After the initial discovery of the bodies, they are processed and taken to the lab. Because of the lack of soft tissue won’t allow for a typical autopsy, Dr. Brennan must analyze the bones to determine the details of the case. In the lab, Dr. Brennan requests an x-ray of the head and macerates the bones by boiling it in water to remove the flesh. Dr. Brennan can determine the race because the victim has red hair, and the remaining skin appears to be Caucasian. To determine the sex, Dr. Brennan analyzes the facial features, and build of the body. Dr. Brennan notes that the facial features were “delicate” (Reichs 28), and then goes on to analyze the pelvis to confirm her hunch that the body was a female. I would agree with her assessment and …show more content…
Dr. Brennan uses the dentition to get a general idea of the age. This is the method I would have used to determine the age as well. Because the skeleton’s wisdom teeth were fully erupted, that indicates that the skeleton is an adult (Reichs 29). After looking at the dentition, Dr. Brennan examines the long bones, especially the humorous. Because the long bones were fully matures, it indicates that the skeleton is an adult. Because of the lack of arthritic changes to the joints and lack of lipping observed in the skeleton’s elbow, it can be concluded that the skeleton is a young adult at this point. To further determine the age of the skeleton, Dr. Brennan examines the macerated pelvis and can see that the iliac crest was in the process of attaching during the time of death. Now that Dr. Brennan has a positive sex, and age, and time since death she can verify the identity of the body with dental records. Once the body is completely cleaned, she can compare dental records to the sorted and x-rayed teeth of the victim. To compare dental records, you must superimpose the data, and ensure that there are no …show more content…
Brennan go into much detail when describing the processes used in the lab. For example, she says “I would have explained how bone reveals age, but I didn’t think he would be a very good listener (Reichs 33)” However, knowing that bone closures, and stages of development indicate age allowed me to fill in the gaps. One instance where Reichs goes into detail is when she has Dr. Brennan describe the blows to Isabelle’s skull. She allows how the impact from blunt force trauma allows for cracks to occur in other areas of the skull (Reichs 61). Often times, Dr. Brennan makes assumptions based on what she sees first and says she will “x-ray it later” or check databases to confirm later. I personally, would check my assumptions to ensure that I am going off correct information before proceeding in a case study. These were the main shortcuts I noticed when reading Deja Dead, but, overall I think Dr. Brennan is through, and usually correct in her first assumptions. I wish in some cases more detail was provided on how she arrived at the conclusions she makes, but I was able to supplement any holes through online research in the processes. When Dr. Brennan doesn’t go into detail as to how bone provides an accurate age, I went to The Smithsonian’s online site, and read an article that provided me with some additional insight that the book did not (Nafte,