Go behind the scenes at Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office
Oct 19, 2018, 4:45 AM | Updated: 2:48 pm
(KTAR Photo/Ali Vetnar)
PHOENIX — In preparation for Missing in Arizona Day this month, KTAR News got a behind-the-scenes look at day-to-day operations inside the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Missing in Arizona Day is an annual free event where state forensic experts and law enforcement meet with family and friends affected by the disappearance of a loved one.
Dr. Laura Fulginiti, a forensic anthropologist with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, said her job is to create biological profiles for deceased people who are not easily identifiable.
“Meaning you can’t look at them, the fingerprints don’t match anybody, and we don’t have any information on who they might be,” she said.
Forensic scientists can measure certain bones to figure out how tall someone was. They look for things such healed fractures, diseases and metal plates that might have been surgically installed inside a body.
“Anything that happened to you in life is marked on your body, and my job is to read it and interpret it,” Fulginiti said.
The medical examiner’s office heavily relies on teeth while going through unidentified remains. Dr. John Piakis, forensic dentist for the office, said they are the most resilient part of the human body.
“Besides the teeth themselves, there is restorations inside the mouth like filings, crowns, implants, root canals, and those would all show up on an X-ray, each being very unique to individuals,” he said.
Because of this, family members who have missing loved ones are highly encouraged to recover old dental records for investigative use.
“It is definitely the fastest route,” Piakis said. “If we can get the X-rays before death, we can do the identification very quickly, before DNA, before fingerprints and before anthropology.”
Oct. 27 is the fourth annual Missing in Arizona Day. The previous three events have resolved 27 existing cases, with 15 missing persons found alive and 12 deceased.
Support groups in English and Spanish will be available at the event, which is schedule to run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Arizona State New College campus in Glendale.