How would a body be unidentifiable?

King Neptune · Mar 29, 2014

The question just posed may be important. Is it important that the body ever be identified? I don't know the setting, but there are places where crabs and other sea life consume anything that gets left in the water. There would still be large bones, but there wouldn't be much left to identify.

MDSchafer · Mar 29, 2014

Unidentified bodies happen more often than you might think. One resource you might want to try is the Doe Network. They have extensive case files online about bodies that haven't been identified. I used to dig through the website during slow news weeks looking for feature crime stories. The most common thing I remember is that most of the unidentified bodies were skeletal/mummified remains that weren't discovered for a period of time outside. It's not uncommon for dental, DNA and finger prints to be available.

http://www.doenetwork.org/

King Neptune · Mar 29, 2014

MDSchafer said:
Unidentified bodies happen more often than you might think. One resource you might want to try is the Doe Network. They have extensive case files online about bodies that haven't been identified. I used to dig through the website during slow news weeks looking for feature crime stories. The most common thing I remember is that most of the unidentified bodies were skeletal/mummified remains that weren't discovered for a period of time outside. It's not uncommon for dental, DNA and finger prints to be available.

http://www.doenetwork.org/

Thanks for the link. I think this answers all of the OP's questions. I hadn't realized there was something like this.

Hilary1 · Mar 29, 2014

cornflake said:
How do they know the murder occurred there? Where was the body? How many employees are there? What kind of company?

If it's a super-secure, small, tech-based company, with like 15 employees, cameras everyplace, no one in or out without a biometric scan or something, it'd be fairly simple to determine if it's an employee. First, there are only 15, so find them all or not. If not, then try that. If you do, then there's a problem and you go to the security to figure it out first.

If they find someone in an out-of-the-way area of a big department store, during open hours, and the body could have been there over two different shifts, it's much harder to figure if it's an employee or a member of the public. Takes way longer to track down workers, much more complex if it isn't one, etc.

It'd be more like the latter.

How would a body be unidentifiable?

King Neptune

MDSchafer

King Neptune

Hilary1