Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist

10. Unidentified Homicide Victim

Unidentified Homicide Victim T was the summer of 2001 when we watched the backhoe pull up to the grave in the corner of the small rural cemetery in Greensburg , Louisiana. Detective Dennis Stewart with the Louisiana State Police was almost twitching with excitement, and so was I. In 1979, when the victim was first buried, I was an undergraduate at Louisiana State University with two small children. I was an English major at the time, and nothing was further from my mind than identifying or digging up bodies. Dennis, on the other hand, was just a kid in 1979 and was haunted by this case, so haunted that when he became a detective years later, he wanted to try to do something about it. On the tombstone, the epitaph read, UNIDENTIFIED HOMICIDE VICTIM. Dennis had contacted me at the LSU FACES Laboratory a couple of years prior to the day of the exhumation to ask for my help in the case. We often get requests for assistance in opening graves, but usually nothing ever comes of the initial inquiry. Something about this young man who had dedicated his life to helping others made me think this case would be different. For years, Dennis felt as though he had been spinning his wheels, waiting for just the right permission and support to fall into place in order to exhume the body. For such an exhumation to occur, a judge had to sign the order, and there had to be "just cause" to remove a person from his or her grave. What bothered Dennis about this case was something that bothered me—something, in fact, that nags at me constantly when I get a case until it is resolved. One of the most important things I can do as a forensic anthropologist is to identify a victim so that the family can go on with their lives. The teenager whose remains now rested several feet below the surface in the metal transport box I 10 Unidentified Homicide Victim 87 doubling as a casket had not been allowed that small dignity. He was unidentified. Dennis and I knew it, the locals knew it, and now the judge knew it. He agreed to allow the exhumation. It would be worth it to try to give this child a name. In 1979 some of the tools and technology for identifying the teenager were not available. One of my greatest worries was that the incredible tools of the twenty-first century still might not be enough. I did not know what to expect as the recovery team reached the small, donated metal burial box in which the teenager had been laid to rest. Anything that I might do to help Dennis was predicated on good preservation of remains. In the subtropical climate of south Louisiana, I knew we were asking a lot. The workers were prison trustees on work release. Though they said nothing at all as they worked (probably because they had been told to), I saw questions in their eyes. A television crew captured the exhumation for the evening news, but after more than twenty-fiveyears since the original discovery of the child's body, publicity might only result in a mild curiosity from the television viewing audience. As part of a cold case review, this teenage John Doe had been publicized on flyers in recent years. A morgue photo (FIGURE 26) had been enhanced at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and was posted on the Louisiana State Police Web site with the following message: Request for Assistance! Unknown Homicide Victim Age: 15-19 Found: 11-12-79 Race: White Sex: Male Hair: Blond Eyes: Blue or Gray Height: 5'5" Weight: 125 Ibs. 88 T R A I L OF BONES FIGURE 26. "Unidentified Homicide Victim" Victim was found in St. Helena Parish near Greensburg, Louisiana. Physical markings on the victim included: X or + sign on the left hand between the thumb and index finger; a vertical surgical scar at the top of the navel measuring three inches; and a prominent scar on the right hand beginning on the knuckle of the middle finger and ending on the knuckle of the little finger which measures 2.5 inches. The victim's blood type is O. What could we possibly hope to add to this very thorough and incredibly detailed description? For one thing, Dennis had recentlyreceived a...