FBI artists craft more busts to try to ID the dead

One man had a laminated card that said "Protect the Traveler."

Another wore a jogging shirt with the words "Snake Creek."

Both came to a lonely end three decades ago in Chesapeake, their remains discovered by strangers and never identified.

One died of a gunshot wound, the other of an unknown cause.

Now FBI artists have used their skulls to construct "facial approximations" in hopes the public can provide clues in identifying them.

Leah Bush, Virginia's chief medical examiner, presented the busts at a news conference in Norfolk on Thursday. FBI forensic artists and anthropologists at the FBI in Quantico crafted the busts from plastic and modeling material, using digitized computer imaging and skulls that Bush provided.

Bush oversees the remains of bodies that have never been identified, some dating back to the 1970s. There are some 200 of them, about a third of them homicide victims.

In 2011, she began collaborating with the FBI on facial approximations. A total of 15 have been presented across Virginia. Three have led to identifications - one each in Portsmouth, the Eastern Shore and Richmond.

Thursday's cases consisted of two from Chesapeake and two from Newport News. In a twist worthy of a "Bones" television episode, one case was first presented at a 2011 news conference in Norfolk as a woman, age 35 to 50, found near a Newport News warehouse. DNA testing later showed the body was a man's, so a new facial approximation was created and presented on Thursday.

The fourth bust was that of a man found floating in a Newport News boat harbor in the Chesapeake Bay.

Bush said identification can bring closure for family members who don't know what happened to their missing relatives, and also helps investigators in homicide cases.

"We have murderers walking free because we can't identify the decedent," Bush said. "This aids the police and it aids the family, so it's win-win for everybody."

Every year, about 4,000 unidentified bodies are recovered across the country. At the same time, as many as 100,000 people are listed as missing.

A clearinghouse called the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NAM/US, tries to make connections by cross-referencing databases of missing persons with another that lists characteristics of the unidentified dead.

Launched in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Justice, the site automatically sifts through the data, matching up cases with similar characteristics. It's often used by law enforcers and medical examiners, but it's free and available to anyone.

More sophisticated DNA testing has been helpful and is often included in the clearinghouse data. Facial approximations by FBI forensic artists also bring fresh attention to cases.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at 683-8366.

Friday 1 March 2013

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/02/fbi-artists-craft-more-busts-try-id-dead