Finished my book
Jun. 1st, 2003 03:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Spent most of Friday and Saturday reading, and finished "No Stone Unturned".
Quite a fascinating book, detailing the work of some of the top forensic scientists in the world. Incorporated as a non-profit group called NecroSearch International, they don't solve crimes in the traditional sense, but are experts at locating and excavating clandestine graves. The book covers the development of forensic science in a short chapter, then has a longer secting on how NecroSearch (also known as "the Pig People" from their practice of burying pigs in order to study the graves over time) came together. Then there are several chapters detailing some of their biggest cases.
As I said, they don't do most of the detective work themselves, but exist to help detectives who have mapped out a crime but haven't been able to produce the body, or have something else buried that they're trying to find. In each case detailed, there is a centeral detective who has spent years, perhaps nearly a decade, trying to solve a particular crime. Often they know exactly who did it, but without a body their chances of conviction in court are slim to none.
Enter the Pig People. Their concentrated knowledge of geophysics, anthropology, biology, botany, criminology, etc. has brought success in some of the oldest, coldest murder cases. They use aerial photography, ground penetrating radar, archaological search and excavation techniques, naturalists familiar with plant and animal life, and every other technique they can think of to locate and recover hidden bodies. Their group even includes a "slobborologist"... ie a man and his two highly-trained bloodhounds. Bloodhounds have been known to locate corpses that have been buried for ten years or more.
Consider... in on investigation which was nearly twenty years old, although they had no body, hair had been discovered several years after the disappearance on a remote road in the Rockies... two long braids that looked very much like those the victim had just before disappearing. Later they were able to identify the hair as hers, using hair from a brush that had been taken from her apartment as evidence, bagged, and cataloged on the off chance it might some day prove useful.
With little knowledge of the case, one of NecroSearch's experts (a woman who played violin for the local symphony, taught anatomy, and worked as a naturalist) was able to determine from the hair and the vegetation (mostly pine needles and bits of wood) that the hair (and thus the body) had been in a wooded area that had not been exposed to fire but had been cleared (by men), was above 9,000 feet in elevation, and was in a cool, moist north-facing slope. The body would be close to the surface, covered with vegetation or not at all.
She didn't know that the hair had been found on a logging road in just such a location... but the evidence, including what kind of pine needles and wood were found and what kind of vegetation wasn't present, as well as the fact that the hair had been bleached by the sun on the surface, all led her to these conclusions, which were all right on the money, and helped lead to the discovery of the victim's remains.
Most of the scientists involved in NecroSearch are not detectives or law officers, just civilians with skills that can be applied to finding hidden bodies. But many of them are fans of Sherlock Holmes, and you certainly won't find a more Holmes-like study of the evidence and the possible conclusions than the one above. All in all, a fascinating book.
The last very short chapter is quite humerous even if it didn't lead to anything big. Two of NecroSearch's experts were invited to Russia in 1998 with the idea of trying to locate the graves of the two missing Romanov children. The Russians were planning a public funeral for the Romanov remains that year, and were anxious to find the two missing bodies to bolster their case that this was, indeed, the Romanov family that had been found (although really, there was little doubt except in the minds of the Russian public and the official views of the Orthodox church).
The NecroSearch team were allowed to view the bones of the other Romanovs and their servants, but Diane France, a renown anthropology expert who runs the Human Identification Laboratory at Colorado State University, could immediately see that the bones purported to be those of 17-year-old Anastasia were far more likely those of a full-grown adult, like her 19 year, 4 month elder sister Marie. Her two companions agreed with her, and it matched what another American expert, Bill Maples, had said years earlier (and one of Frances companions was Maples' successor). But they decided that it didn't matter as, either way, two bodies were missing and needed to be found.
