Forensic scientists often identify disaster zone victims from their teeth, fingerprints or DNA. But for Dr Maria Maclennan jewellery can hold the key to discovering who a deceased person is. The Dundee forensic jeweller has been drafted in to aid identification in disasters and mass fatalities around the world.
She helped identify victims of the in the French Alps in 2015 and those killed when a went down in Namibia in 2013. Maria, 36, was drafted in in the aftermath of the 2015 Tunisia terror attack and she was placed on call after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. She’s often billed as the world’s first forensic jeweller.
It’s a description she shies away from. But she acknowledges being a pioneer in marrying methods long used by archaeologists with forensic science. Telling The Courier how a childhood fascination with her grandmother’s jewellery box inspired her unique job, she explains: “Jewellery is almost an extension of the body.
” “In the same way we can recognise someone from their gait, their accent, their clothing, it [jewellery] can be part of their identity. “We often don’t take off our favourite jewellery; we might never be seen without certain pieces. “They will become integral parts of our identity that can help with prompting recognition or recall among the public or a witness.
” Bodies recovered from incidents such as mass fatalities, fires, crashes or water submersion can be in state that makes identification difficult. In these situation.
