NG, Jawbone Found in Aruba, Likely to be White Female
Aired November 16, 2010:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1011/16/ng.01.html
JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION": Well, we know that Aruban forensic officials took this jawbone. They have confirmed that it is the jawbone, along with an attached tooth, of a Caucasian young female girl. It is in the hands of the Hague tonight, their Forensic Institute. They are trying to determine if it is that of Natalee Holloway. They have Holloway`s DNA at the Hague, and they will make that confirmation shortly.
GRACE: And Jean, isn`t it correct that this is found on the beach, the hotel strip, where Natalee last stayed, which is consistent with everything we have known all along?
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JOSSY MANSUR, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND PUBLISHER, "DIARIO" (via telephone): Well, it`s big news here because everything seems to point to a link with the missing girl, Natalee Holloway. It belongs to a young Caucasian woman. It was found on the strip of beach where Joran admitted he asked a friend to dump Natalee`s body. I mean, the ocean was very rough. The waves came. They ate up some of the beach, but they returned a jawbone, lower jawbone with one tooth in it. The police acted immediately on it. It was found on Friday. On Sunday, two police officers traveled to the Hague with it, and the tests are being done right now. And we may, as soon as tomorrow, know the results.
GRACE: Joining us, Jossy Mansur, the managing director and publisher of "Diario."
I want to go now to Dr. Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner, forensic pathologist, joining us out of LA. Doctor Oliver, thank you for being with us. Doctor, my understanding is there`s at least -- which means more -- one tooth still attached to the jawbone. Where are they going to get DNA?
HOWARD OLIVER, FMR. DEPUTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: They can get DNA from the pulp, the inner parts of the tooth.
GRACE: Explain.
OLIVER: Well, the pulp contains the nerves and some of the nutrient materials. It`s inside the tooth. It`s usually retained. It`s not destroyed by the water and the elements. They would have to break the tooth open to get to the pulp, though.
GRACE: And what we are hearing, Dr. Oliver, is it`s going to be easier for them to get the DNA out of the interior of the tooth, as opposed to out of the jawbone. Why?
OLIVER: There is -- the pulp is retained much better because the enamel of the tooth protects the pulp.
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HEATER WALSH-HANEY, FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST: Yes, I am, Nancy.
GRACE: Heather, a lot of questions for you tonight. Number one, how can you look at a jaw bone? I can understand with possibly the chest bones, the pelvic bones, maybe the legs.
But how can you look at a jaw bone and tell the difference between a male and female adult?
WALSH-HANEY: Ah, well, what you do is you actually look at the chin area. And in females, the midline of the chin is very pointy. In males, it`s actually blunt on the midline and then on either side, let`s say if you put your index finger right underneath your lip on the midline, on males, you`ll have two large bumps there. So right away, you can tell the difference between male and female.
GRACE: So it`s just that easy.
WALSH-HANEY: It is that easy. I promise.
GRACE: OK. Now, next question, Heather.
With me is Heather Walsh-Haney, forensic anthropologist from the Florida Gulf Coast University.
We`re taking your calls so if you`ve got a question for Heather, call it in now.
OK, Heather, you`ve explained that a male has two bumps right under the lip in the midsection of the face.
WALSH-HANEY: Yes.
GRACE: All right. How can you determine that it is a white female as opposed to an Hispanic, Asian, African-American? How do you tell?
WALSH-HANEY: Well, it tells me that they`ve got a molar and the molars of different races have different shapes and different contours. So what they`ve probably done is looked at the contours of the teeth, the crevices and the bumps, and by looking at these crevices and bumps, they`ve determined without a doubt that it`s someone who`s white or of European ancestry.
GRACE: OK. Hold on. So your back teeth. You`re referring to your back teeth, upper and lowers.
WALSH-HANEY: Yes.
GRACE: Tell me that one more time. How can you tell it`s a white female versus Asian, Hispanic, African-American? How do you know it`s a white female?
WALSH-HANEY: We know it`s a white female because the chewing teeth in the back of your mouth, your molars, in whites, they will have an extra bump on them, a bump that`s on the tongue side of that tooth.
And so it sounds to me like they have one of those molars that allowed them to be so doggone determined that it is a white female.
GRACE: So you`re telling me that no other ethnicity has that bump on the back molar?
WALSH-HANEY: Well, typically, no. It tends to be with whites.
GRACE: OK. Let me -- last question. Last question that I know of right now, Heather Walsh-Haney.
Heather, joining us from Ft. Myers, Florida tonight.
Now, Heather, how can you tell between a young adult white female and an older adult white female, say, 20 versus 40 or 20 versus 50? How do you do that?
WALSH-HANEY: Ah, well, you do that because, as your teeth grow, they grow from the crown first and then the roots that anchor into the bone. And so what we expect to see with a girl Natalee`s age -- 18 -- is we expect to see that roots for those molars are not quite complete.
The wisdom teeth that many of us get pulled out, for her may not be completely developed yet. And so they`re looking at the size, the length and the completeness of those tooth roots.
They may also be looking at the enamel, the white part of the teeth. They`re looking at the enamel seeing if there is evidence of filling, maybe chipping, maybe wear, that would be indicative of someone who is much older than Natalee.
