Forensic dentistry case book 2 : dental identification of severely carbonised remains

Abstract

A 19-year old adult male was reported missing after he failed to arrive on his scheduled flight, following a working gap year in the United Kingdom. His parents who had been in the arrivals hall for some time, had not seen or received any calls from their son. The next day, a burned out car was found on the N2, with several carbonised bone fragments, including a maxilla, assumed to be from a human corpse. Experts confirmed that accelerators had been used in an attempt to totally destroy any possible evidence in the torched vehicle. The extremely burnt remains were brought to the Medico-Legal mortuary for possible identification (Figure 1).