Question

You arrive at the scene and discover a body in advanced decomposition. Circumstantial evidence obtained from the apartment manager suggests that the victim is middle-aged, has no criminal record, is edentulous, and had a history of debilitating headaches. The body is severely decomposed, with desiccated fingers, and cannot be visibly identified with a driver's license recovered at the scene. What next step should you take to confirm the identification before releasing the body?

A. Contact the odontology consultant.
B. Attempt to obtain a facial reconstruction.
C. Examine clothing for name markings.
D. Contact local hospitals for radiographs for comparison.
E. Send a sample of DNA to the blood bank.

Answer 1

Contacting local hospitals for radiographs for comparison is the best step to confirm the identity of a decomposed body when visual identification is not viable, especially considering the victim's known medical history and lack of teeth.

Step-by-step explanation:

To confirm the identity of a severely decomposed body where visual identification via driver's license is not possible, the next step would involve methods that can match the remains with known records of the individual. Given the information provided, that the victim is edentulous (without teeth) and had debilitating headaches which may be reflected in medical history, contacting local hospitals for radiographs for comparison (option D) is the most appropriate choice. Prior medical imaging can often include scans of the head that may show specific anomalies or conditions related to the headaches and can include jawbone images that will reflect the edentulous state of the victim, providing a match for identification. The value here is that radiographs can show unique structures and former surgical procedures that are as good as a fingerprint for identification purposes. Furthermore, since forensic anthropology often aids in such cases by analyzing skeletons to provide detailed information about the individual and does not determine the cause of death directly, radiographic comparison complements the anthropological findings.

Forensic anthropology's role would have been to determine whether the remains are human, estimate the individual's age, sex, race, and stature, but in this case, it would not help in the immediate identification. DNA sampling for comparison with a blood bank (option E) assumes that the victim's DNA is already on file, which may not always be the case. Clothing examination for name markings (option C) and facial reconstruction (option B) can be inconclusive due to the state of decomposition. An odontology consultant (option A) typically assists in cases where dental records can be compared, but given the victim is edentulous, this would not be beneficial in this scenario.