Colombian detectives use 3-D technology to identify human remains

Latin America

Colombian detectives use technologies to identify body fragments

More than 90,000 people have disappeared during Colombia’s armed conflict and the government has the arduous task of not only finding the bodies but identifying them.

It is a challenge taken on by the country’s very own criminal scene investigation and aided by the latest technology.

CCTV America’s Michelle Begue has more from Bogota.

Over the last three years, Colombia has exhumed more than 28,000 unidentified bodies buried in municipal cemeteries most, likely victims of the country’s 50 year old war.

What comes next is no easy task for Colombia’s forensics officials. Six labs across the country have been tasked to identify human remains that in most cases have been reduced to bone.

“All of our illnesses, diseases and lesions can be found in the bones and that makes that person unique and different from everyone else,” Clara Rodriguez anthropologist said about the process.

Colombian officials try to cross- check information and DNA samples with family members who have reported missing people but if no results are found, facial reconstruction comes into play.

With the information given by the doctors, anthropologists, a morphology group within Colombia’s Attorney General’s office would reconstruct a face with pencil, paper, and clay. It is a task that could take up to 20 working days for each skull.

Thanks to new 3D technology the time has been cut in half. More importantly say officials, the quality of the image improves greatly.


PHOTO GALLERY: Reconstructing the dead through 3-D

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