Name: Professor Norman Sauer and Assistant Professor Todd Fenton
Department: Forensic anthropology
Type of research: Identifying human remains
Date of research: Sauer has been researching forensic anthropology for about 30 years, and Fenton began when he joined the department in 1998.
Basics of the project: "We aid in the investigation of deaths," Fenton said. "So, anytime you hear about a set of remains that has been recovered and that identifications are pending, most likely we will be doing that work in the state of Michigan."
The professors work in MSU's forensic anthropology lab, where they are consultants for state law enforcement agencies and medical examiners' offices, and they receive about 60 cases a year, Sauer said. He added that some cases come from across the nation.
Sauer and Fenton work on cases involving homicides, suicides, accidental deaths and drowning and fire victims, they said.
They begin to identify remains by first creating a biological profile, which evaluates a victim's sex, age at death, ancestry, height, time elapsed since death and aspects of medical and dental history — "all of which we can determine from the skeleton," Sauer said.
Law enforcement officials can then check missing persons records, and the professors use medical or dental X-rays from the missing person and compare those to the remains, Sauer said.
Another technique they can use to identify remains is through skull-photo superimposition, where Sauer and Fenton compare the actual skull with a photograph taken during a person's lifetime.
But this process is not the most common procedure, only used about twice a year, Sauer said.
Sauer and Fenton also specialize in determining skeletal trauma, which takes place following the identification of the remains.
"What we look for is, 'Is there any evidence on the skeleton for how that person might have died?' and so that's a very different responsibility than the identification," Fenton said.
Depending on the particular case, it depends on how much time and money is used, they said.
"Some cases are very neat and tidy and can be done in a few hours," Sauer said. "Others extend over long periods of time."
About 20 graduate students work with the professors when they consult for cases, Fenton said.
"Part of the educational process is we're training graduate students to be the next generation of forensic anthropologists, and it's our hope to place them in consulting positions across the country," he said.
Social impact of research: "Many of these cases can be sad, because of the stories behind them," Fenton said. "The greatest satisfaction that I get is giving closure to the family members of the victim."
Grants and funding: State grants and consulting fees help pay for the research. The consulting fees are charged by the university and are used for lab supplies, equipment and doctoral students, Fenton said.
