The number of victims directly perceivable from the crime scene is two victims – apparent from the presence of two skulls in the crime scene. Based on the clue left on the scene, it is clear that one of the victims was male. This is evidenced by the presence of male garments in the crime scene. However, it is not always true that the natural sex of a victim is in exact consistency with the gender of the victim – this is due to issues related to transgender transformations and suchlike. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the clothes recovered from the crime scene may easily have belonged to a transgender. However, there are other indicators of the sex of the victim. The pelvis has a more V-shaped sub-pubic arch configuration, characteristic of a male pelvic girdle.
In addition, though not full proof evidence, the general size of the bone structure seem to indicate that the victim was male – in specific, the size of the foot measured from the calcaneus to the tip of the longest phalange, as well as the width of the foot. Looking at the skull of the first victim, a more protruding supraorbital ridge can be seen, confirming the sex of the victim to be male. The absence of sutures on the skull as well as the general body size of the victim point towards the victim being an adult. The cranium is seen to be long and narrow from the coronal plane – this is characteristic to a Caucasian cranial structure. Other indicators of ethnicity are a higher and narrower nasal opening, sloped ocular orbits, and a narrow and rather pointed mastoid process. For the first victim (identified as adult Caucasian male), the number of bones recovered were 123. The other victim, whose only available remains were those of the skull, had 22 bones in exhibit. The facial features of this skull seem to indicate the victim was an adult Caucasian female – a less protruding supraorbital ridge, and a smaller cranium. Judging by how most of the parts of the bone structure are missing in the victims, the crime scene can be connected to a possible dismemberment, or a situation which caused annihilation of body parts e.g. a crude fire.
Works Cited
TheForensicsLibrary. Forensic Anthropology. 2017. website. 24 january 2017.
