If there’s one thing crime shows have taught the public, it’s how advanced technology has become in the world of law enforcement. 

Hit shows such as “Bones” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” utilize historians and anthropologists to solve cold cases and cases that seem unsolvable to the naked eye. 

But what happens when these Hollywood horrors come to life in South Carolina? 

Anthropologist Bill Stevens is just one of the anthropologists employed in an S.C. coroner's office, and he’s who they call for help when identifying skeletal remains. 

“We get called (in) every week for something to do with bones,” Stevens said. “But it can be animal bones that are found, we say, ‘No, that's, that's not human.’ I'd say we attend two to three autopsies a month for assisting, maybe more in certain months of the year when decomposition is faster. To identify deceased individuals, like maybe two to four autopsies a month, and we get skeletal remains cases on average, I’d say two a month.”

Stevens is an anthropologist at Richland County Coroners' office, but he assists in cases all across the Midlands when counties uncover bones.

On June 1, the Lexington County Coroners' office released information to the public and asked for help in identifying human remains that were found in a creek near Harbison Boulevard.  

“The scene location is fairly close to the Target Store in the Harbison area of Columbia and there are several homeless camps in very close proximity to where the remains were located,” a Facebook post from the office notes.

The remains are still unidentified, and the investigation is ongoing. With the help of anthropologists like Stevens, they might be able to solve the case. 

When skeletal remains are reported, anthropologists are called out to the scene to begin asking their questions: 

• Are they together? 
• Are they buried or on the surface? Are they scattered around because of animals?
• What evidence is nearby? 

“Then we would take the remains to the lab,” Stevens said. “We ask: are they dry bones or are they somewhere within the process of decomposition? [Is there] lots of soft tissue or were they burned? What’s happened to them?”

Authorities recovered about 90% of the “John Doe” remains from the Harbison area.

Once the remains have been moved to the lab, authorities get to work uncovering information about the individual. This process is called taphonomy, the study of the condition of remains. 

We can learn the “sex, age and race of an individual from their bones and if they had a gunshot wound or blunt force trauma,” Stevens said. “We would typically clean them up and then we’re able to reconstruct or glue back together fractured bones after we've documented them with a series of photographs.”

The remains found in Lexington County were a textbook case, according to Stevens. 

They are those of a white or Hispanic male between the ages of 30 and 45, and the coroner's office believes the remains are from a person between 6’0” and 6’3”.

The only clothing left behind was a single black, size 12, Brahma- brand work boot. The boot was still attached and there was no sock on the remains.

A tattoo is located on the upper arm, with the word “Dad '' written in all uppercase letters. The coroner believes there could have been another word or image above the lettering. 

It is unknown whether the tattoo was located on the right or left arm due to decomposition.

Once they’ve determined physical characteristics, the anthropologists begin eliminating possible causes of death.

“We can look at patterns that say this is blunt force, this is a stab wound, these are cut marks, this is a gunshot wound,” Stevens told the Chronicle. “Because they all have their signature biomechanical patterns.” 

Biomechanical patterns are key to determining a cause of death. These patterns depict the way bones behave when struck by outside forces.

The remains had an indication of past healed injuries such as a broken nose, a past fractured right clavicle and past rib fractures. 

These injuries are not believed to be recent but to have been healed before death. The remains showed no sign of trauma and the cause of death is still undetermined. 

DNA samples from the Harbison remains have been sent to Richland County’s Forensics Lab. 

If there is no DNA match in their database, the DNA can be sent to national agencies to determine identity.  

But what happens to the remains that go unidentified? 

The remains that go unidentified are subject to the same process. The bones are cleaned and analyzed. DNA is then taken and sent to forensics labs locally and across the nation. The bones are then stored securely in evidence lockers until they have been identified. 

Remains are identified now more than ever due to social media and online activity. 

“We encourage people to put profiles online and put out to the media,” Stevens said. “There are more possibilities for getting attention to the unidentified remains. National websites like namus.gov where you can put profiles of your missing and your unidentified.”

Databases such as NamUs allow for both authorities and the public to cross-reference missing people and unidentified remains. 

If anyone has information on the Harbison remains described above, contact the Lexington Coroner’s office at (803) 359-8439. 

Anyone who comes across what they believe to be bones are asked to use caution and not to move them and to call local law enforcement and stay in the area until authorities arrive.