But the idea that Anastasia's body had not been found was a very touchy one for the Russians. The next day, they were asked to sign documents that stated flatly that they were searching for the bodies of Alexis and Marie. Diane France hesitated at signing this and then said she was convinced that they were looking for Anastasia's body and not Marie's. This caused the Russians to blow a fuse. Needless to say, the NecroSearch team were sent back to America and did not get to even attempt to locate the other graves. ^_^
Very fascinating book, all told. ^_^
Quite a fascinating book, detailing the work of some of the top forensic scientists in the world. Incorporated as a non-profit group called NecroSearch International, they don't solve crimes in the traditional sense, but are experts at locating and excavating clandestine graves. The book covers the development of forensic science in a short chapter, then has a longer secting on how NecroSearch (also known as "the Pig People" from their practice of burying pigs in order to study the graves over time) came together. Then there are several chapters detailing some of their biggest cases.
As I said, they don't do most of the detective work themselves, but exist to help detectives who have mapped out a crime but haven't been able to produce the body, or have something else buried that they're trying to find. In each case detailed, there is a centeral detective who has spent years, perhaps nearly a decade, trying to solve a particular crime. Often they know exactly who did it, but without a body their chances of conviction in court are slim to none.
Enter the Pig People. Their concentrated knowledge of geophysics, anthropology, biology, botany, criminology, etc. has brought success in some of the oldest, coldest murder cases. They use aerial photography, ground penetrating radar, archaological search and excavation techniques, naturalists familiar with plant and animal life, and every other technique they can think of to locate and recover hidden bodies. Their group even includes a "slobborologist"... ie a man and his two highly-trained bloodhounds. Bloodhounds have been known to locate corpses that have been buried for ten years or more.
Consider... in on investigation which was nearly twenty years old, although they had no body, hair had been discovered several years after the disappearance on a remote road in the Rockies... two long braids that looked very much like those the victim had just before disappearing. Later they were able to identify the hair as hers, using hair from a brush that had been taken from her apartment as evidence, bagged, and cataloged on the off chance it might some day prove useful.
With little knowledge of the case, one of NecroSearch's experts (a woman who played violin for the local symphony, taught anatomy, and worked as a naturalist) was able to determine from the hair and the vegetation (mostly pine needles and bits of wood) that the hair (and thus the body) had been in a wooded area that had not been exposed to fire but had been cleared (by men), was above 9,000 feet in elevation, and was in a cool, moist north-facing slope. The body would be close to the surface, covered with vegetation or not at all.
She didn't know that the hair had been found on a logging road in just such a location... but the evidence, including what kind of pine needles and wood were found and what kind of vegetation wasn't present, as well as the fact that the hair had been bleached by the sun on the surface, all led her to these conclusions, which were all right on the money, and helped lead to the discovery of the victim's remains.
Most of the scientists involved in NecroSearch are not detectives or law officers, just civilians with skills that can be applied to finding hidden bodies. But many of them are fans of Sherlock Holmes, and you certainly won't find a more Holmes-like study of the evidence and the possible conclusions than the one above. All in all, a fascinating book.
The last very short chapter is quite humerous even if it didn't lead to anything big. Two of NecroSearch's experts were invited to Russia in 1998 with the idea of trying to locate the graves of the two missing Romanov children. The Russians were planning a public funeral for the Romanov remains that year, and were anxious to find the two missing bodies to bolster their case that this was, indeed, the Romanov family that had been found (although really, there was little doubt except in the minds of the Russian public and the official views of the Orthodox church).
The NecroSearch team were allowed to view the bones of the other Romanovs and their servants, but Diane France, a renown anthropology expert who runs the Human Identification Laboratory at Colorado State University, could immediately see that the bones purported to be those of 17-year-old Anastasia were far more likely those of a full-grown adult, like her 19 year, 4 month elder sister Marie. Her two companions agreed with her, and it matched what another American expert, Bill Maples, had said years earlier (and one of Frances companions was Maples' successor). But they decided that it didn't matter as, either way, two bodies were missing and needed to be found.
But the idea that Anastasia's body had not been found was a very touchy one for the Russians. The next day, they were asked to sign documents that stated flatly that they were searching for the bodies of Alexis and Marie. Diane France hesitated at signing this and then said she was convinced that they were looking for Anastasia's body and not Marie's. This caused the Russians to blow a fuse. Needless to say, the NecroSearch team were sent back to America and did not get to even attempt to locate the other graves. ^_^
Very fascinating book, all told. ^_^
