As part of the final stages in this investigation, please conclude your findings with an epilogue to close this case file.

If it matches her twin sister, Tanya Rosilawati, it can be confirmed that the skull belongs to Anya Suriati. Once the victim has been identified, it is time to find out the identity of the murderer. The police should try and identify the motive of the murderer, whether it could be jealousy, threat.etc. Talking to the parents of the twins could help, as there is a possibility that they might have enemies. Suspects possibly related to the murder case should be called into questioning by the police department. A full background check including past criminal records of the suspects should be viewed as well as past medical records keeping in mind the possibility of the suspect being a psychiatric patient. Murderers are ruthless and don’t usually stop after one murder, so police should be on a lookout for any suspicious behavior. Police officers should conduct night patrol services daily and CCTV cameras should be set up as well. Communication between different police departments around the region should be established, making it difficult for the killer to hide. Further work can be done in the crime scene to try and identify the weapon used in the murder. If the weapon is identified, the police can track down the shop that sells this particular object. From there, the people who purchased these objects can be identified. Road blocks can be implemented by the police to perform spot checks on vehicles for the possession of dangerous objects or weapons. Forensic science has come a long way and is very useful in solving crime. As technology continues to advance, forensic science will continue to emerge and justice will be served.   

MURDER MOST BRUTAL PART 3

Question 5

Match the photos of the victims' pieces of evidence. Explaining your rationale of doing so.

Question 6:

The DNA profile showed evidence for a father and son. In addition there was DNA profiling pattern that matched one living twin (Tanya Rosilawati). With this, match the evidence to these victims who were earlier filed for missing persons. Explain your rationale.

Cleary enough that the DNA profiling has shown evidence for a father and a son, which has the highest possibility goes to Herman Hartono and his son, Adi Hartono. In addition to that, DNA profiling works in a way that they copied the regions known as Short Tandem Repeats, or STRs, which are composed of short units of DNA—just four or five bases long—that are repeated numerous times in a row. In most investigation, 13 such STR regions, all located in the non-coding DNA between our genes, are analyzed for the number of repeated units they contain. In this part, Adi Hartono and his father, Herman‘s both DNA matches most of the respective region of the STR.

            As for the one of the living twin, Tanya Rosilawati’s DNA being matched in the DNA profiling, the reason behind this still is being unclear.  It may be due to human error that mismatched the DNA profiling of the sample from the crime scene. 

Conclusion:

After analyzing all the information collected and after much rational considerations, the jaw in pic 3 might belong to Anya Suriati. To justify this statement, her report of missing by her father add on to this reasoning. Besides that, from the picture shown, the mental protuberance is prominent so I assume that it belongs to a girl's skull instead. With all the evidence collected regarding picture 3, I reckon that the murdered victim of this case is Anya Suriati. However, this assumption can only be confirmed once the DNA profile is revealed. If it matches her twin sister, Tanya Rosilawati, it means the skull belongs to Anya Suriati.

MURDER MOST BRUTAL PART 2

Question 4

Other than examining the dental aspects provided as evidence, what other ways can the victims be identified?

The methods of identifying victims is summarized in a flow chart below :-

A- DNA

1. Anatomical location for DNA in tooth

The teeth differ in form and size but have similar histological structure. The dentin is a connective tissue that forms the major structural axis of the tooth and is hardly exposed to the oral environment. The dentin on the crown of the tooth is covered by enamel. The enamel has an ectodermic origin and is an extremely mineralized tissue. Furthermore, it is an acellular and avascular structure without nerves. The root dentin is covered by the cement, another type of calcified connective tissue. Soft tissue within coronal and radicular pulp chamber consists of odontoblasts, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, peripheral nerve, undifferentiated mesenchymal cells and nucleated components of blood which are rich sources of DNA. Other less frequently used anatomical locations of DNA includes, odontoblastic process that extend into dentinal tubules, soft tissue within accessory canals, cellular cementum, adherent bone and periodontal ligament fibres

2. Method used to amplify the amount of DNA extracted

PCR is used to amplify the amount of DNA material available, so that sufficient quantity is available to carry our DNA analysis. To carry out the reaction special enzyme and DNA primers are required. These primers are like probes with known constant sections of DNA but not labeled. They are designed to known constant sections of DNA at the ends of variable region to be amplified. The principle of PCR is that the DNA is capable of duplicating itself. This is done by unwinding the strands of DNA and each strand acts as a template for synthesis of new strand. By PCR technique we can amplify specific DNA segments dependent on the primer employed. The standard PCR reaction runs through 30 cycles in a couple of hours which results in amplification of original DNA by over 109 times. The DNA found can be genomic (found in the nucleus) and mtDNA (in the mitochondria). The teeth are an excellent source of genomic and mtDNA because PCR analyses allow comparing the collected postmortem samples to known antemortem samples or parental DNA. Main advantage of mtDNA is the high number of copies per cell (from hundreds to thousands of organelles).

