Saturday 25 July 2015

Forensic Anthropology Solves Murder

I still find it amazing just what can be achieved through the advancements in forensic science, although going back thirty years, the technology was not advanced as it is today.  But the experts in bones, their knowledge goes back decades.  Sir Sydney Smith, a man not really given the slavish admiration that has been heaped on Bernard -"I am right, everybody else is wrong" - Spilsbury, once looked at some thigh bones and deduced the deceased person had a limp.  And was later proved right.  But Dr Clyde Snow, a Forensic Anthropologist, in 1983, came up with some pretty startling detective work, when presented with a section of a body.  This case started when two fishermen saw something in the Mississippi River flowing through Iowa.  They immediately called Police, who retrieved it from the river and took it to the Medical Examiner.  The torso was female.  It was decided to send it to a specialist in Oklahoma, Dr Clyde Snow.  

    Dr Snow decided that it was best to deflesh it and work from the bones, which were only a lower trunk and part of a leg.   After exhaustive tests and examinations, Dr Snow deduced that the victim was five feet three inches tall, or three inches either side, aged 28 to 40, weighed 125 to 140 pounds, and the bones showed strenuous exercises through sit-ups. The body had been cut up with a chainsaw by somebody with some anatomical knowledge. Police trawled the Iowa missing females list - 79 - but only one fell into that category,  This woman was Joyce Kindt, 33, 5` 5", weighed around 130 pounds and was known as a frequent exerciser.  She had been reported missing by her husband, Jim Klindt, a Chiropractor.  Delving into his life, Police discovered the usual problem; he had a woman on the side, whom he had told he would leave his wife.  Klindt was arrested in 1984 and when it came to trial, his girlfriend told of the promises he had made her.  Klindt was convicted but it was a few years later that he confessed to killing his wife.  All thanks to the great scientific work by Dr Clyde Snow.

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