TEASING SECRETS FROM THE DEAD My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes

Hardback. Foreword by Kathy Reichs. A front-lines story of crime scene investigation at some of the most infamous sites in recent history. Forensics expert Emily Craig tells her own story of a life spent teasing secrets from the dead. The author first became intrigued by forensics work when as a respected medical illustrator, she was called in by the local police to create a model of a murder victim's face. Her fascination with that case led to a dramatic midlife career change: She would go back to school to become a forensic anthropologist - and one of the most respected and best-known "bone hunters" in the nation. As a student working with the FBI in Waco, the author helped uncover definitive proof that many of the Branch Davidians had been shot to death before the fire, including their leader, David Koresh, whose bullet-pierced skull she reconstructed with her own hands. Upon graduation, she landed a prestigious full-time job as forensic anthropologist for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a state with an alarmingly high murder rate and thousands of square miles of rural backountry, where bodies are dumped and discovered on a regular basis. But even with her work there, the author was regularly called to investigations across the USA, including the site of the terrorist attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, where a mysterious body part - a dismembered leg - was found at the scene and did not match any of the known victims. Through careful scientific analysis, the author was able to help identify the leg's owner, a pivotal piece of evidence that helped convict Timothy McVeigh. In September 2001, she received a phone call summoning her to New York City, where she directed the night-shift triage at the World Trade Centre's body identification site, collaborating with forensics experts from all over the country to collect and identify the remains of September 11 victims. Unforgettable stories from the case files of the author's remarkable career. 284pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in F. dw.