. That was from the front view. Then when I started to walk closer to it, a black and purple eye had showed up, cuts and scratches all over her face, her pants and shirts were ripped, her hair was a mess, and she was crying. I asked my very tall brother if he had seen what I saw in the ad, and he said he just saw a girl. I later found out that this ad was made for children that are short. It is an ad for kids to speak up and call for help without the abuser knowing. This article is about how you can see signs of abuse within adults or children.

One of the strengths of this article is that it describes how to notice signs of abuse very clearly even if you are a dentist. It talks about some forms of abuse which I didn’t even know of. One form of abuse was lesions in the back of the head or neck. Some weaknesses that I found in the article was that it didn’t describe scenarios about what would be happening when the abuse was taken place or what goes through an abusers head to abuse someone. I think that it should have been stronger in the area of describing percentages of ages that are abused more frequently and giving ways to stop the abuse.

Posted for G. DiMinno
 

http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/injuries-of-nonlethal-child-physical-abuse-to-the-crania-and-orofacial-regions-a-scientific-review-2157-7145-1000285.php?aid=51868

Can DNA Evidence Solve a 30-Year-Old Crime?

Ian Baxter

Forensics

Current Event

           

            I read an article which discusses the advantages and the flaws of DNA evidence through a 30 –year-old case. This case in which a 14 year old girl was murdered in 1984 was finally believed to have been solved in 2014. However, looking back on the case, the author of the article James Vlahos observes that the conclusion of this case could potentially be wrong. He starts the article with a brief introduction to some of the main suspects in the Claire Hough case, a convicted rapist (Ronald Tatro), and a former DNA analyst (Kevin Brown). The article discusses the details of the case, while simultaneously analyzing the potential of both men as suspects in the case. In 1984, Claire Hough traveled from Rhode Island to San Diego for a week long visit with her grandparents, and one night, the snuck out alone to the beach, to a secluded spot under a bridge. Her body was found at five the next morning mutilated, beaten, with her mouth full of sand. The case was unable to have been solved for years, but in 2012, police seemingly made a breakthrough discovery: the blood of Ronald Tatro on Hough’s clothing. However, new analysis also turned up apparent traces of DNA from Kevin Brown’s sperm. Throughout this article, the author leans more and more toward the idea that Kevin Brown was the one who committed the crime, until he finally reveals Kevin Brown committed suicide after questioning placed him as the prime suspect in the case. This case will never be definitely solved, but it leads to questions about the reliability of DNA evidence. As Brown was once a crime-lab analyst working in the same lab attempting to solve the Claire Hough case, the article insists that it is a possibility Brown’s DNA is accidentally matched. It is believed he was at once working at the very same table as the analyst working the Hughes case. Ultimately this article poses the question: can we rely on DNA analysis as a precise way of solving a crime?

            This article is undoubtedly very significant to everyday life. The article stressed the flaws of DNA analysis through numerous cases in which DNA samples had been tampered with to a certain extent in the lab, and someone was wrongfully placed in jail. Whether or not DNA analysis can be trusted as a precise way of solving a crime is a very relevant subject, as DNA analysis is one of the most used methods of solving a crime today. The article touches upon the fact that while DNA analysis has the potential to solve crimes, it also has the potential to place an innocent person in jail. This is very important in our society, because it stresses the flimsiness of such a commonly used crime-lab method.

            I found it troubling to read this article due to the gruesome details and the graphic description of the crime scene in 1984, but thought that the author did an excellent job poising the question of whether or not DNA analysis can be considered a precise way of solving crimes. Through the Claire Houghes case the author makes excellent points and connections, which made me think about all of the possible innocent people in jail for a crime they did not commit. Ultimately, this article did a great job in making the reader think about the subject at hand, and providing evidence to support the author’s theory. However, I believe that the author provided unnecessary details at certain points of the article, and felt he could have shortened the article and the details of the Claire Houghes story in order to keep the focus on the great overall idea of the article. In order to improve the article I would suggest that the author takes out some unnecessary details of the story, the suspects, etc. so that the reader is able to place their focus on the major points of the article.

Citation:

- Vlahos, James. "Can DNA Evidence Solve a 30-Year-Old Crime?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/a-death-at-torrey-pines/403186/>.

Positive Identification of Skeletal Remains Combining Smile Photographs and Forensic Anthropology – A Case Report

The article, the authors explore a case in which the victim was correctly identified through a smile photograph. Due to the increase of violent deaths in the past decades, the number of cadavers that are subjected to examination have risen, particularly in Brazil. These violent deaths often cause the cadaver to be altered, in which forensic experts may find the body to be mutilated, charred, decomposed, or skeletal remains (1). Forensic dentistry has become an alternative when fingerprint and facial analysis are impossible. Smile photographs have become more common, as the authors say, because of the “current increase of digital inclusion, social networking, and virtual communication”(1). Experts compare the dentistry of the cadaver antemortem (AM), or before death, to the post-mortem (PM), or after death. The authors of the case study mention that orthodontic differences allows identification to occur at a higher percentage, in which 91.6% of cases were correctly determined versus the 72.9% of cases where the cadaver had been “orthodontically treated”(3). These differences aided in the identification of a cadaver that was found in Goiás, Brazil. Although general characteristics of the body, such as that the victim was male with mixed ancestry and between the ages of 18 and 25, a smile photograph was what confirmed its identity.

In this growing digital age, smile photographs is a sensible solution to identify a potential victim, whose body was greatly disfigured because of a violent death. However, it can only be used as an alternative. The authors stress that in order to compare the two images of before and after death, a “detailed anthropological exam”(3) has to performed. This narrows down the police list of missing persons. Also, the experts have to make sure that in the comparison and manipulation of the smile photographs, the proportions are not altered as well, otherwise the outcome would be unreliable. Society has given forensics experts another tool for identification because of the increasing use of social media, which in turn often provides photos of individuals.

This case report, although short by normal standards, is a thorough overview of smile photographs and how they are used. It was difficult to read at first because of all of the scientific terminology, but it made sense after reading the article over a few times. They bring up some points that I had not thought about before, such as the use of this digital world as evidence and proof to solve violent deaths. Though the one example they give seems efficient, it may help readers better understand the whole process if there had been another example of this new tool. Otherwise, this case report has opened my eyes to the possibilities that the use of smile photographs in this day and age has created.

Silva, Rhonan Ferreira, Ademir Franco Franco, Fernando Fortes Picoli, Lívia Graziele

Rodrigues, Rhodolfo Ferreira Silva, and João Batista De Souza. "Positive Identification of Skeletal Remains Combining Smile Photographs and Forensic Anthropology – A Case Report." Forensic Research 6.5 (2015): 1-3. Http://www.omicsonline.org. Silva RF, 2 Aug. 2015. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.

http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/positive-identification-of-skeletal-remains-combining-smile-photographs-and-forensic-anthropology--a-case-report-2157-7145-1000303.pdf