Complementarity of odontology and anthropology in the identification of unknown bodies

Abstract

The press regularly echoes disturbing disappearances of children and adults, suicides, victims of accidents, homeless, the often fortuitous discovery of bodies or human remains. The identification process of the person will be comparative when there is a presumption of identity and estimative in case of absence of presumed identity. In 2011, a retrospective study over 6 years at the Poincaré Hospital IML (Medico Legal Institute) in Garches states the surprising figure of over 1500 burials underX per year in France. This situation is the result of a series of dysfunctions. After having identified the causes, the identification in odontology and anthropology could contribute to solve this problem by adopting the following resolutions. Firstly, the creation of a single file for disappearances, grouping together the Ante-Mortem (AM) medical and odontological data files of persons reported missing, as well as the Post-Mortem (PM) odontological and anthropological data files collected on bodies under X during thanatological operations within the Medico Legal Institute. Secondly, the systematic collection of odontological evidence PM as well as an exhaustive anthropological analysis for any body under X without presumed identity, before burial.