By Charlie Holt, Jr.
Georgia Forensic News

November, 2003

While working the last three years of my law enforcement career as a full-time forensic artist, I had the opportunity to draw dozens of victims from their postmortem photographs. Since I retired, I have donated my time and talent to help the Doe Network identify victims from skeletal remains and from postmortem photographs. The Doe Network is an organization of dedicated people from all walks of life who are involved in recovering missing persons and identifying victims whose remains are presently unidentified. The Doe Network is a non-profit organization and anyone can join and help.

Having worked with skeletal remains, the process of putting a face on the skull is both science and art. Some experts say the process doesn’t work and some say it doesn’t hurt to complete a reconstruction. I’ll be the first to admit the success rate for positive identification is low. On the other hand, working from a postmortem photograph is another story.

As a forensic artist there is nothing better to have than a photo of the deceased. I may have to revise that when it comes to bloating and severe decomposition. Even then you have some facial references to assist in determining the likeness of the individual prior to his or her death.

My former partner, Samantha Steinberg, and I had good success concerning positive identifications from postmortem drawings. By the time we were called to do a drawing the investigative agency had usually exhausted most, if not all, of their investigative leads or they were under the gun to get the drawing on television by the afternoon news.

After examining hundreds to postmortem photos I could not help but notice the inconsistencies in the photographic processes. This is in no way a criticism of any medical examiner’s office or the photographers who do a wonderful job documenting these unfortunate victims. I would like to pose some minor changes in the photographic process that may increase chances for identification. What I am suggesting is the implementation of a photographic process to guarantee consistent photographs.

When photographing a skull for a facial reconstruction, the skull must be positioned on what is known as the Frankfort Horizontal Plane. That means the skull is squarely in front of the camera and not turned too much left, right, up, or down. If it were off, it would distort the final drawing. Sometimes all I had to work with was a profile. Most of the frontal photos were taken from almost every conceivable angle. That makes it harder to determine the proper shape and angle certain facial features such as the nose, lips and chin. Even with a good success rate regarding identifications, I can foresee an even higher percentage rate if the medical examiner’s photographer and the forensic artist communicate each other’s requirements concerning what is needed to achieve a successful identification. As a forensic artist this is what I would like to have in the perfect postmortem photograph. I noticed that the deceased’s head is usually propped up on some kind of headrest. This position pushes the deceased’s chin down, giving the effect of a double chin. I would read the victim’s height and weight and notice that the victim was thin and they would never have had a double chin in life. Now I would have to take considerable artistic liberty and try to eliminate the double chin. The best way to eliminate the problem is to remove the headrest before taking the photograph.

If the medical examiner knows the victim is a Jane or John Doe and there may be a need for media help in the identification process, it would assist the forensic artist if the postmortem photographs were taken as closely to the Frankfort Horizontal Plane as possible. Removing the headrest and squaring the head in a more lifelike position could achieve this. The photographer should then take the photograph from directly above the victim. The cleaner the victim’s face the better the chance of noticing identifiable marks or scars. I understand that is not always an option, but if nothing of evidentiary importance would be lost, it would be helpful.

I’ve been fortunate on occasion to work from a postmortem photo where the victim’s eyes were open. I’m not going to ask that the victim’s eyes be open before the photo is taken, but an eye color would be extremely helpful. Even when rendering a drawing in pencil, the eyes can be drawn in shades of light and dark to represent the victim’s eye color. My former partner Samantha Steinberg has had good success using the computer (Photoshop) to achieve a likeness, especially when the victim’s eyes were open. It’s unfortunate I cannot use actual examples of our successes to illustrate this article. A picture, especially in this case, is worth a thousand words.

While working with the Miami-Dade Police Department, and assisting the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office and the Doe Network, I have found that there are thousands of unidentified human remains cases on file throughout the United States. It is a noble undertaking to try to identify these people. They left behind family and friends that are never going to know what happened to their loved ones. There will be no closure and in many of the cases a killer will never be brought to justice. That really bothers me.

Being a cop for 28 years I hate to think that if we had just communicated a little bit more between agencies, shared vital information, and discussed ways to improve our chances for success, we could have closed some of these cases and done justice to the victims and their loved ones. Let us not leave any stone unturned.

The Doe Network can be accessed at http://www.doenetwork.org.
Check out the unidentified persons section. Be careful! You may want to be involved.
They could use more forensic and cop types to help. Medical examiners and lawyers would be of valuable assistance as well.

This article was originally published in the January-March 2003 issue of FDIAI News.
If you have questions about the Doe Network, Charlie Holt can be contacted at (423) 743-4145 or CHoltjr768@aol.com.