The identification of a 'John Doe'.
This paper presents a case report describing the forensic dental investigation that enabled the identification of a decomposed dead body. The body was discovered under such circumstances that there were no known missing persons to account for its occurrence and no clues as to a possible identify. Through teamwork, fragments of nonspecific information were pieced together to point to a possible victim who had disappeared a year earlier and 1,400 miles away. Subtle dental and anthropologic peculiarities were detected and identified on antemortem medical radiographs made 3 years earlier, thus allowing a successful match. The extent of our nation's missing persons and unidentified dead problem is discussed. In a country where almost 40,000 cases of unsolved missing persons are recorded and 2,000 to 10,000 unidentified dead bodies remain anonymous, cooperation among jurisdictions and the use of dental evidence in a computerized form are the likely means of approaching this problem.
D000328:Adult; D003792:Dental Records; D005553:Forensic Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male