SA’s own Prof Bones is now digging for funds
EXPERT: Maryna Steyn is head of anatomical sciences at Wits University WHEN a human skeleton is found buried beneath the soil or burnt to a crisp, the police turn to “Professor Bones”— Maryna Steyn, head of anatomical sciences at the University of Witwatersrand.
She has worked on more than 500 criminal cases in her 20-year career, helping to determine the sex, age, ancestry of skeletons, and the trauma that person suffered before death. “You need to know the bones,” she said.
Steyn worked on the remains of a man thrown to lions by his farmer employer in 2004, and identified one of the victims of the sugar cane serial killer in KwaZulu-Natal two years ago.
This branch of forensic science is highly specialised and time-consuming. Steyn first gathers information about the circumstances of the victim’s death. Then she delves into the skeleton: the shape and size of the pelvis determines gender; the dimensions of bones and teeth indicate age.
“Child victims are the worst,” she said. “I had this one case of abuse of a little boy. His skeleton was still clothed, and when we undressed it I found a green balloon in his pocket. That suddenly brought home the reality of a dead child. It wasn’t just a skeleton, it was personal.”
Steyn’s mission is to bolster the capacity of her unit. This week it hosted a symposium on craniological identification, an area she says needs greater investment so that it can play a bigger role in court.
Among the guest speakers was Professor Caroline Wilkinson from the UK, renowned for reconstructing the heads of King Richard III and the supposed sister of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. Two years ago, after examining the remains of St Nicholas, a 4th-century Italian bishop who liked to give gifts secretly, Wilkinson used 3-D technology to recreate the face of the man better known to the world as Santa Claus.
“The depiction of the dead is not a form of identification. It’s really a tool to get people to send names [if they recognise the person] so that they can be identified through DNA or through dental records.”
She cannot determine eye colour from a skull. “We can isolate genes [if DNA is present] that are associated with eye colour. But the majority of what we do is look at the nose, the teeth . . . the shape and proportion of the face,” she said.
Wilkinson helped to solve the murder of a five-year-old Dutch girl 15 years ago. “It was a bit emotional because my daughter was the same age at the time. But it led to a conviction of the killer and quite possibly saved the life of her sister.” AN ART: Caroline Wilkinson has been doing craniofacial identification for 25 years