(Schematic photograph showing replication of DNA by PCR)

3. Identifying individuals by sequencing mitochondrial DNA from teeth

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was extracted from teeth stored from 3 months to 20 years, including teeth from the semi-skeletonized remains of a murder victim which had been buried for 10 months. Tooth donors and/or their maternal relatives provided blood or buccal cells, from which mtDNA was also extracted. Enzymatic amplification and direct sequencing of roughly 650 nucleotides from two highly polymorphic regions of mtDNA yielded identical sequences for each comparison of tooth and fresh DNA. Our results suggest that teeth provide an excellent source for high molecular weight mtDNA that can be valuable for extending the time in which decomposed human remains can be genetically identified.

4. Stabilization of DNA in a tooth

Extraction of DNA from the human body remains a difficult task and depends upon numerous environmental factors and extraction procedures. Experience has shown that DNA from hard tissues like bone and teeth are most stable even after putrefaction of bodies (decomposition of dead bodies). The pulp produced the strongest PCR amplification signals, while dentin and cementum signals were very similar to each other.

B-CCTV Footage

Investigators could probably look out for any closed-circuit television (CCTV) security monitoring systems installed at any street corners or even any public buildings nearby the crime scene. Thorough examination of the videos captured within the estimated time range might reveal certain important clues such as possible suspected individuals, vehicles or even the appearance of victims. All the suspected murderers or possible witnesses appeared in the recovered video could be identified and a thorough interrogation should be run on them to obtain any relevant evidences.

C- Mass media

Once the murderer and victims has been confirmed, the mass media should be responsible for alerting the civilians about the breaking news. Newspaper headlines, radio and television broadcast reporting the story of murder should be in detail. Pictures of the murderer can be printed on posters and put at places which is visible to the civilians to warn them. The news from television or newspaper can be posted online for online viewers. Besides that, the news can be further posted on social networking sites such as facebook.

D- Environment/Belongings

Environment

The environment offers many clues that, during the course of a day, we often overlook or take for granted. The dust and dirt that accumulates on skull, mandible, and teeth are able to provide important clues about the crime, as well as the suspect. These minute clues can often point to the criminal's hobbies, occupation, habits and movements and are often helpful in guiding an entire investigation.

 Murder Weapon

In a complex world of weapons, forensic scientists see hundreds of different wounds causes by weapons other than guns. For example, blunt trauma, sharp trauma, asphyxiation, strangulation and assault. All of these forms of murder are brutal and the wounds on the dead body left behind provide vital evidence of the type of weapon used by the criminal.

By measuring the depth, width, gap and shape of dent on skull, we can make several assumption on what weapon did it, at least we know it was not a gun shot or knife stabs. Using all these information, we can search around the park or residential area for suspicious tool which might hit the victim.

Based on the skull evidence, we can narrow down to blunt force trauma.  Deaths resulting from blunt force trauma are some of the most common cases encountered by the practicing forensic pathologist. Blunt force trauma is routinely involved in cases classified as accidents, as well as in cases of suicide and homicide. For instance, almost all transportation fatalities — including those involving motor vehicle collisions, pedestrians being struck by vehicles, airplane crashes, and boating incidents — result from blunt force trauma. Other deaths resulting from blunt force trauma involve jumping or falling from heights, blast injuries, and being struck by a firm object, such as a fist, crowbar, bat, or ball

 But we should not eliminate the possibility which the victim had a trauma accident before which caused the blunt force on the back of the head without causing him dead.

Question 5         

• List the evidences that have been presented to both the doctors. 

Picture 1

As we could see in the 1^st picture, it shows a set of skull with a jaw which bearing a few posterior teeth. One feature we could see from the skull was the zygomatic cheek bone is less prominent as compare to a male’s skull bone. While the lower jaw/mandible on the right shows the 3^rd molar has already been erupted. In both cases, it has a high likelihood that the victim in here could be a female aged more than 20 years old. 

