The bone collector: when reality overcomes fantasy

Abstract

Introduction: the Authors present a case occurred in the suburbs of Rome, concerning the discovery of a skeleton by the fire fighters after a fire broke out in a grassy field. Beside it, a bag containing a bunch of keys and an identity card was found, fortunately not destroyed by the fire. These items belonged to an elderly man who disappeared in that same area four years before. Materials and Methods: genetic tests were performed on a left femoral bone sample in order to confirm the presumed identity of the skeleton and instead provided a genetic profile that was not compatible with the sons of the missing man. Thus other samples from different bones were examined, resulting in different genetic profiles and none of them compatible with the sons of the missing man. Results: the Prosecutor asked for an anthropological expertise, which confirmed morphologically that the skeleton was composed by bones belonged to different individuals and could provide an approximate age of these individuals at the time of death. The Prosecutor also asked for the time of death of these individuals and, to this purpose, specific investigations on the bone remains were carried out based on the measure of the isotopic ratio of 14C in lipids and collagen by AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry). Discussion: this case represents an interesting example of the application of a multidisciplinary approach in challenging cases of identification of human remains and demonstrates that a case that may apparently seem “simple” may instead reveal great methodological and interpretative challenges.