Mann Robert - Forensic Detective

CONTENTS

1. FRAGMENTARY EVIDENCE
JEFFREY DAHMERS FIRST VICTIM

2. FROM THE CRADLE TO THE FUNERAL HOME
THE MAKING OF A FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST

11. HOUSE OF HORRORS
THE POUGHKEEPSIE SERIAL KILLER

15. OUT OF THE BLUE
TERRORISTS STRIKE ON 9/11

17. A SHOT IN THE DARK
THE DEATH OF PRIVATE HORNER

This book is dedicated to Drs. Bill Bass and Doug Owsley, who lit the fuse for me.

R.W.M.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks go to Drs. Bill Bass, Doug Owsley, Doug Ubelaker (Smithsonian Institution), Hugh Berryman, P. Willey, and Richard Jantz for their encouragement, inspiration, and teaching when I was a student at the University of Tennessee.

I also thank my friends and colleagues at the University of Tennessee who formed the basis of my academic circle of friends. When I was a new graduate student, Drs. Steve Symes and Bill Rodriguez, with whom I shared a laboratory and office, always included me in cases that came into the department, and stirred my interest in doing research at the Body Farm. I also thank Carol Lee Bass for her homegrown kindness and the Krebs family in Colorado for their many years of friendship and for helping me to stay grounded, despite the distance between their home and mine.

Others whom I have met and worked with along the way include Erica Bubniak and Dr. Murray Marks; Kari Sandness-Bruwelheide, and Craig Lahren; Drs. Lowell Levine, O. C. Smith, and M. Lee Goff; Dr. Mike Pietrusewsky and Wilson T. Sully Sullivan III. Thanks also go to the men and women of the Honolulu Medical Examiners Office for allowing me not only to work on their cases, but also to include them in this book. Special thanks and gratitude go to the men and women of law enforcement in Hawaii; the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for involving me in several of their cases; the Johnson City Police Department; Dr. Barbara Wolf; Florida Pinellas County Sheriffs Department; Bath Township and Summit County law enforcement, coroner, and medical examiner; the Albany (New York) Police Department; Dr. Craig Mallak of the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner; Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) Hawaii Cold Case Squad; the Naval Investigative Service (NIS); State of Hawaii Department of the Attorney General, Investigations Division; Mr. Ray Emory for his dedication and research on the Hembree case (and others); Oahu Civil Defense Agency; Police Department, City of New York; Arson Investigator Johnny Robertson and the Washington County Sheriffs Department; and the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiners Office, Okinawa. My sincere thanks go to all members of law enforcement and the medical community for their tireless efforts in solving these and other cases.

Others who played pivotal roles in these cases include District Attorney General Jerry Estes, Criminal Investigator Darrell Alley, Detective Steve Housley, and McMinn County Medical Examiner Dr. William Foree Jr.; Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the men and women of the Knox County Police, and State Medical Examiner Dr. Jerry T. Francisco. Assistant Chief Ranger Jerry Hobbs, Park Ranger Robert Wightman, Shirley Allen, sister of Rosalyn Goodman, and the Blount County Medical Examiners Office; Dr. C. Owen Lovejoy and Dr. Elizabeth Moore. Judge Lynn C. Slaby, Detective Richard W. Munsey, and Chief Investigator Joe Orlando; Senior Investigator Tommy Martin and the men and women of the New York State Police Department for their support and camaraderie, as well as for allowing use of the Kendall Francois photos; Dr. John Naughton of the National Marine Fisheries Service; and Bill Stirlen and family, who provided us with some of the history (a 1980 typed letter) behind the skull labeled Butter Cup.

I also thank the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and civilians of the Joint Task ForceFull Accounting, the U.S. Army Central Identification LaboratoryHawaii (CILHI), the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), Stony Beach, and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office. These professionals put their lives on the line as they search for and recover Americas missing service members in some of the most inhospitable areas of the worlduntil they are home.

Although its impossible for me to thank everyone who has contributed to my career at the CIL, or to solving the cases in this book, there are a few people deserving of special recognition. They are Drs. Tom Holland, Kim Schneider, Jimmie Schmidt, Bruce Anderson, Madeline Hinkes, and Johnie E. Webb Jr.; analysts Rick Huston, Robert Bulldog Maves, Dickie Hites, and H. Thorne Helgesen. Also deserving of recognition are the gifted scientists of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, especially Dr. Brion Smith, and the men and women at Fort Lee, Virginia.

Exceptional recognition goes to the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia; and the many veterans service organizations and family members who keep hope alive.

Special thanks to Tanis Hackmeyer and family. You afforded each of us a perspective on both the love and pain that accompanies the loss of a loved one. I also thank the Hembree family for graciously providing photographs of Thomas Hembree, as well as information on his life. Special thanks to all of the friends and family members of those depicted in this book.

I send my heartfelt apologies to anyone whose contribution to any of the cases in this book I have failed to recognize. After more than five decades on this wonderful planet, I have now accumulated enough sense to know that I am neither infallible nor a one-man show when it comes to solving these cases. The success of these cases was the work of many dedicated professionals. If I failed to thank you, or recognize you for your contributions to any of these cases, I do so now (and owe you a drink).

Special thanks go to Miryam Ehrlich Williamson for being such a talented writer, good listener, and literary companion.

My most humble thanks and all my love go to my wife, Vara, for her love and support and for always being there.

R.W.M.

When I was in danger of drowning in detail, a major hazard in the writing of a complicated book, the members of my National Writers Union affinity groupChris Rohmann, Steve Simurda, Maria Trombly, Jan Whitaker, Stanley Wiater, and Allen Woodswere my lifeline. For this I thank them.

I send thanks, too, to Giles Anderson, our agent, and Mark Tavani, our editor, for their enthusiastic encouragement. Mark gets an extra thank-you for his gentle edits and constructive suggestions. And Bob Mann, without whom this book could not exist, gets thanks and a virtual hug for being such a delight.

M.E.W.

FOREWORD
HENRY LEE, PH.D.

Forensic Detective is a fascinating look at cases in forensic anthropology covering the twenty-year career of Dr. Robert Mann. Mann studied and honed his skills under the world-renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. William Bass at the University of Tennessee. Upon completion of his masters degree in anthropology and nearly a year at the Memphis morgue, he worked at the Smithsonian Institution and later at the Department of Defenses Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, where he is deputy scientific director. Mann is a true forensic scientist. He has spent thousands of hours in the laboratory analyzing human remains and developing techniques and national standards for human identification. He also has devoted much of his time to working in the field. He has assisted many law enforcement agencies around the world in the recovery and identification of human remains. Mann also leads search-and-recovery missions to some of the most dangerous and remote places in the world. In his own words and through his own eyes, he walks us through the mountains and jungles and takes us through the rivers and deltas. Along the way, he tells true tales and solves mysteries.