Forensic Geophysical Locating of Clandestine Graves with Tom Jordan, PhD, PG

Forensic Geophysical Locating of Clandestine Graves 

with Tom Jordan, PhD, PG

Forensic Methods Used to Assist Law Enforcement Agencies with Locating Clandestine Graves

Dr. Tom Jordan will provide an overview of Youngstown State University’s (YSU’s) forensic geophysical applied research project that focuses on new approaches for locating clandestine graves.  Dr. Jordan will discuss YSU’s recent award-winning work assisting federal, state, and county law enforcement agencies with locating clandestine graves in support of their efforts to solve current and cold case missing persons suspected to be homicide victims.  Background information will also be provided that includes some rather grisly details involving research completed by others along with interesting details on our clandestine grave applied research facility located in rural northeastern Ohio.

Locating clandestine graves through the use of remote sensing methods and cadaver dogs is expensive (reportedly $100,000 per case) and problematic with current success rates of approximately 30%. The results from the YSU clandestine grave applied research project will be used to improve these success rates while reducing costs by customizing law enforcement’s approach based on inputs such as elapsed time since burial and influences from seasonal changes.

This presentation will include an on-site demonstration of a new type of portable GPR device that Dr. Jordan is currently evaluating that is based on a process called stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) technology.  The SFCW technology appears to provide improvements to depths of investigation while maintaining the ability to resolve small, buried artifacts relative to other GPR devices available to scientists.  Those that attend will have an opportunity to operate this new GPR device which we will use to scan an area near the library that reportedly contains a grave from the early 19^th century.