Forensic Science Specialists by Judith Williams

Author:Judith Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enslow Publishing, LLC

The headless walrus carcasses were found on the beaches of the Seward Peninsula, separated from Russia by only about 55 miles (89 km) of water.

The origin of the carcasses was still unknown. The method used to hunt walruses complicated this problem. Native hunters were allowed to kill walruses if they spotted them swimming in the open sea—this is called pelagic hunting. More commonly, walruses are hunted when they are on ice floes. Usually they are shot, and then the meat is harvested from the body.

Espinoza shifted his research to where he thought the animals might have been killed. St. Lawrence Island and Gamble Island are nearby. They are also located along the route of migrating walruses. Hunters are more likely to kill walruses migrating in groups.2 An examination of the ocean currents from St. Lawrence Island and Gamble Island showed that dead walruses would float from there to the Seward Peninsula beaches.

True Confessions?

Once the Inupiat and Yupik were confronted with the evidence of the floating carcasses, they changed their story. Yes, the native people admitted, they had cut the heads from the walruses. But, they said, the animals were dead when they beached on the Seward Peninsula. If so, then removing their heads was not a crime.

To prove or disprove the natives’ claims, Espinoza needed a way to discover if the walruses had been dead when they washed up onto the beach. Espinoza believed that hunters had killed the animals out at sea, the heads had been removed for the ivory tusks, and then the dead bodies eventually had washed ashore.

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