title: Provenancing of unidentified corpses by stable isotope techniques - presentation of case studies.
abstract: Stable isotope methods can be used to determine the provenance of unidentified corpses. Body tissue materials such as teeth, bone, hair and nail taken from mortal remains provide information of different time periods of an individuals' life from childhood to death. Tissues of newborns contain provenance information of different time periods during pregnancy of the child's mother. The results of stable isotope analyses of body residues of two adults and a newborn found in Germany between 2010 and 2012 are presented. To determine the geographic origin and movements of unknown individuals, stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur were analysed in hair and bone collagen samples. Amino acid composition and, as a consequence, δ2H, δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S values in human keratin and bone collagen are different. Consequently correction factors were determined to compare isotopic data of bone collagen with those of an extensive worldwide reference hair collection. The isotopic signatures in hair and in bone collagen samples were compared to geographical groups of reference hair samples by canonical discriminant analysis. The results served as the basis for providing provenance constraints for the unidentified persons as requested by the police and prosecution. Ultimately the individuals were identified; hence the isotopic provenance interpretations can be critically evaluated and are shown to be successful.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. Electronic address: christine.lehn@med.uni-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lehn
authors.affiliation: Isolab GmbH, Laboratory for Stable Isotope Analyses, Schweitenkirchen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossmann
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Graw
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000737:chemistry; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007554:Isotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D007554:Isotopes; D007633:Keratins; D003094:Collagen
keywords: Bio-elements; Collagen; Hair database; Human provenancing; Stable isotopes