Friday, March 24, 2006
Bones, Bones, Bones... (Part I)
I helped process my first human remains scene this week. It was very cool and very tedious. We got a call on Thursday that a Japanese work crew found a human skull on a Weapons Range on base. I happened to be within earshot of the Agent on Duty and immediately volunteered my services. We loaded up the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) Van, which I like to call the Mystery Machine, and headed out to the deep Okinawan jungle.
We arrive on scene and the Military Police have secured the area. They've also gone looking around and found a scattering of human remains. Typically it's not a good thing for the MPs to go tromping through a crime scene searching for remains, because of contamination and all, but an overeager Lieutenant was in charge, and it wasn't the first human remains found on base (apparently the Japanese like to commit suicide on our lovely bases) -- so they had experience.
We head in and the first thing we see is the skull, no body, just skull. As we continue the tour, we walk into this draw and start climbing straight up. In case your wondering what a draw is, it's a cut on a side of a hill that is formed by running water. Kind of like a river on the side of a mountain, minus the water. Usually when it rains really hard, water will flow from the sides of the mountain and go into the draw. As we're walking, we have to go under or through head high ferns, bamboo and Spiders. Lots and Lots of Spiders. Really big Spiders. Orange, Black and Green Spiders. I really HATE Spiders.
We find the remains scattered about 100 meters up the draw, so we decide to start working on a plan. Typically, if the remains are of Asian/Okinawan decent, the local Police Department will take over and secure the remains. Fortunately for us, one of our Agents is a Forensic Anthropologist (FA) and by looking at the bones and skull she can determine race and sex. She spends a few minutes looking over the skull and the pelvis and determines that it's an Asian male. Sweeeeet, the Okinawan PD can take it over.
Let me explain why we want the Okinawans to take over the scene. If we do the scene, we do it to American standards, which is to cut down every single plant in our way. Get on our hands and knees, and clear the whole jungle floor, looking for bits of bone, teeth, clothing, etc. This will take several days for us and becomes a major emotional event. The Japanese on the other hand, will come in with a big trash bag, pick up what they see and leave. Total time about 15 minutes. So you see why we want the Japanese to do the scene. Besides, were only concerned about U.S. Service Members' remains, and since none have been reported missing in the last few years, we're pretty certain it's an Okinawan. (Okinawans by the way, have the highest suicide rate in Japan. Mainland Japanese come to Okinawa to commit suicide. Go figure.)
Anyway, the local Japanese Police (JP) arrive and our FA Agent explains that the bones are of Asian descent and that they should take the scene. The senior JP officer looks at our "young female" agent and says in Japanese (translation from our Japanese Investigator) "Because you describe it like this, you think we should take over the scene." Hell yes, is what I was thinking. He ho's and hum's for a while and says, "Let me call my boss."
He comes back and tells us, "You collect the remains, send it to our Ryuku University, if they determine it's Asian, we'll take the case." Then we explain, if we take over the scene, the remains will go to our forensic laboratory in the U.S. Then they'll tell us it's an Asian Male, they'll send us back the remains, which we will in turn hand over to the Japanese Police. This will take anywhere from 4-8 months. That's 4-8 months they could be trying to find the family of this guy.
Well, they refuse and we're stuck processing the scene. More to follow...
We arrive on scene and the Military Police have secured the area. They've also gone looking around and found a scattering of human remains. Typically it's not a good thing for the MPs to go tromping through a crime scene searching for remains, because of contamination and all, but an overeager Lieutenant was in charge, and it wasn't the first human remains found on base (apparently the Japanese like to commit suicide on our lovely bases) -- so they had experience.
We head in and the first thing we see is the skull, no body, just skull. As we continue the tour, we walk into this draw and start climbing straight up. In case your wondering what a draw is, it's a cut on a side of a hill that is formed by running water. Kind of like a river on the side of a mountain, minus the water. Usually when it rains really hard, water will flow from the sides of the mountain and go into the draw. As we're walking, we have to go under or through head high ferns, bamboo and Spiders. Lots and Lots of Spiders. Really big Spiders. Orange, Black and Green Spiders. I really HATE Spiders.
We find the remains scattered about 100 meters up the draw, so we decide to start working on a plan. Typically, if the remains are of Asian/Okinawan decent, the local Police Department will take over and secure the remains. Fortunately for us, one of our Agents is a Forensic Anthropologist (FA) and by looking at the bones and skull she can determine race and sex. She spends a few minutes looking over the skull and the pelvis and determines that it's an Asian male. Sweeeeet, the Okinawan PD can take it over.
Let me explain why we want the Okinawans to take over the scene. If we do the scene, we do it to American standards, which is to cut down every single plant in our way. Get on our hands and knees, and clear the whole jungle floor, looking for bits of bone, teeth, clothing, etc. This will take several days for us and becomes a major emotional event. The Japanese on the other hand, will come in with a big trash bag, pick up what they see and leave. Total time about 15 minutes. So you see why we want the Japanese to do the scene. Besides, were only concerned about U.S. Service Members' remains, and since none have been reported missing in the last few years, we're pretty certain it's an Okinawan. (Okinawans by the way, have the highest suicide rate in Japan. Mainland Japanese come to Okinawa to commit suicide. Go figure.)
Anyway, the local Japanese Police (JP) arrive and our FA Agent explains that the bones are of Asian descent and that they should take the scene. The senior JP officer looks at our "young female" agent and says in Japanese (translation from our Japanese Investigator) "Because you describe it like this, you think we should take over the scene." Hell yes, is what I was thinking. He ho's and hum's for a while and says, "Let me call my boss."
He comes back and tells us, "You collect the remains, send it to our Ryuku University, if they determine it's Asian, we'll take the case." Then we explain, if we take over the scene, the remains will go to our forensic laboratory in the U.S. Then they'll tell us it's an Asian Male, they'll send us back the remains, which we will in turn hand over to the Japanese Police. This will take anywhere from 4-8 months. That's 4-8 months they could be trying to find the family of this guy.
Well, they refuse and we're stuck processing the scene. More to follow...
