Forensic Facial Reconstruction

Facial reconstructions! While they can definitely be done wrong, we see them on TV as being a common and useful forensic tool…

So how do those techniques stack up to what real life forensic scientists do?

They actually aren’t bad!

Forensic scientists do do manual reconstructions using pegs and clay, and there are now also computer based techniques that involve scanning the skull to create a 3D model, although I’m not sure if it is done using a barcode scanner.

However, in real life, facial reconstructions are usually only done as a last resort, when all other methods of identifying a body have failed. This is because it is one of the most subjective parts of forensic science, generally involving an artist as well as a scientist.

The shape of the ears, nose and mouth cannot be directly determined from the skull. In this reconstruction of Gail Matthews, a Green River murder victim, the reconstruction could not predict her distinctive lips.

It is also often not possible to know the eye colour, or the hair colour or style of the victim, so some reconstructions are done with different possibilities.

There is also not enough data about facial tissue thicknesses, that is how chubby your cheeks are, when doing facial reconstructions for people of different ages, sexes and builds.

However, some reconstructions are found to have a very good likeness, when the person is finally identified. This facial reconstruction of a 1996 murder victim led to the identification of April Lacy, a girl who was only 14 years old when she was killed. Her murderer was never found.

Archaeology also uses facial reconstructions. This facial reconstruction of Tutankhamen made the front page of National Geographic in 2005, and in April this year a dog’s face was reconstructed for the first time, from a 4000 year old skull found in Scotland.

And if you are really keen to give it a go yourself, you can try one of these facial reconstruction DIY kits from Amazon.com!

Another aspect of facial forensics is age progression – a technique that is generally used when a person has been missing a long time, to show what they might look like now.

A technology once available only to forensic scientists, it is now possible to do age progression, and regression, on your phone, using app like FaceApp.

Which has come a long way from the age progressions of the mid 1990s!