Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2012 | Page 27

FORENSICS JOURNAL

A photo of murder victim Caylee Anthony (left) and her mother, the
defendant Casey Anthony (right) (Figure 10) was used by a prosecution witness to superimpose a photograph (Figure 11) of Caylee’s
skull to indicate where duct tape found on the remains would have
been placed over Caylee’s nose and mouth.

FIGURE 8: 3-D Facial Reconstruction (Ramsland, n.d.(c))
The anatomical method requires the placement of known facial
muscles, one at a time (Figure 9). The combination method is a
combination of the tissue depth method and the anatomical method.
Upon completion of the facial reconstruction, the requesting investigator prepares fliers and news coverage in an effort to obtain positive
identification based on the reconstruction (Jackson, 2004).

FIGURE 10: [Left] Photograph of murder victim Caylee Anthony
with mother Casey Anthony. (Kelley, 2011).
FIGURE 11: [Right] Duct tape superimposed onto photograph used
in murder trial. (Adams, 2011).

POST-MORTEM RECONSTRUCTION
Postmortem reconstruction is a depiction of facial features of an
unidentified deceased person or decomposed skeletal human remains
(Horace, n.d.). This method of forensic art is performed when bodies
are not severely decomposed and the forensic artist is needed to create
a reasonable facial likeness based on morgue, crime scene photographs, or by viewing the actual body (Taylor, 2001, p. 303). The
purpose of post-mortem drawing is to provide a connection between
an unidentified person and the records (such as dental records)
required to positively identify him or her.
FIGURE 9: Diagrams of facial muscle construction (Blicq, n.d.).

Forensic artists create post-mortem images under two types of circumstances. The first type includes unknown deceased persons whose
photographs are not suitable for media distribution or viewing by
family members because of trauma or post-mortem effects on the
face. The second type includes unknown deceased persons who have
been buried for a period of time before personal identification has
occurred and only photographs remain (Taylor, 2001, pp. 303-304).
These images are created by sketching, either digitally or with clay.
The first image will display trauma to the victim and is repaired digitally or by applying paints directly to the photograph, thus covering
the injured area and making the features recognizable (Figure 12).
The drawing repairs the trauma to the victim so that the final image
will be more presentable when requesting law enforcement or the
public’s assistance in identifying the unknown victim. The final reconstruction is used as an investigative tool to assist law enforcement in
obtaining accurate identification (Pratt, 2008).

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