Forensic identification of missing persons using DNA from surviving relatives and femur bone retrieved from salty environment

The measurement of extremity bones length in forensic identification can be used to determine the personal identity, one of which is the stature. Several studies have been conducted to generate predictive regression formula, yet, each formula resulted different number of one’s stature including various methods of its measurement. This research aims to analyze the correlation between extremity bones length with stature, measurement methods, final result deviation, and which part of extremity bones has the strongest correlations. The articles were searched and collected from Google scholar and Sciencedirect.com by entering “extremity bone length and stature” as the keywords in which 25 qualified articles were reviewed based on the inclusion criteria under this research. In terms of upper extremity, 10 of 17 articles revealed a correlation between forearm/radius and ulna bone with the stature (58.8%), 5 articles in upper arm/humerus bone (29,4%), and 2 articles in hand length (11,8). Meanwhile, in lower extremity, 4 of 9 articles showed a strong correlation between tibia and fibula bone with stature (44,5%), 3 articles in femur bone (33,3%), and 2 articles in foot length (22,2%). Based on the measurement methods, 24 articles (96%) used percutaneus measurement, and only 1 article (4%) used post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT). This research concluded that all the components of extremity bones length have a significant correlation with stature, although its correlation is various. The best method is percutaneus measurement to avoid the potential bias occurred in imaging method.

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Assisting Forensic Identification through Unsupervised Information Extraction of Free Text Autopsy Reports: The Disappearances Cases during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship

Information ◽

10.3390/info10070231 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 231 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Martin-Rodilla ◽

Hattori ◽

Gonzalez-Perez

Keyword(s):

Information Extraction ◽

Police Officers ◽

Pattern Search ◽

Forensic Identification ◽

Free Text ◽

Military Dictatorship ◽

Named Entities ◽

Missing Persons ◽

Common Causes ◽

Unsupervised Algorithms

Anthropological, archaeological, and forensic studies situate enforced disappearance as a strategy associated with the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985), leaving hundreds of persons without identity or cause of death identified. Their forensic reports are the only existing clue for people identification and detection of possible crimes associated with them. The exchange of information among institutions about the identities of disappeared people was not a common practice. Thus, their analysis requires unsupervised techniques, mainly due to the fact that their contextual annotation is extremely time-consuming, difficult to obtain, and with high dependence on the annotator. The use of these techniques allows researchers to assist in the identification and analysis in four areas: Common causes of death, relevant body locations, personal belongings terminology, and correlations between actors such as doctors and police officers involved in the disappearances. This paper analyzes almost 3000 textual reports of missing persons in São Paulo city during the Brazilian dictatorship through unsupervised algorithms of information extraction in Portuguese, identifying named entities and relevant terminology associated with these four criteria. The analysis allowed us to observe terminological patterns relevant for people identification (e.g., presence of rings or similar personal belongings) and automate the study of correlations between actors. The proposed system acts as a first classificatory and indexing middleware of the reports and represents a feasible system that can assist researchers working in pattern search among autopsy reports.

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