Picture 2

These pictures above show a broken part of the lower right jaw/mandible which also bearing all posterior part of molars, 1^st, 2^nd molars and permanent second premolar. The sharp or a more pronounced edge of the right angle of mandible indicated there would be a higher chance of this particular jaw belongs to a male victim. As for the clean cut edge of the might lead the forensic  team a clue that the male victims encountered a brutal hit on the jaws, leading the jaw fractured into 2 or 3 parts.   

Picture 3

Picture 3 shows a jaw bearing some teeth. Basically most of the teeth of the child’s lower jaw is missing, only 1^st permanent molar, first premolar, canine and  lateral incisor are present.

Presence of 1^st Permanent molar : indicates that the child is at least 6 years of age.

First premolar : indicates that the child is  10-12 years of age
Canine : indicates that the child is  9-10 years of age
Lateral incisors : indicates that the child is  7-8 years of age

• Considering the evidences available up to this point in time, describe in detail how you would go about investigating further, assuming you are Dr. Rudi or Dr. Suria, explaining what you anticipate at each step.

I would continue searching the parameter for body parts or any human remains. So far, only an adult’s skull and jaw as well as other pieces of jaws have been found. More evidence would put us in a better position to conclude anything. I would send a DNA sample from the skull and jaw obtained to the lab for analysis. Possibility of an analysis would depend upon the age of the DNA as available technology and protocols do not allow the analysis of ancient DNA. Evidence should be examined further and data should be recorded in complete and accurate forms. Use a small paintbrush to remove dirt as gently as possible from the skull and jaw structures. Take photographs and place markers for site and direction as well as scale. Keep bones in labeled containers under appropriate conditions. Dental analysis should be conducted where identification of recovered human remains in addition to whole or fragmented bodies is conducted. Dental analysis may also assist in determining gender, age, race, occupation and previous dental history of unidentified human beings. Identification is done by the comparison of ante mortem and post mortem dental records and using the unique features visible on dental radiographs. Ultimately, it can be used to find out the person to whom the teeth belong to. Once the ages of the victims are estimated using dental analysis, forensic science can be used to determine when the victim was killed. Estimated time of death and the date the victims were reported missing can be compared.

In this murder case, the body parts of victim may be severed and hid elsewhere. This hypothesis is estabished due to inability to find any other parts of bones of the body except the skull. Dr. Rudi and Dr. Suria should organise a search party the find the remaining part of body. Clothes may be found on the body. Fingerprints is searched on the victim’s body/clothes, which can lead us closer to the murderer. Besides that, the clothes is searched for any blood stains of the murderer(since there may be struggling of victim before death), further leading us closer to the murderer’s identity.(blood stains can be cultured and DNA matching with the suspects DNA)

Search on weapons for murder must be conducted. From part 1, Dr. Suria mentioned about ‘blunt force at the back of the head’, indicates that there might be trauma caused by weapons. The might be fingerprints and blood stains(from victim and murderer) and hair entangled (from victim) on the weapon, which leads to confirmation of the victim and murderer.

Then, we should cross check the list against missing adults and one child who were reported a few months of each other. This, in addition of the remaining information obtained, can be used to identify the victims.

MURDER MOST BRUTAL!!

QUESTION 1

We have all heard of how Forensic Dentistry has helped in the identification of burnt victims and also victims with bite marks. Explain more about these and describe how is Forensic Dentistry could be useful in the identification of murder victims?

 Forensic dentistry or forensic odontology is the area of dentistry that encompasses concepts and practices related to oral and maxillofacial structures in the context of the legal and judicial system .

First of all, teeth are the most durable parts of the body and dentitions are as individual as fingerprints. Therefore, individual tooth morphology as well as the restorations that exist in teeth are useful for human identification.

Postmortem teeth, jaws, fingerprint, and appliances can yield a positive identification given the existence and accuracy of ante mortem records. Therefore, accurate, comprehensive and current radiography and dental charting are critical to a successful confirmation or elimination of an individual as a victim. Since there is no database of teeth that corresponds with databases of fingerprints or DNA, so dental records are how forensic dentists identify the dead. Tooth enamel (the outer layer of teeth) is harder than any other substance in the human body, which is why teeth remain long after all other parts have decayed.

