The Increasing Role of the Forensic Anthropologist in the Search for the Missing

Abstract

Forensic anthropology has played a major part in the investigation of human rights’ cases and is increasingly playing an important role in searching for missing persons, and assisting in the identification of the deceased in mass fatality incidents. Since its early years, work which was primarily restricted to the laboratory and mortuary setting with the purpose of identification of the deceased, to the present day the role of the forensic anthropologist has expanded to crime scene attendance in order to understand the contextual information in which human remains, primarily skeletonised, have been found and to assist in their recovery. In particular since the 1990s, forensic anthropologists have been key team players in mass grave investigations. Moreover, in recent years, at least in the United Kingdom, there has been an increasing request for forensic anthropologists to assist in search operations for human remains.This paper provides a brief overview of the role of the forensic anthropologist, focusing on search in particular, and it highlights its value in a number of scenarios relating to searchisng for the missing.