UWF professor examines human remains

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - Two recent cases of human remains discovered in Alabama will be analyzed across the state line at the University of West Florida.

Dr. Joanne Curtin, a UWF associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, is looking into the remains found in Baldwin County on February 16 and the bones discovered in Mobile County Monday, March 4 .

Once she's done, she'll send a report to the medical examiner. 

“It’s a collaborative effort; it’s not one person," Dr. Curtin said.  “I do the first step, just essentially telling them that they’re probably looking at, for example, an adult Caucasian female between the ages of 35 to 45 who might’ve been about 5’2.”  That’ll give them a starting place to look.”

Curtin said she’s often asked to provide an opinion on cause of death or how much time has passed since.

Deputies want to know if a hole in the Baldwin County skull was caused by a bullet. 

Once she begins to study the bones, Curtin may know.

“In terms of the biological profile, we do a lot of measurements.  The shape and the size of the skull, the shape and size of the pelvic girdle can give us a lot of information about sex, for example," Curtin said.  "That’s an important distinguishing characteristic.”

Curtin said identifying youngsters is easy since they’re bodies are still developing. Adults are much more difficult.

“We have to rely of degenerative changes, and those are highly idiosyncratic; they’re dependent on your lifestyle," Curtin said.  "We look at things like the degeneration of bones in the pelvic girdle, changes to the rib heads, for example- osteoarthritis- things of that nature that can help us narrow down the age of death for an adult.”

FOX10 News asked Curtin how long this process may take. She said it depends on the skeleton, how complete it is. 

Curtin said for a full skeleton, it can take her several days to analyze the bones and produce a report. 

But for fragmented remains like the ones found in Baldwin County, there’s only a limited amount of information that can be discovered.

Curtin knows that many anxiously await her discoveries, especially those with missing loved ones.

She said she has a responsibility to the public.

“We like to assist the community in any way we can, and this is part of the way we give back to our community," Curtin said.

Curtin will begin studying the two cases next week.