Personal identification of cold case remains through combined contribution from anthropological, mtDNA, and bomb-pulse dating analyses.
In 1968, a child's cranium was recovered from the banks of a northern Canadian river and held in a trust until the "cold case" was reopened in 2005. The cranium underwent reanalysis at the Centre for Forensic Research, Simon Fraser University, using recently developed anthropological analysis, "bomb-pulse" radiocarbon analysis, and forensic DNA techniques. Craniometrics, skeletal ossification, and dental formation indicated an age-at-death of 4.4 ± 1 year. Radiocarbon analysis of enamel from two teeth indicated a year of birth between 1958 and 1962. Forensic DNA analysis indicated the child was a male, and the obtained mitochondrial profile matched a living maternal relative to the presumed missing child. These multidisciplinary analyses resulted in a legal identification 41 years after the discovery of the remains, highlighting the enormous potential of combining radiocarbon analysis with anthropological and mtDNA analyses in producing confident personal identifications for forensic cold cases dating to within the last 60 years.
Centre for Forensic Research, Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Camilla F
CF
Speller
Kirsty L
KL
Spalding
Bruce A
BA
Buchholz
Dean
D
Hildebrand
Jason
J
Moore
Rolf
R
Mathewes
Mark F
MF
Skinner
Dongya Y
DY
Yang
D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D000366:Age Determination by Teeth / Q000379:methods*; D053523:Amelogenin / Q000235:genetics; D002170:Canada; D002508:Cephalometry; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003743:Dental Enamel / Q000737:chemistry; D019229:Dentition, Permanent; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods; D005553:Forensic Dentistry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D010012:Osteogenesis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D032107:Populus; D011861:Radiography, Dental; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D012886:Skull; D019227:Tooth Apex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000254:growth & development
D053523:Amelogenin; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial