Who was the person?  What was their name?

The FA will establish features of biological and personal identity that will assist the Police in their investigation.  Only when the name of the person is confirmed, can they start to investigate what might have happened to them.  An unidentified body is a real challenge for the Police to investigate and is rarely successful in reaching a satisfactory conclusion.

Every person in the world can be classified into four broad categories of biological identification:  sex, age, height and ancestral origin.  This is the descriptor you hear from the Police who are looking to identify someone – a female, aged between 40 and 50 years, between 5ft and 5ft 2ins in height and black.

We also look for personal identifiers that will separate two individuals who have the same biological description and this might include DNA, fingerprints, dental work, previous diseases, previous fractures etc.