Isotope analyses to expedite crime investigations

Dead victim identification is an important task in crime investigations. Forensic examination of human remains is vital to establish a person’s identity. The success of a homicide investigation is highly dependent on knowledge of the identity of the victim.

Today, forensic professionals are using three well-established methods; comparative analysis of fingerprints, teeth or DNA for identification, which all require comparison material. However, if the identity is unknown, it is crucial to limit the search for possible matches.

With analysis of so-called bomb-pulse derived 14C analysis of teeth we can provide a very accurate estimation of date of birth. But often the remains consist only of bones.

The proposed studies aim to allow for an estimation of date of birth from 14C analysis of three chemical fractions of bones, but in addition, we also hope to establish an accurate date of death estimation by analysis of the lipid fraction of bones. Using mathematical modeling of analytical data obtained so far, we have obtained promising results.

We are also including other, independent methods for age estimation of samples from the bones of the same deceased subjects. Further, we also want to improve the determination of the origin of dead victims.

We have conducted studies on geographical positioning with 13C and 18O analyses in teeth, and we will now analyze these and and additional stable isotopes for more precise estimation of provenance