Cops learn the bare bones about identifying human remains, finding them in landfills

When someone discovers old bones along an abandoned road, in an open field or up in the Pike National Forest, investigators and the coroner’s office must figure out whether they’re human or non-human remains.  When a body is dumped in an overflowing landfill, detectives need to find the body.  Now, they are better equipped to do that.

"This presentation has been one of the most enlightening and educational I have ever attended,” Lt. Kevin Duffy, head of DCSO’s Investigation Division says. ”If you know what you're looking for, and take a scientific and educated approach to determining what type of bone was found, it will save the department and county a lot of man-hours and resources.”

Two renowned experts taught 60 investigators from 28 agencies across Colorado including police departments, sheriff’s offices, judicial districts, the Attorney General’s office and district attorney offices about finding and identifying human remains.  Six coroner’s offices in Colorado also attended the workshop.

The course, hosted by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) with the assistance of the County Sheriff’s of Colorado (CSOC), was put on by NecroSearch International in the Douglas County Sheriff’s substation in Highlands Ranch on May 29^th.  The group is comprised of scientists and investigators who volunteer to help law enforcement find clandestine graves and recover evidence.

Retired Officer Lee Reed of the Abilene Police Department in Texas showed participants how to search landfills using numbered grids and a mathematical approach. Officer Reed’s experience and scientific approach to landfills have resulted in 32 body recoveries from 34 homicides and missing person cases over the past 25 years. His searches have also led officers to find weapons, guns and other crime scene evidence.

Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Diane France at the University of Colorado showed the attendees the differences between human and non-human bones. Dr. France also taught investigators how to distinguish the age, sex and ethnicity of the remains.

Dr. France has used her expertise worldwide. In 1991, the scientist was called to Russia to examine the exhumed bodies of Russia’s last emperor Nicolas II, his wife and five daughters who were executed in 1918.  Because two bodies were missing in the tombs, many suspect that two of the Romanov children escaped the murders. Russian scientists who examined the remains concluded the Tsar’s children, Marie and Alexei, got away. However, Dr. France used dental, vertebral and other remnants to determine that daughters Anastasia and Alexei are missing from the graves.

“Dr. France has opened the eyes to all the detectives and officers who attended that identifying remains is not as difficult as it first seems. Officer Reed demonstrated if you take a logical, scientific and methodical approach to the daunting task of searching a landfill for remains, it can be done,” Lt. Duffy says. “Both of these presenters are at the top of their fields and are tremendous partners and resources for the DCSO.  We can't thank them enough for giving us their time and sharing their experience and training." 

Colorado’s had several high profile cases of landfill searches for dead bodies and bone discoveries along the Front Range. In June, police found the remains of a baby in the Arapahoe County landfill after searching the dump for eight weeks. In March, hikers in Western Colorado found the skeleton of a Paige Birgfeld, an escort who went missing five years ago.

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