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Courtesy of Global National
B.C. case turns to forensic dentistry for help
Thu 9 May 2002
A temporary fence goes up around British Columbia's most notorious police investigation as officers get the lay of the land. This is one of two properties at the centre of what could be the country's largest crime scene. Officers are looking for the most minute pieces of evidence because sometimes they hold the biggest clues.
Well I love solving puzzles and I think the kinds of puzzles that are present at scenes of crime are really incredible and very challenging, says Dr. David Sweet. He's an expert at putting the pieces together.
Police rely on his skills when they have little else to go on but teeth. Sweet needs just part of a jaw to be able to match a victim's teeth with old dental x-rays.
The dental treatment is very unique to each individual. It's custom made for each person.
But what if only a few teeth are found, or no dental records exist?
Then sweet uses the cutting edge technology he invented. It's called cryogenic grinding and it involves freezing a tooth at minus 196 degrees Celsius and then pulverizing it, to expose the secrets hidden inside.
By grinding the tooth into a very fine powder you expose the cells to the outside and then you can chemically get at them to break them open and get the DNA material out.
Sweet can then use that DNA to make a positive identification. But it all hinges on whether he has something to compare his sample to. In the Port Coquitlam investigation, police began assembling a database almost immediately; personal information about Vancouver's 50 missing women.
There is information that's been collected by the police investigators and it's in the form of dental records and information available from one dentist or many dentists that have treated people in the past and that's being incorporated into the database.
Police admit they have found human remains on this site, but won't divulge how they identified six of the missing women. Since DNA is the one piece of evidence that speaks so long after death -- it may be Dr sweet's technology that's helping unravel the mystery.
Should anyone from the public have information regarding the homicide or disappearance of a Vancouver street trade worker, please phone Crime Stoppers at 604-662-TIPS (8477) or the Missing Woman Tip line at 1-877-687-3377.
Well I love solving puzzles and I think the kinds of puzzles that are present at scenes of crime are really incredible and very challenging, says Dr. David Sweet. He's an expert at putting the pieces together.
Police rely on his skills when they have little else to go on but teeth. Sweet needs just part of a jaw to be able to match a victim's teeth with old dental x-rays.
The dental treatment is very unique to each individual. It's custom made for each person.
But what if only a few teeth are found, or no dental records exist?
Then sweet uses the cutting edge technology he invented. It's called cryogenic grinding and it involves freezing a tooth at minus 196 degrees Celsius and then pulverizing it, to expose the secrets hidden inside.
By grinding the tooth into a very fine powder you expose the cells to the outside and then you can chemically get at them to break them open and get the DNA material out.
Sweet can then use that DNA to make a positive identification. But it all hinges on whether he has something to compare his sample to. In the Port Coquitlam investigation, police began assembling a database almost immediately; personal information about Vancouver's 50 missing women.
There is information that's been collected by the police investigators and it's in the form of dental records and information available from one dentist or many dentists that have treated people in the past and that's being incorporated into the database.
Police admit they have found human remains on this site, but won't divulge how they identified six of the missing women. Since DNA is the one piece of evidence that speaks so long after death -- it may be Dr sweet's technology that's helping unravel the mystery.
Should anyone from the public have information regarding the homicide or disappearance of a Vancouver street trade worker, please phone Crime Stoppers at 604-662-TIPS (8477) or the Missing Woman Tip line at 1-877-687-3377.
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