For example, in burnt victims, they  are often identified by their teeth, which can withstand temperatures of more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 degrees Celsius). Teeth that have been through especially intense heat are very fragile and may shrink, but they can be preserved with lacquer and used for identification as long as they are handled very carefully. Dental work, such as a partial or gold crown, will be distorted by fire but can still aid in identification.

To identify a person from his or her teeth, a forensic dentist must have a dental record or records from the deceased person's dentist. In the case of an incident involving multiple deaths, forensic dentists receive a list of possible individuals and compare available records with the teeth and find a match. Examining the teeth of an intact corpse often requires working in a morgue to expose the jaws surgically. Even if only a few teeth are available, a forensic dentist can still make a positive identification. The best comparisons come from X-rays, but even if those aren't available, notations on the tooth chart can tell the dentist if the teeth are the same.

Identifying an individual by his or her teeth without dental records is much more difficult. However, things like broken teeth, missing teeth and gold crowns might be recognized by the friends and family members of the deceased. Things about the biter's lifestyle can be determined by the teeth; a constant pipe smoker or a bagpipe player has a distinctive wear pattern. Dressmakers and tailors, who often put pins and needles in their mouths, may have chipped teeth.

In addition to the dental records, forensic investigators can retrieve DNA samples by extracting the pulp from the center of the tooth. Unlike the enamel, pulp can be damaged by fire and other conditions, but it can also last for hundreds of years. Dental identification is often the last resort, and it isn't always possible -- some people simply can't be identified.

X-rays are the best way to make a match as far as forensic dentistry is concerned.

Even without ante mortem records, forensic dentistry able to provide information regarding age, sex and estimated socioeconomic ( race and cultural heritage ). This information derived from tooth and dental arch morphology and anatomy, restorative materials ,eruption patterns, and skeletal features.

 QUESTION 2

Is a male human skull different from that of a female? If yes, how?

Difference between male and female human skull is very important 

in forensics in dentistry to determine the sex of the victim.

Research today shows that while in early life there is little 

difference between male and female skulls

As growth and development of skull progresses, the 

characteristics features of male and female skulls become more 

observable and can be distinguished by the naked eye.

DIFFERENCES

Male	Aspect	Female
Heavier and larger	Weight, Size	Smaller and lighter
Slightly sloping/receeding	Forehead	Vertical
More prominent	Temporal line	Less prominent
Thicker and more prominent	Supraorbital ridge	Less prominent
More squarish,angular,prominent and has thick bone for attachment of masseter m. angle of jaw is acute	Angle of mandible	Rounder and curved, less prominent , wider angle of jaw
Squarish chin, less prominent mental protuberance	Chin(mental protuberance)	Pointed chin, more prominent and sharper mental protuberance
More prominent	Mastoid Process	Less prominent

(typical male skull/characteristics)








(typical female skull)

A word of warning, if you please.
You shouldn’t rely on one of these features in isolation to determine gender, but should look to a combination of the factors to give you a reliable indicator.

Sure enough, the differences between male and female skulls may be subtle and require a period of “calibration” in order to become proficient in seeing the differences. Once this is done, you should have a fairly well-honed ability to determine the sex of an individual from their skull.

(general differences between male and female skull)

QUESTION 3

From the story above so far, how many victims are there? Explain. 

Possibility 1
There might be only 1 young male victim involved in this murdering case as for now. As we can see from the article, the forensic team could only locate a skull, and a jaw like structure as well, which have a likelihood of only a person being murdered in here, whilst the finding of other human remains still going on. So, it’s still remains as mystery. No one knows...

Possibility  2
In here, there will be 2 possible victims involved, as the Dr Rudi have mentioned that result of the current finding included a skull and also a jaw like structure bearing some teeth as well. We couldn't exactly tell that particular jaw like structure belongs or fits into skull of the remains. So, we might conclude that both skull and jaw could be from two different persons. As for the other human remains, might as well disperse around the area, waiting the forensic team to dig out. 

In a nutshell, we cannot fully conclude if the jaw-like structures bearing some teeth belong to one victim or more. The parts of the skull found at the scene of the crime could be from several victims as well. Therefore, it is difficult to deduce how many victims are there. However, we do know that there is at least one male skeleton,and perhaps a young child. The parameter is still being searched for body parts or of any human remains which could provide more evidence helping to calculate the number of victims. Further examination of the jaw like structures and the parts of the skull is required to conclude anything.

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