Dental Identification of the Putative Body of a Most Wanted Fugitive

Identification of humans is usually performed by various scientific means, but comparisons of fingerprints, DNA profiles, and dental characteristics are the only accepted stand-alone forms of identification. Comparative dental identification is useful in the case of a heavily decomposed body because the fingerprint no longer exists and DNA profiling takes time. In comparative dental identification, collection of antemortem dental data is crucial because the identification cannot be performed with postmortem data alone. In most cases of identification of a decomposed or skeletonized body, the possible candidate for identification cannot be determined and collection of antemortem data is impossible. If there are no antemortem records, information that is helpful in identification is provided by forensic odontological and anthropological examinations. The postmortem examination process of estimating biological profiles such as age, sex, and stature is called postmortem profiling. With the postmortem profiling process, the search range of missing persons can be narrowed to determine a possible candidate for identification and collect antemortem data. With advances in technologies for analyzing DNA profiles,