Determining the identity of a body from skeletal remains is all in a day's work for a crime writer, Oh, and for a forensic anthropolgist
I've been doing some research for the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel I am currently writing, which will be number eight in the series, and part of this research involves determining the identity of an individual from the skeletal remains. (Hope I'm not giving too much away about the plot here). As ever the Internet provides a rich resource of information and I found a fascinating and comprehensive article on the subject. It says that the analysis of an endoskeleton from the remains of an individual can provide information about the identity of the person that died, as well as information regarding physical characteristics about that person and sometimes the manner in which they died although the latter can be difficult because of decomposition. Cause of death can be due to many reasons such as fires, homicides, explosions, wild animals, poisoning, drowning etc. This is where a Forensic Anthropologist is often consulted. Forensic Anthropologists are exp...