206 BONES Read Online Free PDF Page A

germane.”
     
“Dandy. Let’s proceed to ID.”
     
“My client does not question that the remains are those of his daughter.”
     
“Groovy. Let’s talk about trauma. Shall I clarify the terms antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem?”
     
“Succinctly.”
     
“With skeletal remains, antemortem refers to trauma occurring prior to death, injuries sustained earlier in life and showing evidence of healing. Perimortem refers to trauma suffered at or close to the time of death. Postmortem refers to trauma inflicted after death, damage associated with decomposition, abuse of the body, animal scavenging, and such.”
     
“How is this germane?” Clearly, Schechter liked the word.
     
“It is germane to your client’s understanding of what happened to his daughter. And, perhaps more important, what did not.”
     
Again the hand.
     
“I will not belabor the importance of distinguishing between perimortem and postmortem trauma. I would like to make clear, however, that, for the anthropologist, this distinction has more to do with bone quality than it does with time of death. It’s a complex subject, so forgive me if I oversimplify.
     
“In fresh or living bone the moisture content is relatively high and the collagen, the component that gives bone its elasticity, is somewhat flexible. This permits a certain degree of bending under stress. With decomposition, moisture is lost and collagen degrades, so the bending capability diminishes. In other words, dry bone responds to loading like an inorganic, rather than an organic, material. It fails, or breaks, when subjected to smaller forces. Think of a green stick versus a dry stick. The former yields, the latter snaps under pressure.”
     
Schechter made a note on his tablet but did not interrupt.
     
“Practically speaking, this means that fractures to dry bone are less clean and have more jagged edges. Fragments tend to be smaller. Breakaway spurs, relatively common in fresh bone, are rare. Concentric circular andradiating fractures, patterns produced by the transmission of energy through bone, are uncommon.”
     
“Most impressive. We’re all experts now.”
     
Knowing his game book, I ignored Schechter’s rudeness.
     
“Distinguishing an antemortem injury or defect is equally important in accurately determining manner of death. Since the first signs of healing are often difficult to detect, skeletal remains are examined on three levels, macroscopic, radiographic, and histologic.”
     
“Let’s skip the jargon.” Schechter.
     
“Macroscopic means eyeballing. The first indication of antemortem repair is a narrow band of surface resorption immediately adjacent to the fracture site. This reflects inflammation at the point where the overlying membrane was torn away. Next, gradual erosion can be seen at the broken ends. These changes are evident anywhere from ten to fourteen days after injury.
     
“Radiographic means X-ray. Here healing appears as a blurring of the fractured edges, again roughly ten to fourteen days post-injury. The gap between the broken ends then widens as callus formation proceeds.”
     
Schechter’s eyes narrowed slightly.
     
“A callus is an unorganized network of woven bone that forms quickly at a fracture site. It functions like putty to hold the broken ends in place. As repair progresses, the callus is gradually replaced by true bone.
     
“Histologic means under the microscope. Here healing is first evidenced by spicules of woven bone within the callus. These spicules can be seen as early as five to seven days post-injury.”
     
“Will we be getting to Rose sometime today?”
     
I opened a new PowerPoint file. Rose’s skeleton was now in my lab, clean of soil and tissue. Each bone was aligned with anatomical precision, right down to the distal phalanges of the hands and feet.
     
“As Detective Ryan mentioned earlier, the remains suffered considerable postmortem damage due to animal scavenging.”
     
I chose a shot of Rose’s right thigh bone. Instead of a rounded