‘Reconstructed’ face to aid ID

COUNTY Clare’s Coroner’s Office and the gardaí have enlisted the help of one of Europe’s top forensic anthropologists in the hope of making a positive identification of the remains of a man taken from the sea off the Cliffs of Moher over a year ago.

CT scans of the remains have been forwarded to Professor of Craniofacial Identification, Caroline Wilkinson, who specialises in forensic facial reconstruction, in the hope of developing a profile of the man, believed to be a foreign national.
From the scans, Professor Wilkinson, who works at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the College of Life Sciences at University of Dundee in Scotland, will attempt to reconstruct the man’s face using cutting-edge computer technology.
The profile will then allow Interpol to circulate the image to police agencies across the continent in an effort to identify the man.
The College of Life Sciences in Dundee is home to some of the most experienced experts in the field of human anthropology and their work has already been instrumental in solving a number of high-profile missing person cases.
“We are hoping that by using the expertise of Professor Caroline Wilkinson we will be able to get a photograph of what the man looked like. That image will then be circulated and hopefully somebody will come back with a positive identification of the remains of the man we’ve had for some time,” Clare coroner, Isobel O’Dea told The Clare Champion.