Forensic Scientists Battle to Identify South Africa’s Dead
An extraordinarily large number of unidentified bodies passes through the country’s mortuaries.
A forensic scientist wheels a trolley containing an unidentified body into a refrigerated cold room at the Johannesburg Forensic Pathology Services mortuary in South Africa.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/BloombergAfter handling the body of a man who died from blunt force trauma in an apparent vehicle crash, forensic anthropologist Trisha-Jean Mahon turned to the next gurney in the neon-lit room of the mortuary in Johannesburg, South Africa. Like many corpses there, this one had no identity.
“Oh, he has tattoos,” she said, peering closely at the crudely sketched letters on the young man’s left leg. “Fantastic!”