Current News

Bodies and Bones: Dan O´Shea ´08 helps solve suspicious cases

June 19, 2007

After taking just one anthropology class at Connecticut College, Dan O´Shea, a rising senior from Melrose, MA, was hooked. Determined to make a career out of his newfound interest, O´Shea has spent the past two summers interning in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston.

The medical examiner is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death in suspicious cases throughout Massachusetts. O´Shea, who works specifically with the office´s forensic anthropologist, has worked on four homicide cases, the recovery of an ancient Native American skeleton, and several cold cases, among others. Most of his work, however, focuses on bone analysis. This analysis, according to O´Shea, boils down to some basic observation.

"Basically, you pick up a bone and look at it, then document what is odd about it." He laughs, however, because despite the occasional homicide case, most of the bones that arrive for examination aren´t even human. "Nine times out of ten, we discover they´re animal bones. Many people confuse the two because they´re so similar in appearance."

When they examine human bones, anthropologists are able use the size and structure to estimate the subject´s race, sex, height, weight, and whether they were right or left handed. Even lifestyle choices from food choice to occupation may be determined by examining bones.

"It´s amazing to see how what we do in life really affects our body, even after death," says O´Shea. His office was even able to conclude that a subject was a swimmer simply by noting the dense bones in the neck area.

O´Shea, an English and anthropology double major, has become especially interested in the effects that tattoos can have on human bodies. His first day on the job, he was assigned to work with the body of a person who had died a few weeks earlier. Although little skin remained, the subject´s tattoos maintained their prominence. In fact, after being rubbed down with a wet cloth, they actually appeared brighter than they would in life. "Human cultural practices to the human body affect us more than we think," O´Shea notes.

His favorite case, he said, involved the discovery of a skeleton more than five hundred years old. Before the age was determined, the case was treated like a murder investigation and involved the Massachusetts State police department. When it was established that the remains were Native American, the bones were reburied at the discovery site.

Working with forensic anthropologists, pathologists, detectives, and other forensic and medical professionals, has taught O´Shea about human anatomy, human cultural practices and their affect on the human body, as well as about the laws involved with forensic science. He is also excited about the prospect of editing a manuscript about forensic anthropology. After he graduates next spring, O´Shea hopes to attend graduate school for forensic anthropology or archeology.

O´Shea, who this summer is completing his funded internship through the CELS program, is scheduled to give a talk on forensic anthropology next fall, during which he will share his knowledge and experience with the Connecticut College campus.

- By Claire Gould

For more information contact: Amy Sullivan (860) 439-2526; amy.sullivan@conncoll.edu