Among the identifiable burnt remains were 2 left arm bones, 46 pieces of skull, part of a leg bone, ankle bone, dental bridge and a toe.
Forensic anthropologist Blau, told the jury the extent to which the bodies were burnt meant that more than half of the thousands of skeletal remains were unidentifiable.
She said, “Although fragmentary, one of the roles of a forensic anthropologist is to look for duplications. We know humans have a left and right arm. If we find, as we did in this case, two left distal radius bones of the forearm by finding two … [this] indicates at least two individuals present.
I was able to say that the fragments of bone were those of adults. Because of the tiny fragments, we sieved to make sure all … regardless of size ... was recovered. There were over 2000 human skeletal fragments that were examined. They really did vary in size.”
The site was divided into six search areas with experts using hand sieves, as well as an excavator, to examine the scene. The jury was shown more than 50 photographs from the site and later from the mortuary, which she said showed more than 2100 fragments of human bone.
She said that after the bone fragments had been collected at the site, they were bagged and taken to the mortuary where they were placed through a CT scanner for further analysis. “The images that we discussed show some bones of the feet and the phalanges. In some cases, they were complete, even though burnt. However, the majority of other parts of the body … were fragmented”. Of all the fragments recovered, 6 came from teeth, 39 from vertebrae, 35 from hands and 28 from feet. More than 1500 were so tiny she was unable to say where in the body they originated from.
In 2022 she was asked to examine human bone fragments found at Bucks Camp. Five skull fragments, later identified as belonging to CC, were from the side of a human skull and unburnt. Some also contained what appeared to be small bits of metal.
The small pieces of hands, feet and skull that gave away campers’ resting place
