Role of Forensic Anthropology in the Recovery and Analysis of Branch Davidian Compound Victims: Assessing the Accuracy of Age Estimations

• NCJ Number: 165755
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 41 Issue: 5 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 796-801
• Author(s): M M Houck; D Ubelaker; D Owsley; E Craig; W Grant; R Fram; T Woltanski; K Sandness
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: FBI Laboratory Division Publication 95-16

Annotation

Age at death estimations of 44 individuals (27 adults and 17 children) from the Branch Davidian group in Waco, Texas, were compared with their actual ages to assess the role and accuracy of forensic anthropology in estimating age.

Abstract

A probable age range was developed for each individual based on an interpretation of features present at autopsy. Initial estimates were later refined, either in the morgue or after cleaning age-related specimens. Simple averages of estimated age ranges at death were calculated for each individual. Although overall average age estimates correlated well with actual ages, several individuals displayed high residual requiring further analysis. These individuals displayed age-related features that did not correspond with the expected morphology for individuals of their ages. Several age estimation techniques scored these individuals with all bias in the same direction. The authors believe these examples should serve as a cautionary reminder that biology does not always correlate with expected outcomes, particularly in such multifaceted traits as age. 30 references, 7 tables, and 5 figures