Commingling of human remains presents an added challenge to all phases of the forensic process. This book brings together tools from diverse sources within forensic science to offer a set of comprehensive approaches to handling commingled remains. It details the recovery of commingled remains in the field, the use of triage in the assessment of commingling, various analytical techniques for sorting and determining the number of individuals, the role of DNA in the overall process, ethical considerations, and data management. In addition, the book includes case examples that illustrate techniques found to be successful and those that proved problematic.

Human remains occupy an uneasy position in U.S. law. A human cadaver is no longer a person, but neither is it an object to be easily discarded. What, if anything, must be done with human remains? What cannot be done with human remains? What should be done with human remains? Before we can critique the law of human remains, we must first understand what the law is. In "The Law of Human Remains," Tanya Marsh, a nationally recognized expert in the law of human remains and cemetery law, collects, organizes, and states the legal rules and principles regarding the status, treatment, and disposition of human remains in the United States so that attorneys and courts can more easily discover, understand, use, and ultimately critique and reform the law. Part I establishes an analytical framework for the law of human remains and presents an overview of significant doctrines. Part II provides a state-by-state summary of the common and statutory law examined in Part I. This book is designed

This unique reference provides a primary source for osteologists and the medical/legal community for the understanding of burned bone remains in forensic or archaeological contexts. It describes in detail the changes in human bone and soft tissues as a body burns at both the chemical and gross levels and provides an overview of the current procedures in burned bone study. Case studies in forensic and archaeological settings aid those interested in the analysis of burned human bodies, from death scene investigators, to biological anthropologists looking at the recent or ancient dead. Includes the diagnostic patterning of color changes that give insight to the severity of burning, the positioning of the body, and presence (or absence) of soft tissues during the burning event Chapters on bones and teeth give step-by-step recommendations for how to study and recognize burned hard tissues

Highlights the importance of best practice in dealing with human remains, and discusses the key ethical and legal issues.

Until 1832, when an Act of Parliament began to regulate the use of bodies for anatomy in Britain, public dissection was regularlyand legallycarried out on the bodies of murderers, and a shortage of cadavers gave rise to the infamous murders committed by Burke and Hare to supply dissection subjects to Dr. Robert Knox, the anatomist. This book tells the scandalous story of how medical men obtained the corpses upon which they worked before the use of human remains was regulated. Helen MacDonald looks particularly at the activities of British surgeons in nineteenth-century Van Diemens Land, a penal colony in which a ready supply of bodies was available. Not only convicted murderers, but also Aborigines and the unfortunate poor who died in hospitals were routinely turned over to the surgeons. This sensitive but searing account shows how abuses happen even within the conventions adopted by civilized societies. It reveals how, from Burke and Hare to todays televised dissections by German anatomist Dr. Gunther von Hagens, some peoples bodies become other peoples entertainment.

Human Remains is a chilling, masterful thriller by New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Haynes that explores our darkest fears, showing how vulnerable we are—and how easily ordinary lives can fall apart when no one is watching. Annabel, a police analyst, is shocked when she discovers her neighbor’s decomposing body in the house next door. And she’s appalled to think that no one noticed her absence. Back at work, she sets out on her own to investigate, and finds that such cases are frighteningly common in her hometown. A hymn to all the lonely and compelling characters that haunt our lives, Human Remains is a deeply disturbing and powerful novel of suspense from Elizabeth Haynes, author of Into the Darkest Corner.

The living and the dead cohabited Paris until the late 18th century, when, in the name of public health, measures were taken to drive the latter from the city. Cemeteries were removed from urban space, and corpses started to be viewed as terrifyingly noxious substances. Working across a broad range of disciplines this book seeks to understand the meaning of the dead and their role in creating one of the most important cities of the contemporary world.