Personal Identification of Deceased Persons: An Overview of the Current Methods Based on Physical Appearance

Abstract

The use of the physical appearance of the deceased has become more important because the available antemortem information for comparisons may consist only of a physical description and photographs. Twenty-one articles dealing with the identification based on the physiognomic features of the human body were selected for review and were divided into four sections: (i) visual recognition, (ii) specific facial/body areas, (iii) biometrics, and (iv) dental superimposition. While opinions about the reliability of the visual recognition differ, the search showed that it has been used in mass disasters, even without testing its objectivity and reliability. Specific facial areas being explored for the identification of dead; however, their practical use is questioned, similarly to soft biometrics. The emerging dental superimposition seems to be the only standardized and successfully applied method for identification so far. More research is needed into a potential use of the individualizing features, considering that postmortem changes and technical difficulties may affect the identification.

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“…Sex estimation is one of the most important elements in the identification of an individual or population. It is a simple task to determine the sex when the whole body is available as the internal and external genitalia can directly suggest the sex of an individual (Asha et al 2012;Varu et al 2016;Caplova et al 2017). The problem arises when the body parts found are in a fragmented or mutilated state in mass disasters, accidents, explosions and crime scenes (Agnihotri et al 2005;Rani et al 2011;Uhrová et al 2015;Pal et al 2016;Bindurani et al 2017).…”

Estimation of Sex from Hand Dimensions in an Indigenous Karbi Adult Population of Assam, India

“…Sex estimation is one of the most important elements in the identification of an individual or population. It is a simple task to determine the sex when the whole body is available as the internal and external genitalia can directly suggest the sex of an individual (Asha et al 2012;Varu et al 2016;Caplova et al 2017). The problem arises when the body parts found are in a fragmented or mutilated state in mass disasters, accidents, explosions and crime scenes (Agnihotri et al 2005;Rani et al 2011;Uhrová et al 2015;Pal et al 2016;Bindurani et al 2017).…”

The wisdom of the crowd: A case of post- to ante-mortem face matching by police super-recognisers

“…The most reliable methods are DNA, odontology, or fingerprints. However, sometimes after water-submersion, the cadaver, or a photo of it, may be directly compared with a photo of a potential match taken when living (1)(2)(3), for reviews see 4,5). Even with poor-quality images, recognition of familiar living faces is normally reliable (6,7).…”

“…Performance is worse when image characteristics differ (e.g., aging, viewpoint, blurring) (11)(12)(13). Not surprisingly, accuracy of ante-to post-mortem unfamiliar face matching may be even more unreliable (3)(4)(5).…”