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FORENSIC SCIENCE GLOBAL NEWS UPDATES

BRINGING BURNT BONES

BACK TO ‘LIFE’ USING 3D

TECHNOLOGY

A new method of presenting fragile evidence by
Ms.Yadupriya P
reconstructing a ‘jigsaw’ of human bone frag-

ments using a 3D printer has been discovered by
forensic scientists at the University of Portsmouth.

The study was conducted by using fragmented burnt human bones and test-

ing the ability to make 3D models applicable for presenting in court.

During investigation of a crime scene there is a lot of evidence such as
human remains which are damaged and fragmented and need to undergo

analysis. Physical fit analysis is a method of fitting different pieces of an ev-
idence and seeing if they are of the same whole evidence before they were

fragmented.

One of the scientists who was involved in this research said that a positive
fit indicates two or more particles have originated from the same object.

This is essential at a scene of crime to draw links between the locations
and place of suspects at the crime scene and allow the reconstruction of the

objects. However, this is a laborious process and requires careful handling
of evidence and a keen eye since physical fit analysis depends on manually

handling the human remains and piecing together the different fragments
which would be sharp, fragile or sometimes embedded in other materials.

Dr. Brown says (one among the scien-
tists ): “We wanted to find a way to cir-

cumvent the need to manually handle
the delicate bones, so we looked to 3D

technology. Whilst the use of 3D tech-
nology has become increasingly wide-

spread within the field of forensics to
our knowledge, this approach has not

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