The Use of World War II Chest Radiograph in the Identification of a Missing-In-Action U.S. Marine

Abstract

A World War II mass grave was recovered in 1999 by a U.S. Army team and yielded 20 complete skeletons. A case study involving the identification of one of these individuals is presented in this article. The thought processes and problems that presented themselves to the forensic anthropologist and odontologist are detailed. Methods used to establish identity are described. This case demonstrates how standard operating procedures used by a forensic anthropologist and odontologist can narrow the field of possible individuals associated with remains, and with extra information--in this case, a military radiograph taken in 1941--can ultimately establish the identity of a decedent. The authors learned that some medical records, which at first glance appear to be excess or irrelevant, may contain the item required to be certain that a case is strong in support of a recommended identification.

Skeletal Identification by Radiographic Comparison: Blind Tests of a Morphoscopic Method Using Antemortem Chest Radiographs*,†,‡

“…Moreover, current tests on low‐clarity radiographs validate the method for use in JPAC cases where images of similar poor clarities are encountered. Because normal skeletal morphologies were also found to provide a sufficient basis for identification, it makes sense that this information should be factored into cases where trauma, medical intervention, anatomical anomalies, and pathological morphologies are observed (9,37–40), so that all of the information evident from an AM radiograph is used to provide for the most comprehensive and robust identification decision. This approach has not previously been emphasized in the literature, where anatomical anomalies or medical interventions have been reported (and/or proposed) for the primary basis of identification decisions (9,37–40).…”

“…Despite several published case reports that use comparisons of AM ⁄ PM chest radiographs to help identify disarticulated skeletons (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11), no large-scale controlled scientific studies have been pursued to systematically quantify method accuracies. Such studies are warranted so that methods with known errors can be applied in forensic casework (12,13).…”

The processing of skeletonized human remains found in Berlin, Germany

“…6 Radiographic studies may also be used to confirm identification if pre-existing medical and/ or X-ray records are still available. 7,8 On occasion remnants of identity papers will still be preserved. This occurred with human remains from a Luftwaffe (German Airforce) Junkers Ju 88 that was found in a field outside Hamburg nearly 60 years after the crash enabling the pilot to be identified.…”

Infracranial radiographic comparison for human identification: A study of image quality and tissue shielding effects

“…While dental [4, 5] and frontal sinus [6–10] comparisons form flagships of methods, radiographic comparisons may be conducted for any region of the body where X‐ray images contain the skeleton, including infracranial regions such as the chest [11–14], vertebrae [15], pelvis [16], clavicles [17–19], hands [20–22], knees [23, 24], and feet [25]. These infracranial radiographic comparison methods hold value not only for the identification of intact decedents [11, 12, 21, 26–30] but they may also be used in cases of burnt/fragmented [22, 24, 31–34], decomposed [15, 35], or fully skeletonized human remains [13, 14, 17–19, 36, 37]. The utility of radiographic comparison methods is, in part, underpinned by (a) the resilience of bones to decomposition [14]; (b) the stability of adult bone morphology over extended time periods (e.g., 20+ years) [38, 39]; and (c) the high frequency with which diagnostic radiographs are taken during life for medical purposes.…”