Abstract
Recent forensic applications of stable isotope analysis (SIA) have demonstrated its value as an investigative tool in the identification of unknown decedents. Stable isotope ratios measured in bones, teeth, hair, and nails provide a record of a person’s dietary preferences, travel history, and residence patterns. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotopes of human tissues provide information regarding a decedent’s dietary preferences, which in turn may reflect a person’s geographic region of origin. Additionally, stable oxygen and strontium isotopes in body tissues can be used to provenance human remains, because these isotopes reflect the source of drinking water and local geology, respectively. When combined, a multi-isotope approach provides a powerful geolocation tool for predicting a region of origin or recent travel history for unidentified human remains. In this study, we present on two forensic cases that used SIA to predict the travel history and region of origin of unknown decedents.
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