Radiographic age estimation based on degenerative changes of vertebrae

Age estimation is an important component of decedent identification. When assessing adult remains, anthropologists frequently use gross examination of skeletal elements, such as clavicles, ribs, and pubic symphyses. For fleshed bodies, this requires the removal of these elements and maceration prior to analysis. A new method was developed using radiographic imaging to estimate age from degenerative changes of the lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae. This technique will complement anthropological age estimation methods in young and middle-aged adults and may serve as a stand-alone method for older individuals. Digital radiographs from 240 medical examiner cases were evaluated. The sample included 120 females and 120 males between the ages of 18 and 101 years. A 3-phased scoring system was used for the target vertebrae. Transition analysis was conducted on binned average scores and a Bayesian approach was used to assign age intervals. At the 90% credible interval, individuals in Bin 1 were under 36 years of age while those in Bin 3 were over 47 years of age. Individuals in Bin 2 showed too much age variation to be informative. No significant differences were found between males and females. These findings will be especially useful in the age estimation of older adults and may eliminate the need for skeletal sampling in medicolegal cases where advanced degenerative changes are radiographically observed in the lower thoracic and/or upper lumbar vertebrae. This method was developed for use on fleshed individuals but may also be applicable to skeletonized remains.

Missing Persons and Unidentified Human Remains: The Perspective from Armed Conflict Victims Exhumed in Granada, Colombia

The prevalence of missing persons in Colombia has been analyzed from different perspectives throughout the years. The most recent official numbers given by the National Center for Historical Memory (Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica [CNMH]) provides an approximate number of 60,630 missing persons from 1970 to 2015. During this time, participants in the armed conflict performed different types of violence to one another, including torturing, disapperances, and multiple incidents of combat between militant groups and the Colombian National Army. Formerly, the agencies tasked with investigating these crimes were focused primarily on the cause and manner of death; identification was not the main purpose, leaving hundreds of unidentified victims buried in different cemeteries around the Colombian territory. The aim of this article is to provide a broad perspective of the dimension of the missing persons in Colombia, highlighting the achievements that have been made so far, presenting an example from the unidentified victims buried and recovered from "La Resurrección" cemetery in Granada (Colombia) and analyzed by a specialized forensic team of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses [INMLyCF]) in the Eastern Region of Colombia.