April 18, 2018: The Science and Art of Reading Bones

Presenter: Heather Walsh-Haney, Associate Professor, Florida Gulf Coast University
Location: Collier County Museum, 3331 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, 34112
Time: Program 7:00pm

Fictitious Forensic Anthropologist Temperance Brennan from the television show, Bones, has shaped the public’s perception of how human skeletal remains may contribute to solving a case. This presentation discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the latest techniques actually used by forensic anthropologists, highlighted through casework from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania.

Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney is an associate professor and program leader for the Department of Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. She received her degrees in Anthropology from the University of Florida where she trained within the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory for over a decade. She is the consulting forensic anthropologist for eight Florida Medical Examiner Districts and has been the principle investigator for over 500 forensic anthropology cases. As a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Disaster Mortuary Response Team (DMORT), she helped locate and/or identify human remains from Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina and assisted in the recovery of human remains at the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.