Age estimation in forensic sciences: Application of combined aspartic acid racemization and radiocarbon analysis

Journal Article · Mon Nov 02 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, vol. 9, no. 5, May 7, 2010, pp. 1022-1030

OSTI ID:979441

Alkass, K; Buchholz, B A; Ohtani, S; Yamamoto, T; Druid, H; Spalding, S L

Age determination of unknown human bodies is important in the setting of a crime investigation or a mass disaster, since the age at death, birth date and year of death, as well as gender, can guide investigators to the correct identity among a large number of possible matches. Traditional morphological methods used by anthropologists to determine age are often imprecise, whereas chemical analysis of tooth dentin, such as aspartic acid racemization has shown reproducible and more precise results. In this paper we analyze teeth from Swedish individuals using both aspartic acid racemization and radiocarbon methodologies. The rationale behind using radiocarbon analysis is that above-ground testing of nuclear weapons during the cold war (1955-1963) caused an extreme increase in global levels of carbon-14 ({sup 14}C) which have been carefully recorded over time. Forty-four teeth from 41 individuals were analyzed using aspartic acid racemization analysis of tooth crown dentin or radiocarbon analysis of enamel and ten of these were split and subjected to both radiocarbon and racemization analysis. Combined analysis showed that the two methods correlated well (R2=0.66, p < 0.05). Radiocarbon analysis showed an excellent precision with an overall absolute error of 0.6 {+-} 04 years. Aspartic acid racemization also showed a good precision with an overall absolute error of 5.4 {+-} 4.2 years. Whereas radiocarbon analysis gives an estimated year of birth, racemization analysis indicates the chronological age of the individual at the time of death. We show how these methods in combination can also assist in the estimation of date of death of an unidentified victim. This strategy can be of significant assistance in forensic casework involving dead victim identification.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 979441
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-419640
• Journal Information: Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, vol. 9, no. 5, May 7, 2010, pp. 1022-1030, Journal Name: Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, vol. 9, no. 5, May 7, 2010, pp. 1022-1030 Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ACCURACY
AGE ESTIMATION
ASPARTIC ACID
CARBON 14
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CRIME
CRIME DETECTION
DEATH
DENTIN
ENAMELS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
RACEMIZATION
TEETH
TESTING