A forensic anthropologist who has labored to establish lots of of murder and suicide victims based mostly on components of their skeleton says identifying a bag of bones found in Bergen County may be a protracted and arduous course of for investigators.
One of the most troublesome issues to find out from simply bones is how lengthy in the past the individual died, Dr. Donna C. Boyd, board secretary and spokeswoman for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology stated Wednesday.
“The longer it’s been the tougher it’s,” stated Boyd, who routinely works with the FBI and police on human stays circumstances. She’s a professor of anthropology and co-director of the Radford University Forensic Science Institute in Virginia.
Snack stand staff found the plastic bag stuffed with bones of “suspected human stays” at about eight a.m. Monday hanging on the door of a the stand at the Stateline Lookout in Alpine. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Cold Case Unit and the county’s health worker’s workplace is investigating, authorities stated.
The prosecutor’s workplace has not commented on the case past a press launch issued on Monday.
Boyd stated it’s seemingly the county has known as in a forensic anthropologist to check the stays. The first step – figuring out whether or not the bones are human – entails searching for proof of strolling upright, she stated.
“We know what every human bone appears like and we all know what its animal counterpart appears like,” she stated. “That’s relatively easy.”
Another early step is maceration, a way the place tender tissue is faraway from the bones. stated. Maceration is critical as a result of decaying flesh on the bone may obscure seen proof, resembling stab marks or bullet wounds, Boyd stated.