Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors

Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere

vitae.

“Let conversation cease. Let laughter flee. This is the place

where death delights to help the living.”

(Attributed to many—I took this version from Dr. Bernard Knight’s textbook)

Things that Help UsHelp You

• Tarrant County Medical Examiner District’s

8th Annual “Current Trends in Forensic Science”

• Human Identification Laboratory

• Serving Tarrant, Parker, and Denton Counties

Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District

Human Identification Lab

Roger D Metcalf DDS

Director of Human ID Lab

Chief Forensic Odontologist

Nizam Peerwani MD

Chief Medical Examiner


What we do: pursuant to Art. 49.25 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, we must attempt to identify all remains presented to our office as “unidentified”.

In 2004 we had 206 cases, in 2005 we had 264 cases, in 2006 there were 306, and we project over 320 cases for 2007.

Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s District How we identify remains:

(1) visual, (2) fingerprints, (3) dental records, (4) medical records, (5) DNA.

We generally do not use tattoos for id; our lab does not make the call for circumstantial id.


• Please note: we say our lab makes an id, but only the Medical Examiner or a Judge can legally certify the identity of the decedent—our lab actually makes a recommendation the ME (or JP) can accept or reject.


We rarely get to id remains by visual means—if that were possible, it would have already been done.

The majority of our unidentified remains are id’ed by fingerprints--about 60%


We have access to NCIC/TLETS

We have an in-house AFIS terminal and IAFIS is on the way

Our Latent Print Examiners are Mr. Bill Bailey and Mr. Bill Walker


In our official jurisdiction (Tarrant, Parker, Denton counties), we deal with over 40 different law enforcement agencies (John Briggs, FDI)

Our office also provides the professional services for Wichita and Ector counties

About 80 other counties send their cases to TCME

Most of our remains are in good condition and can befingerprinted fairly easily

And we have a fair number of decomposed remains as well--these can usually be fingerprinted without too much problem


Many times the fingertips can be “degloved” and printed—please make sure decomposing hands are protected during transportation and that all epidermis from the hands is collected


Many of our unidentified persons are “known to law enforcement” and have prints readily retrievable from the DPS Archives or from the FBI database. Our A.F.I.S. “hit rate” is about 62%.

We also obtain a fair number of thumbprints from DPS driver’s license records.


Occasionally a person will have a set of fingerprints on file locally but they have not been submitted to the DPS Archives—it is extremely helpful for our Latent Print Examiners to know if there’s a set of prints available from the local jurisdiction.

There may be a booking thumbprint available from jail records even if a full set of prints was not taken.


We occasionally obtain fingerprints from employers (airport, military contractors, various professions that now require fingerprinting)

Some schools fingerprint their students (legal?)

Some birth certificates have Mom’s thumbprint as well as Baby’s sole print



Citizens of Mexico may have their thumbprint on their national voter registration card

Homeland Security (Biometric Support Center West) maintains a database of “frequent border crossers”

We don’t have much luck getting military or juvenile fingerprints

Undocumented workers are a challenge for us because of thevery fact that they are undocumented. Citizens of Mexico mayhave a Consular ID card which is somewhat helpful, but whatwe really hope to recover is the federal voter registration card.


Some people do not have fingerprints on file and their driver’s license thumbprints are unusable—or their fingers are not suitable for fingerprinting.

So we next think about dental or medical radiograph comparison.

Dr. Dana Austin, DABFA, and Mr. Bill Walker, Latent Print Examiner


Dr. Dana Austin, DABFA, is our full-time, board-certified forensic anthropologist and she does the medical radiograph comparisons.

I am the full-time forensic odontologist and generally do the dental radiograph comparisons—Dr. Kathy Kasper is our deputy forensic odontologist.

Our lab consists of full-time latent print examiners, a forensic anthropologist, and a forensic odontologist.


Mr. Paul Coffman, Human ID Lab Tech, Dr. Dana Austin andDr. Kathy Kasper


Dr. Austin often compares antemortem radiographs of a person’s skull, spine, or pelvis—but other views can be used as well.

The images now often come from a hospital or imaging center on a CD. The old hard-copies of radiographs are routinely shredded for silver recovery after 5 years.

