Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere
vitae.
“Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This is the place
where death delights to help the living.”
(Attributed to many—I took this version from Dr. Bernard Knight’s textbook)
Things that Help UsHelp You
• Tarrant County Medical Examiner District’s
8th Annual “Current Trends in Forensic Science”
• Human Identification Laboratory
• Serving Tarrant, Parker, and Denton Counties
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Human Identification Lab
Roger D Metcalf DDS
Director of Human ID Lab
Chief Forensic Odontologist
Nizam Peerwani MD
Chief Medical Examiner
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
What we do: pursuant to Art. 49.25 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, we must attempt to identify all remains presented to our office as “unidentified”.
In 2004 we had 206 cases, in 2005 we had 264 cases, in 2006 there were 306, and we project over 320 cases for 2007.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District How we identify remains:
(1) visual, (2) fingerprints, (3) dental records, (4) medical records, (5) DNA.
We generally do not use tattoos for id; our lab does not make the call for circumstantial id.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
• Please note: we say our lab makes an id, but only the Medical Examiner or a Judge can legally certify the identity of the decedent—our lab actually makes a recommendation the ME (or JP) can accept or reject.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
We rarely get to id remains by visual means—if that were possible, it would have already been done.
The majority of our unidentified remains are id’ed by fingerprints--about 60%
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
We have access to NCIC/TLETS
We have an in-house AFIS terminal and IAFIS is on the way
Our Latent Print Examiners are Mr. Bill Bailey and Mr. Bill Walker
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
In our official jurisdiction (Tarrant, Parker, Denton counties), we deal with over 40 different law enforcement agencies (John Briggs, FDI)
Our office also provides the professional services for Wichita and Ector counties
About 80 other counties send their cases to TCME
Most of our remains are in good condition and can befingerprinted fairly easily
And we have a fair number of decomposed remains as well--these can usually be fingerprinted without too much problem
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Many times the fingertips can be “degloved” and printed—please make sure decomposing hands are protected during transportation and that all epidermis from the hands is collected
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Many of our unidentified persons are “known to law enforcement” and have prints readily retrievable from the DPS Archives or from the FBI database. Our A.F.I.S. “hit rate” is about 62%.
We also obtain a fair number of thumbprints from DPS driver’s license records.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Occasionally a person will have a set of fingerprints on file locally but they have not been submitted to the DPS Archives—it is extremely helpful for our Latent Print Examiners to know if there’s a set of prints available from the local jurisdiction.
There may be a booking thumbprint available from jail records even if a full set of prints was not taken.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
We occasionally obtain fingerprints from employers (airport, military contractors, various professions that now require fingerprinting)
Some schools fingerprint their students (legal?)
Some birth certificates have Mom’s thumbprint as well as Baby’s sole print
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Citizens of Mexico may have their thumbprint on their national voter registration card
Homeland Security (Biometric Support Center West) maintains a database of “frequent border crossers”
We don’t have much luck getting military or juvenile fingerprints
Undocumented workers are a challenge for us because of thevery fact that they are undocumented. Citizens of Mexico mayhave a Consular ID card which is somewhat helpful, but whatwe really hope to recover is the federal voter registration card.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Some people do not have fingerprints on file and their driver’s license thumbprints are unusable—or their fingers are not suitable for fingerprinting.
So we next think about dental or medical radiograph comparison.
Dr. Dana Austin, DABFA, and Mr. Bill Walker, Latent Print Examiner
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Dr. Dana Austin, DABFA, is our full-time, board-certified forensic anthropologist and she does the medical radiograph comparisons.
I am the full-time forensic odontologist and generally do the dental radiograph comparisons—Dr. Kathy Kasper is our deputy forensic odontologist.
Our lab consists of full-time latent print examiners, a forensic anthropologist, and a forensic odontologist.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Mr. Paul Coffman, Human ID Lab Tech, Dr. Dana Austin andDr. Kathy Kasper
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Dr. Austin often compares antemortem radiographs of a person’s skull, spine, or pelvis—but other views can be used as well.
The images now often come from a hospital or imaging center on a CD. The old hard-copies of radiographs are routinely shredded for silver recovery after 5 years.
