The Bone Lady: Life As a Forensic Anthropologist - Rilegato

Manhein, Mary H.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0807124044 ISBN 13: 9780807124048

Casa editrice: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1999

Riassunto

“On the first day of the search, I failed to find the body.” So writes forensic anthropologist and bioarchaeologist Mary H. Manhein—or “the bone lady,” as law enforcement personnel call her. In this, one of dozens of stories recollected in her powerful memoir, Manhein and the state police eventually unearth a black plastic bag buried in the banks of the Mississippi River containing the body of a man who has been missing for five years. After the painstaking process of examining the remains, confirming the victim’s identity, and preparing a formal report for the police, Manhein testifies for the prosecution at the murder trial. The defendant is convicted (in no small part because of Manhein), and “the bone lady” has helped solve yet another mystery.

As director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at Louisiana State University, Manhein unravels mysteries of life and death every day. In The Bone Lady, she shares, with the compassion and humor of a born storyteller, many fascinating cases that include the science underlying her analyses as well as the human stories behind the remains.

Manhein, an expert on the human skeleton, assists law enforcement by providing profiles of remains that narrow the identification process when the traditional means used by medical examiners or coroners to conduct autopsies are no longer applicable—simply put, when bones are all that are left to tell the story. She assesses age, sex, race, height, signs of trauma, and time since death, and creates clay facial reconstructions.

Although Manhein enjoys solving high-profile cases, her personal crusade is identifying the John and Jane Does who wait in her lab. Manhein’s own words perfectly characterize her mission: “Identifying a victim can bring peace of mind to the family and can help them to go on with their lives. Sometimes, peace of mind is the only gift that I can give.”

Su questo libro

L'autore

Mary H. Manhein is the director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at Louisiana State University and the director of the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons Information Program. She is the author of Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist and Bone Remains: Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology.

Product Description

In this memoir, Mary Manheim, a forensic anthropologist and bioarchaeologist known as "the bone lady" to her colleagues, recollects dozens of stories. In one story, Manhein and the state police eventually unearth a black plastic bag buried in the banks of the Mississippi River containing the body of a man who has been missing for five years. After the painstaking process of examining the remains, confirming the victim's identity, and preparing a formal report for the police, Manhein testifies for the prosecution at the murder trial. The defendant is convicted, and the bone lady has helped solve yet another mystery. As director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at Louisiana State University, Manhein unravels mysteries of life and death every day. In "The Bone Lady", she shares many cases that include the science underlying her analyses as well as the human stories behind the remains. Manhein, an expert on the human skeleton, assists law enforcement by providing profiles of remains that narrow the identification process when the traditional means used by medical examiners or coroners to conduct autopsies are no longer applicable - simply put, when bones are all that are left to tell the story. She assesses age, sex, race, height, signs of trauma, and time since death, and creates clay facial reconstructions. The case studies Manhein includes in "The Bone Lady" highlight the diversity of the field of forensic anthropology. She presents some of her more lighthearted cases, such as that instigated by the suburban man who discovers a box of bones buried in his backyard labelled "Patsy Lou Bates - Sis". A coroner, police investigators, and swarms of media are present when Manhein identifies Patsy Lou as a dearly departed family pet. One of her most chilling cases concerns a husband who murdered his wife, buried her in their yard, planted a rose garden over her grave, and continued to garden there for eight years until his de

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Louisiana State Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0807124044
• ISBN 13: 9780807124048
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 137