Anthropologists frequently encounter cases in which only partial human remains are recovered. This study reports how the percentage of the body recovered affects identification (ID) rates and cause and manner of death determination. A total of 773 cases involving anthropology consults were drawn from the New Mexico medical examiner's office (1974-2006). Results indicate a significant correlation between body percent recovered and ID rates, which ranged from 89% for complete bodies to 56% when less than half the body was present. Similar patterns were evident in cause/manner determination, which were the highest (83% and 79%, respectively) in complete bodies but declined to 40% when less than half the body was found. The absence of a skull also negatively impacted ID and ruling rates. Findings are compared with general autopsy ID rates (94-96%) and cause/manner determination rates (96-99%) as well as prior published rates for individual casework and mass death events.

Analysis of mass death events, often involving partial or skeletal human remains, requires investigators to condense information on a large number of victims into a single report. Prosecution of war crimes typically requires that victims be categorized according to the injuries sustained. Reports recognizing only the presence or absence of trauma are misleading or misrepresentative. This study introduces a 4 class system for skeletal remains based on morphologic autopsy findings. Each class corresponds to the lethal potential of the trauma or pathologic conditions evident at autopsy, and the certainty with which cause of death can be determined. Data were extracted from 766 autopsy cases involving decomposed or skeletal remains from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator in which cause and manner of death were ruled. Statistically significant associations between morphology class and the cause and manner of death, positive identification, and natural and non-natural deaths were evident in this study. Intraobserver and interobserver tests revealed excellent replicability and reliability in the assignment of morphology classes to individual cases. In addition to its mass death applications, this classification system offers potential research contributions to physical anthropologists and bioarchaeologists studying human populations in antiquity.