A case report of identification of unknown skeletonized body by Cranio-facial Superimposition Method

1. A JOURNEY HOME:
A case report of identification of unknown
skeletonized body by
Cranio-facial Superimposition Method
Wan Nawawi WMZ.1 , Hadi Pritam H.2 , Aziz MS.3
1 Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, drwzamri@yahoo.com
2 School of Health Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, helmi_mhp@usm.my
3 Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, shfq_azz@yahoo.com

2. The Journey…
Pekanbaru
Indonesia Saudi Arabia Bachok, Kelantan PekanbaruVietnam

3. Content:
• Introduction
• Case report
• Discussion & Conclusion

4. Introduction
The Challenge in Real….
One of the greatest challenges face by forensic
anthropologist is to keep up with the changing
demographic structure of the world
population…

5. • Globalization
• Inter-racial marriage
• Migration
• Medical Advancement: Plastic
surgery/Botox

6. A CASE REPORT:

7. CASE REPORT:
• An unknown body was recovered from a
seaside in Bachok on December 12th 2017,
and was brought to Forensic Medicine
Department HRPZII, Kota Bharu for further
examination and identification.
• This decomposed body was complete, with
partially skeletonized over the skull
and peripheral limb.
• Clothed in an orange jumpsuit with a company
logo ‘Zamil Offshore’ printed over the left
chest-pocket
The Company
Logo

8. • Dental examination by dental officer
revealed estimated age of the victim is
between 40-47 years old by
• Anthropological examination of the
skull and long bones suggest it is a male
of possible Caucasoid ancestry,
• Our search on ‘Zamil Offshore’ revealed
that the company is a Saudi Arabia
company, focusing on offshore and
marine services.
• Cause of death was revealed as
unascertain as there was no injury
found and the skeleton was intact and
the soft tissue is severely decomposed

9. The Puzzle Begins….
• Embassy of The Republic
Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur
claimed that the body
belongs to their citizen
• On Disember 4th 2017, a
report from offshore-
marine company centered
di Saigon, Vietnam revealed
an Indonesian seafarer had
fell out of the ship on GPS
locus: 09’26,225 N / 106’23,
272 W

10. The puzzle……
• The antropology examination suggest that the cranium and the height
belong to Caucasoid ancestry group.
• The embassy asserted that the believe deceased was raised at an
orphanage in Sulawesi. They claimed that , there was a woman [ ? the
mother] handed a baby boy to the orphanage more than 20 years
ago.
• He than was raised as a ‘Mat Salleh’ based on his complexion and fair
skin. Later on join seafarers workforce.

11. The identity confirm by
• Thumb print
• Dental record
• Medical implant
• DNA
• All these avenues need records and matching. In these case all none

12. Introduction:
• Cranio-facial superimposition is a
forensic process of comparing facial
photographs of missing persons to a
skull that is found.
• It is a method of exclusion in
identification of unknown skeletonized
body
• In Malaysia, this method remain an
exclusive at USM Science Faculty
Kubang Kerian and it is ,not easily
accessible method, compared to India,
Japan and other Asia country.

13. The hunt begin
• We were given many photos of
the suspected victim and other
photos of other seafarers who
were missing.
• Based on exclusion criteria we
honing to a few photos belong
to a person.

14. Cranio-Facial Superimposition Laboratory at
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian

17. The result…..
• Uniqueness of dental feature make it hard to exclude the
person if there was an acceptable match of dental
morphology.
• As dental morphology between the skull and face image matched
100%, it is very hard to exclude the individual.

18. • Many dental features such as tooth root curvature, tooth
position, impacted teeth, extra teeth and tooth crown
anomalies, are unique to a person and frequently
survive intact while other parts of the body do not.
• Hence this technique of identification is especially useful
when we suspect the identity of the deceased because
tooth morphology is a strong inclusion criteria
• However this method is operator dependant – need for an
expert in anthropology.

19. The result

20. The law…
• This technique is an operator dependent
• Dr Hilmi had been going regular training in this field for many years.
At the end of the training, a test was conducted to gauge the accuracy
of the operator. Last year he got only 94% accuracy in the
assessment.
• The investigating officer refused to release the body because he want
100% accuracy.

21. Back to drawing board..
• The Indonesian embassy accepted the result.
• At the same time they also found a lady who claimed married to the
victim and she has a child .
• They brought the lady and the child .
• We took the blood sample for DNA comparison.
• It took nearly 3 months for the result to come back

22. The result
• The victim DNA confirm that the
child’s DNA is the victim’s
daughter
• The lady is the child mother.

23. Discussion & Conclusion

24. • DNA analysis is an undisputed
identification tool but at the same
time it is highly time and cost
consuming.
• A more cheaper and simple
method of high accuracy rate
should be legalised or at least
accepted as one of initial or
supporting evidence.

25. Why dental/tooth?...
• Many dental features such as
tooth root curvature, tooth
position, impacted teeth, extra
teeth and tooth crown
anomalies, are unique to a
person and frequently
survive intact while other
parts of the body do not.
• Hence this technique of
identification is especially useful
when we suspect the identity of
the deceased because tooth
morphology is a strong
inclusion criteria

26. • However this method is
operator dependant – need
for an expert in
anthropology.
• As for this case, computer-
aided video cranio-facial
superimposition was used
as an initial identification
method of the body which
later on, the result of DNA
analysis then confirmed
our findings.
Dr. Helmi Hadi Pritam, Anthropologist from USM, Kubang Kerian.

27. The proposal…

28. 1. Cranio-facial
Superimposition is
recognized as a legal
or accepted method
of identification in
Malaysia

29. 2. Proper dental charting
and dental moulding with
an accessible database.

30. 3. Dental picture and
record for all immigrants,
seafarers and tourist
during all Immigration
inspection at country
borders.

31. Thank you