Forensic Archaeology and Forensic Taphonomy: Basic Considerations on how to Properly Process and Interpret the Outdoor Forensic Scene

Abstract

Medicolegal death investigation requires a multidisciplinary approach to the collection of data from the crime scene to the autopsy table. Law enforcement processing of the indoor crime scene works extremely well for documenting evidence and producing reconstructions of past events. However, outdoor crime scenes require a new set of scene processing protocols — a need primarily derived from the wider array of natural agents, such as plants, animals, soil chemicals, or environmental conditions that will affect the evidence after burial or deposition outdoors. Forensic archaeology provides the principles, practices, and protocols for documenting and analyzing this type of evidence at a variety of outdoor and other complex crime scenes, including large-scale scene searches, surface-scattered remains, buried body features, fatal fires, and mass disaster scenes. Scene recovery protocols require 1) documentation of the context of the scene, including specific location, local flora and fauna, and geological, geographic, and environmental factors and conditions and 2) detailed notation of the spatial distribution of the evidence in order to establish association of evidence to other evidence and to a particular incident. The discipline of forensic taphonomy provides the techniques and conceptual framework to combine these scene-derived data with laboratory analysis of the biological tissues in order to build and test scientific hypotheses regarding the events surrounding death and deposition. The primary assessments resulting from a forensic taphonomic interpretation include scientific estimates of postmortem interval; whether and how remains have been moved, removed, or altered; and ultimately, whether there is an indication of human intervention.