The Bone Lady by Mary H. Manhein

Author:Mary H. Manhein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 1999-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Though such cases as the little girl in the woods are never forgotten, our immediate attention must focus on others that follow. In 1992 a flattened mass of desiccated tissue and broken bones came to my laboratory. An X ray confirmed that the remains were all that was left of a human fetus. The fractured arm bones and hands of the baby revealed it to be about five months or so into development. I established the age by measuring the length of the metacarpals, the first row of tubular bones in the hand. I then used a growth chart to suggest an age range from the bones’ length.

The remains were found in a plastic bag next to a trash dumpster and had been there for at least two months. No other information about the identity of the fetus was ever found.

One particularly hard juvenile case from 1994 involved a child whose remains came to my laboratory following autopsy. The difficulty arose when the pathologist and I disagreed about what had fractured the child’s skull. The doctor was of the opinion that the fractures were caused by a gunshot wound. In my opinion, and in my court testimony at the trial of the accused, the fractures were produced by blunt force. The telltale fracture pattern was clearly visible once the skull was reconstructed, though the warping impeded the reconstruction process.

In such a case, where differences in opinion arise, I encourage authorities to consult with other experts. Another forensic anthropologist corroborated my opinion: “Massive blunt force trauma to the skull,” he said; “at least two, maybe three blows.”

I find a statement attributed to Dr. Clyde Snow, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist, useful to remember when my analysis is at odds with another expert: “Bones don’t lie; you just have to understand what they are telling you.” Of course, the only one who really knows what happened to the child is in prison now, on death row, awaiting his appeal.

For those children who enter our laboratory in boxes or in bags, there is no hope; for those who are missing and unaccounted for, hope drives us steadily, though warily, toward our goal—finding them alive. Few jobs evoke such strong emotion as the search for missing children. Though all such searches do not have happy endings, some do.

In 1985 Congress established the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Associated with the National Center, based in Virginia, are Model Age Progression Sites, referred to as “MAPS.” As of January 1999, fewer than ten of these sites exist. Most of them are located in law enforcement agencies or in the offices of the states attorneys general. Only one such site in the country is located within a university. In 1994 Eileen Barrow and I were able to work with the National Center to create a MAP site at Louisiana State University. Having the Missing and Exploited Children’s Clearinghouse for our state associated with our Office of Children’s Services in Baton Rouge also assisted greatly with LSU’s designation as a MAPS location.

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