The putative decedent’s physician (name from Rx bottle or insurance records) will not usually have radiographs in the office—but can tell you when and where the decedent was sent for radiographs—or might have a dentist’s name.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Implanted surgical hardware is usually very helpful for id purposes
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Teeth are extremely valuable from an id standpoint because they usually survive accidents and trauma quite well and they don’t decompose
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
For a dental comparison, we usually think about comparing radiographs—but dentists may have other things we could use just as well: plaster models made for crowns or bridges, bleaching trays, orthodontic retainers, nightguards, removable partial dentures.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Name inscribed in denture base
Partial denture located at homeand fitted to remains
Many radiographs are submitted to us electronically
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
We normally ask for all original radiographs the dentist has—no matter how old the films are—we will duplicate and return the originals.
Diagrams that show location of fillings (odontograms) are extremely helpful, too.
We do not want any financial, insurance, nor billing information.
We are not connected with the Texas State Board of Dentistry and are not interested in any quality-of-care issues.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
H.I.P.A.A. specifically does not apply to releasing medical/dental records for id purposes [45 C.F.R. § 164.512 (g) (1)] (just Google “164.512”).
We are not the decedent’s physician nor dentist and are not subject to doctor-patient confidentiality—plus, once a person is deceased, they can no longer be a patient.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Additionally, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 63.006(e) “Release of Dental Records” says:
“A dentist or physician who releases dental records to a person presenting a proper release executed or ordered under this article is immune from civil liability or criminal prosecution for the release of those records.”
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
If an entity (dentist or doctor’s office, hospital) is being difficult about releasing records, by statute the Chief Medical Examiner has the same authority as a Justice of the Peace regarding death investigations—so a subpoena duces tecum can be issued, if necessary. (An ME’s Inquest is a real court proceeding—an ME can issue a bench warrant to the Sheriff to arrest people, if necessary.)
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
DNA is usually our last resort--even though it is the “gold standard” for id purposes—may take 6 to 8 weeks to get results.
For best results with STR analysis, we would like a
reference sample from putative parents or children of the decedent.
Mitochondrial DNA analysis can show only that two people are in the same “maternal line”—but for id purposes this may be perfectly adequate. Y-STR analysis can show the same “paternal line,” but is not widely available, yet.
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
We send our DNA analyses to the University of North Texas Health Science Center DNA Lab in Fort Worth—one of only 3 mito+CODIS DNA labs in the country.
If you work a missing-person’s case, PLEASE be sure that the family donates a reference sample to the Missing Person’s Database—no charge to the family or your agency; just a buccal swab is needed. (UNT: 817-735-0606)
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Things that Help Us
Help You with a
Bitemark Case
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
For an overall view, this is fine; but it is not usable in a bitemark analysis because:
(1) no scale,
(2) limb is not parallel to “film” plane
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
This is better—not perfect (I took this photo)
(1) ABFO #2 scale is present
(2) limb is parallel to “film” plane—this is same case as before but 3 days later—note how mark is now much less distinct due to healing
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Now a scale is present, but limb still not parallel to “film” plane—plus, dentists prefer measurements in millimeters (although that’s a minor point)
Shift gears slightly…
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
What the odontologist is going to do is make an “overlay” of the suspect’s teeth to compare to the bitemark—an impression of the suspect’s teeth will be taken and a plaster cast made—the incisal (“biting”) edges of the front teeth will be highlighted using Adobe Photoshop®
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Then the overlay will be superimposed on the bitemark for comparison—adjusting the size of the injury and the size of the teeth to be on precisely the same scale is absolutely critical to the analysis—so, having a properly positioned scale in the photo is also absolutely critical for the analysis to withstand attack in court
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Please remember—first and foremost—swab the injury for DNA before ANYTHING else is done
Make sure the injury is parallel to the “film” plane of the camera and a scale is present
It is not possible to take too many photos of a bitemark
Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District
Roger D Metcalf DDSTarrant County Medical Examiner’s DistrictHuman ID Lab200 Feliks Gwozdz PlaceFort Worth, Texas 76104-4919(817) 920-5700 ext 160e-mail: [email protected]://www.metcalf.org.uk