The putative decedent’s physician (name from Rx bottle or insurance records) will not usually have radiographs in the office—but can tell you when and where the decedent was sent for radiographs—or might have a dentist’s name.


Implanted surgical hardware is usually very helpful for id purposes


Teeth are extremely valuable from an id standpoint because they usually survive accidents and trauma quite well and they don’t decompose


For a dental comparison, we usually think about comparing radiographs—but dentists may have other things we could use just as well: plaster models made for crowns or bridges, bleaching trays, orthodontic retainers, nightguards, removable partial dentures.


Name inscribed in denture base

Partial denture located at homeand fitted to remains

Many radiographs are submitted to us electronically



We normally ask for all original radiographs the dentist has—no matter how old the films are—we will duplicate and return the originals.

Diagrams that show location of fillings (odontograms) are extremely helpful, too.

We do not want any financial, insurance, nor billing information.

We are not connected with the Texas State Board of Dentistry and are not interested in any quality-of-care issues.


H.I.P.A.A. specifically does not apply to releasing medical/dental records for id purposes [45 C.F.R. § 164.512 (g) (1)] (just Google “164.512”).

We are not the decedent’s physician nor dentist and are not subject to doctor-patient confidentiality—plus, once a person is deceased, they can no longer be a patient.


Additionally, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 63.006(e) “Release of Dental Records” says:

“A dentist or physician who releases dental records to a person presenting a proper release executed or ordered under this article is immune from civil liability or criminal prosecution for the release of those records.”


If an entity (dentist or doctor’s office, hospital) is being difficult about releasing records, by statute the Chief Medical Examiner has the same authority as a Justice of the Peace regarding death investigations—so a subpoena duces tecum can be issued, if necessary. (An ME’s Inquest is a real court proceeding—an ME can issue a bench warrant to the Sheriff to arrest people, if necessary.)


DNA is usually our last resort--even though it is the “gold standard” for id purposes—may take 6 to 8 weeks to get results.

For best results with STR analysis, we would like a

reference sample from putative parents or children of the decedent.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis can show only that two people are in the same “maternal line”—but for id purposes this may be perfectly adequate. Y-STR analysis can show the same “paternal line,” but is not widely available, yet.


We send our DNA analyses to the University of North Texas Health Science Center DNA Lab in Fort Worth—one of only 3 mito+CODIS DNA labs in the country.

If you work a missing-person’s case, PLEASE be sure that the family donates a reference sample to the Missing Person’s Database—no charge to the family or your agency; just a buccal swab is needed. (UNT: 817-735-0606)


Things that Help Us

Help You with a

Bitemark Case



For an overall view, this is fine; but it is not usable in a bitemark analysis because:

(1) no scale,

(2) limb is not parallel to “film” plane



This is better—not perfect (I took this photo)

(1) ABFO #2 scale is present

(2) limb is parallel to “film” plane—this is same case as before but 3 days later—note how mark is now much less distinct due to healing



Now a scale is present, but limb still not parallel to “film” plane—plus, dentists prefer measurements in millimeters (although that’s a minor point)

Shift gears slightly…


What the odontologist is going to do is make an “overlay” of the suspect’s teeth to compare to the bitemark—an impression of the suspect’s teeth will be taken and a plaster cast made—the incisal (“biting”) edges of the front teeth will be highlighted using Adobe Photoshop®


Then the overlay will be superimposed on the bitemark for comparison—adjusting the size of the injury and the size of the teeth to be on precisely the same scale is absolutely critical to the analysis—so, having a properly positioned scale in the photo is also absolutely critical for the analysis to withstand attack in court


Please remember—first and foremost—swab the injury for DNA before ANYTHING else is done

Make sure the injury is parallel to the “film” plane of the camera and a scale is present

It is not possible to take too many photos of a bitemark


Roger D Metcalf DDSTarrant County Medical Examiner’s DistrictHuman ID Lab200 Feliks Gwozdz PlaceFort Worth, Texas 76104-4919(817) 920-5700 ext 160e-mail: [email protected]://www.metcalf.org.uk

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Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus. Hic locus est ubi mors