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Recovery and Interpretation of Burned Human Remains

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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Recovery and Interpretation of Burned Human Remains Author: Steven A. Symes, Ph.D; Dennis C. Dirkmaat, Ph.D.; Stephen Ousley, Ph.D., Erin Chapman, M.S., Luis Cabo, M.S. Document No.: 237966 Date Received: March 2012 Award Number: 2008-DN-BX-K131 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Project Title: “Recovery and Interpretation of Burned Human Remains” National Institute of Justice Award Number #2008-DN-BX-K131 Principal Investigators: Steven A. Symes, PhD, DABFA Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst College 501 E. 38th St. Erie, PA 16546 Phone: (814) 824-3369 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Email: [email protected] Dennis C. Dirkmaat, PhD, DABFA Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst College 501 E. 38th St. Erie, PA 16546 Phone: (814) 824-2105 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Email: [email protected] Stephen D. Ousley, PhD Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst College 501 E. 38th St. Erie, PA 16546 Phone: (814) 824-3116 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Email: [email protected] Report Prepared By: Administrative and Financial POC: Erin Chapman, MS Anna Varhola Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst College Mercyhurst College 501 E. 38th Street 501 E. 38th St. Erie, PA 16546 Erie, PA 16546 Phone: (814) 824-3148 Phone: (814) 824-2531 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Luis Cabo, MS Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute Mercyhurst College 501 E. 38th St. Erie, PA 16546 Phone: (814) 824- 2981 Fax: (814) 824-3627 Email: [email protected] Symes_Dirkmaat_Ousley Final Technical Report Award 2008-DN-BX-K131 ABSRACT Victim remains at fatal fire scenes are typically difficult to detect, recover and handle. All of the burned material at the scene, including biological tissue, is often modified to a similar appearance, and bones, in particular, become discolored, brittle, and highly fragmented. As a consequence, these remains are often missed, disturbed, altered, or even destroyed during scene processing with the existing protocols. The added postmortem fracturing, fragmentation and bone loss resulting from these recovery techniques hinder the already difficult task of autopsy and laboratory analysis of burned human remains. This is especially problematic for bone trauma analysis, as its most immediate goal is distinguishing perimortem (forensically significant) trauma, from postmortem (not forensically significant) alteration. The substantial addition of trauma features created by fire and then recovery can result in a daunting analytical task. Lack of on-scene recordation of relevant information related to body positioning and contextual relationships of remains as well as other physical evidence at the scene, further complicate trauma analysis, biological profile estimation, and event reconstruction. For the trauma analyst, it is arguably difficult to detect and characterize atypical, potentially forensically significant trauma, if the extent of exposure of individual portions of the body to fire is unknown. In addition, very little and often contradictory information regarding what is considered “normal” fire alterations of the human body had been presented. This information lacuna notably included specific burn sequences of soft tissue and patterns of hard tissue modification. The same problem affected estimates as simple and relevant as whether a missing element was ever present at the scene, missed during recovery, or totally consumed by the fire. The present study addressed these problems by linking rigorous scene recovery and documentation methodologies with subsequent laboratory analyses (in particular, bone trauma analysis) of heat altered human remains from fatal fire scenes. This was accomplished by: 1) developing and testing effective fatal fire scene recovery protocols and guidelines, which have proved to maximize the location, documentation and recovery of biological tissues (including bone), while minimizing postmortem bone alteration and damage due to collection and transport methods, 2) precisely documenting and presenting “normal” soft tissue burn sequences and resulting bone modification in fully fleshed human bodies, burned under controlled Symes_Dirkmaat_Ousley Final Technical Report Award 2008-DN-BX-K131 (crematorium) conditions and from actual forensic cases and 3) analyzing the macro- and microscopic effects of fire and heat on previously well-described diagnostic characteristics of tool marks in bone, which served to demonstrate that most of these diagnostic traits can be usually preserved, with their full evidentiary value, even after calcination. Symes_Dirkmaat_Ousley Final Technical Report Award 2008-DN-BX-K131 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I Introduction ...............................................................................................................................25 Statement of Problem ......................................................................................................25 Review of Current Literature ............................................................................................27 Rationale for Research ....................................................................................................30 Introduction to Methodology of Research ................................................................................31 CHAPTER II Research Component 1: Recovery of Burned Human Remains ..........................................33 Materials and Methods ....................................................................................................33 Archival Research ..............................................................................33 Processing Mock Fatal Fire Scenes ...................................................35 Thermocouple Data ..................................................39 Processing Actual Fatal Fire Scenes ..................................................41 Results .............................................................................................................................44 Archival Research...............................................................................44 Processing Mock Fatal Fire Scenes ...................................................49 Thermocouple Data...................................................59 Fatal Fire Scene Processing Protocols.....................62 Appendices......................................77 Processing Actual Fatal Fire Scenes...................................................95 CHAPTER III Research Component 2: Analysis and Interpretation of Heat Altered Bone ....................105 Materials and Methods....................................................................................................105 Burn Patterning Charting of Forensic Cases.......................................106 Symes_Dirkmaat_Ousley Final Technical Report Award 2008-DN-BX-K131 Documentation of Cremations.............................................................113 Results..........................................................................................................................117 Burn Patterning Charting of Forensic Cases.......................................117 Documentation of Cremations.............................................................122 CHAPTER IV Research Component 3: Heat Alterations in Traumatized Bone .......................................138 Materials and Methods.................................................................................................138 Data Source A......................................................................................139 Data Source B......................................................................................142 Data Source C......................................................................................144 Analysis................................................................................................145 Data Sources A and C..................................................145 Data Source B..............................................................148 Description of Coded Traits..........................................150 Definition of Traits.........................................................151 Coding of Presence/Absence of Traits.........................155 Comparing Organic Compositions................................158 Analysis of Kerf Dimensions.........................................162 Results........................................................................................................................167 Species Comparisons..........................................................................167 Treatment Comparisons (Field vs. Laboratory)...................................172 Comparing Organic Compositions.......................................................173 Minimum Kerf Width............................................................................176
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