Burned Bodies - Lecture Notes 24

• Pugilistic Pose ◦ Arms curl in as a body burns. ◦ When the remains are fully fleshed ◦ Important to look at burned patterns • Which areas show most damage from fire • Which parts were closest to heat, if accelerant was used Tissue shielding ◦ Difficult to burn a body • • Tissue protects the bone; wrapped around bone • Areas that have more flesh take longer to get to the bone ◦ Expected patterns of burning • Example: dorsal part of hand burns before the palmer side • Areas of trauma, dismemberment, or accelerant would show a different burn pattern. • Three Stages of Change in Burned Bone: ◦ First • 100 degrees to 500-600 degrees C. • Removal of loosely attached water Second ◦ • 600-800 degrees C • Collagen is lost and bone reduces in weight ◦ Third • Greater than 800 degrees C. ! • Rest of organic material combusts and hydroxyapatite crystals enlarge. ! • Color Changes of Burned Bone (least burned to most burned) ◦ Light brown ◦ Black (charred) ◦ Blue- grey ◦ White (calcined) • Shape Changes: ◦ Shrinkage • Between 6% and 25% of the total size of the bone ◦ Warping • More heat altered • Curvature to bone • Cracking: ◦ Longitudinal • Along the long axis/ shaft of the long bone ◦ Transverse • Horizontal fracture lines ◦ Patina • "Fish scales" look • Irregular cracks • Can also add a shine to the bone • Fracture Patterns ◦ Curved Transverse: ! ! ! • • Thumbnail Usually doesn’t go through the bone ! • Information in Burned Bone: ◦ State of remains • Fleshed • Dry/ defleshed when they were burned Position of body ◦ Patterns of burning • • Relation of body to heat • Accelerant ◦ Biological profile? ◦ Trauma? • Not every body has trauma or trauma that can be seen in the skeleton • Might be obscured by the heat ◦ Individualizing characteristics? ◦ Have to reconstruct the bones many of the time ◦ Charred bone caused bone loss • Steps to a Cremains Analysis: ◦ Document container, labels, remains • Everything stays together ◦ Weighing remains ◦ Separation by size • Pulling out anything that is metal/ clothing ◦ Radiographs ◦ Visual inspection ◦ Photograph everything! ! ! • Lines of Evidence for the Identity of the Remains ◦ Bone and tooth fragments • Enamel: hardest thing in body • Fragmentary osteology ◦ Weight of cremains • Correlation between weight of body and weight of ashes • Related to: ▪ Sex ▪ Age ▪ Stature ▪ Body weight • For example: ▪ Do the remains fall clearly within the range of variation for males? Females? Are they in the area of overlap? Cremation artifacts ◦ Metal items, things you put in with them as • they're cremated • Medical devices: ▪ Vascular clips ▪ Pacemaker components ▪ Orthopedic hardware • Screws, plates • Dental: ▪ Dental implants ▪ Bridges, crowns ▪ Dentures ▪ Restorations • Mortuary Devices: ▪ Embalming for open casket • Injector needles ▪ Cremation tags • Number that correlates to body that is cremated with the body- line of presumptive evidence. • Other Artifacts: ▪ Items on the body at the time of cremation ▪ Jewelry fragments ▪ Clothing artifacts • Miscellaneous: ▪ Slag • Byproduct of other biological material/ debris on or in the body. ▪ Refractory brick and concrete fragments ▪ Non- specific metal fragments • Melted/ warped that you don’t know what it was ◦ Chemical analysis ! • ! Chemical Analysis of Heat Altered Bone: ◦ Distinguish between cremated bone and other materials • XRF Life history of an individual ◦ • Where they lived ◦ Traumatic event during life ◦ Post- depositional changes • Changes of the bone ever time • DNA Analysis in Cremated Remains: ◦ Non substantiated within scientific literature. ◦ Bone exposed to temperatures well below those of commercial cremation don’t yield DNA.