Bone Remains

Bone Remains - Cover

Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology

by Mary H. Manhein

152 pages / 6.00 x 8.50 inches / 41 halftones

ebook available

Social Studies / Anthropology | Social Studies / Criminology | Social Studies / Regional Studies

Hardcover / 9780807153239 / September 2013
$26.95
Over the past thirty years, forensic anthropologist Mary H. Manhein has helped authorities to identify hundreds of deceased persons throughout Louisiana and beyond. In Bone Remains, she offers details of fifteen riveting cases from her files—many of them involving facial reconstructions where only bones offered clues to an individual’s story. 
 
Manhein takes readers into the field, inside her lab, and through DNA databases and government bureaucracies as she and her team tirelessly work to identify and seek justice for those who can no longer speak for themselves. From a two-thousand-year-old mummy, to Civil War sailors, to graves disturbed by Hurricane Isaac, Manhein presents both modern and historic cases. Her conversational accounts provide a fascinating look into the stories behind the headlines as well as sometimes heart-wrenching details of people lost and found.
 
Manhein shows how each case came to her team, how they used scientific analysis to unravel the secrets the bones had to tell, and how facial reconstructions and a special database for missing and unidentified people assisted in closing cold cases long believed to be unsolvable. She also discusses several unsolved mysteries, further reflecting the determination and passion central to her career for over three decades.

Mary H. Manhein is the director of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory at Louisiana State University and the director of the Louisiana Repository for Unidentified and Missing Persons Information Program. She is the author of Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist and Bone Remains: Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology.

Praise for Bone Remains

“This engaging book shows how science and human experiences come together in Manhein’s efforts to resolve cold cases. Readers will encounter the reality of practice in forensic anthropology skillfully related by an accomplished professional.”—Douglas H. Ubelaker, author of Bones: A Forensic Detective’s Casebook

“In Bone Remains, the reality of forensic anthropology comes to life for the reader. The nitty-gritty of human identification using anthropology is combined with stories from families and investigators to tell the whole story.”—Robert E. Barsley, former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences

“Mary H. Manhein again shows that bones talk to her and that she hears what they are saying. She delightfully describes in Bone Remains how anthropologists and other scientists work in the field and in the laboratory to identify the dead, to help solve cold cases, and to clarify remote historical mysteries. A must for the forensically inclined.”—Michael M. Baden, MD, former chief medical examiner, New York City

Extras for Bone Remains: Cold Cases in Forensic Anthropology

Anthropologist reflects on 30-year career in new book

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