Michigan State University's Giltner Hall on MSU's campus in East Lansing, Michigan, on May 23, 2025. Giltner Hall was constructed in 1913 as a veterinary clinic and today houses classrooms and laboratories.
A Michigan State University anthropology team is working in tandem with the Lansing Police Department in an ongoing effort to identify human remains found near Grand River in September. The remains are believed to be several years old, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Joseph Hefner, an anthropology associate professor and board-certified forensic anthropologist, leads the MSU team consisting of forensic anthropologists, faculty members, PhD students and a postdoctoral researcher.
Hefner and his team were contacted when the medical examiner’s office arrived at the scene on Sept. 26. Upon being called, the groups made the decision to “hold the scene” until the MSU team was able to arrive. In the situation of a local case, the team is usually the first to be called upon if the deceased is decomposed, decomposing or skeletonized.
While Hefner wasn’t able to disclose specifics about the case, he outlined the general process the team engages in for similar investigations. Going into a scene, Hefner stressed that the team has to “consider the needs of the scene” in order to analyze it accurately.
“In collecting evidence from a scene, we're also destroying the scene,” Hefner said. “It goes away the second we start moving things around.”
The team begins by photographing and scanning the scene for evidence, being careful not to tamper with any material. Afterward, they begin a documentation process, including additional photographs and other forms of contextualizing the available information before it’s moved. Once this is complete, the evidence is moved off scene for processing to take place in a lab environment.
Within their process, Hefner explained they’re looking to answer two questions: Who is it and how did they die? To determine identity, the team is developing a biological profile for the remains, which outlines the individual's age, sex, population affinity and stature. As for cause of death, the team is conducting trauma analysis through macro- and microscopic examination of the bones. Factors such as the state of decomposition, environmental conditions and positioning play a large role in their study.
“It’s putting all these pieces of the puzzle together, writ large, and trying to understand it before we leave,” Hefner said. “Once we leave, there's really no going back to it.”
Forensic anthropology PhD student Natalie Clark is one of eight PhD students on the team. Clark has had the opportunity to be involved in every stage of the process for this particular investigation and is currently assisting with building the biological profile of the individual.
Clark emphasized the importance of providing estimates “as quickly as we can” while still treating every case with “time and effort.” In order to do so, Clark said the team must be “thorough” in comparing their analysis to missing persons’ reports, which allows a potential identity to be determined.
“We are all very invested in (the case),” Clark said. “We're all doing our best to close as many cases and reunite these individuals with their families.”
Hefner and his team are currently balancing several cases, meaning that the process for this investigation “can take a while.” While Hefner believes they’re following their “general trajectory,” he has no estimated timeline for when they will conclude the case.
“It's a very involved process,” Hefner said. “We have to look at (the remains) from every aspect possible because we're looking for all sorts of information from the bones.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to reach out to the Lansing Police Department at 517-483-4660 or Crime Stoppers at 517-483-7867.
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