Abstract
Under Florida Statute 406, Medical Examiners have the legal authority to consult with forensic anthropologists to examine skeletal remains in the medical examiner’s efforts to determine if the human remains are forensically significant (e.g., that the death occurred less than 75 years ago as the result of a homicide, suicide, natural, accidental, or undetermined manner). By contrast, human remains that are not forensically significant may enter the medical examiner system from anatomical supply companies or abandoned cemeteries inadvertently uncovered during construction. Forensic anthropologists have used Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) in their casework to match commingled skeletal elements in experimental contexts using anatomical donations to evaluate the effectiveness of the instrument for the identification of individuals within genocidal mass graves or other mass fatalities.The LIBS instrument uses a high-pulsed, minimally destructive laser to vaporize a sample to create a spectral elemental analysis from the bone’s surface. For this research, I used LIBS to determine whether human remains exposed to formalin (a preservation chemical used in funerary processes and by medical supply houses) could be differentiated from human remains that had not been preserved in formalin (e.g., simulating those that would be potentially forensically significant). I assessed closed and redacted forensic anthropological case reports from FGCU’s Human Identity/Trauma Analysis laboratory, which underwent LIBS formalin analysis. I found that the LIBS can detect formalin in remains preserved in formalin. This research adds another layer of evidence for medical examiners who rely upon the forensic anthropologist’s analysis of skeletal remains to determine forensic significance.
