Ohio BCI unveils new advancements in forensic reconstruction technology

CANTON — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost held a press conference in Stark County announcing new advancements in forensic reconstruction technology.

Yost along with Stark County Sheriff George Maier unveiled a forensic facial reconstruction of an unidentified man whose remains were found in Canton in 2001, according to our news partners at WOIO.

The forensic reconstruction was created through a collaboration of people with knowledge in several different disciplines through the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Maier said he hopes this reconstruction will help local authorities identify remains.

“I will tell you that most good police officers will tell you there’s nothing better than boots on the ground. People on the ground developing leads, but without this type of help assistance, we would not be able to do our jobs,” Maier said.

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Maier added that “we owe to the victims in our community” to try and get closure on crimes involving unidentified remains.

“So I’ve been to several trainings where I’ve learned how to do facial reconstruction from a skull. I just, I have like a book that I follow. So there’s different, average tissue depth markers for different places in the skull. And then it’s also dependent upon like the crime scene report, the anthropology report,” Samantha Molnar, a forensic artist with BCI explained.

Molnar said she also uses information given to her by anthropologists, such as estimated age, race and gender, to develop the reconstruction. Which then can be turned into a digital image.

More information about the technology can be found here.

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