Part III

Question 5 

Match the photos of the victims’ pieces of evidence, explaining your rationale for doing so. 

Image 1

The picture gives a few very important points:

1. Two erupted mandibular third molars.

2. Prominent orbital margin on the skull.

3. Acute angle of mandible.

Points 2 and 3 indicate it is a male victim. Referring to point 1, mandibular third molars erupt at ages 17-25 years.

So this jaw could belong to Herman Hartono (father) or Adi Hartono (son).


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Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Images 2 - 4 also show erupted third molars and more acute angle of mandible. These are consistent with a male's jaw. However, the vertical dimension of ramus of the mandible is shorter than a usual male's, leading us to also think it belongs to a female victim.


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Image 5

We can clearly see a fully erupted permanent mandibular canine. We concluded that it is permanent due to the size and the absence of succedaneous tooth. After an intense debate, we are still unable to come to a unified conclusion of the structure medial to the canine. We speculate that it could be an unerupted right lateral incisor, alvelolar bone, or a fractured lateral incisor due to physical trauma.

As permanent mandibular canines erupt at ages 9-10 years old, this is most probably the missing 9 year old, Anya Suriati.

x      o      x      o       x       o       x        o       x        o       x       o         x        o       x         o        x         o 



Question 6 

The DNA profile showed evidence for a father and son. In addition there was DNA profiling pattern that matched one living twin (Tanya Rosilawati). With this, match the evidence to these victims who were earlier filed for missing persons. Explain your rationale.


Referring to our answers in question 5 whereby based on the skulls alone we concluded that the skulls in images 1-4 belong to males, and they are definitely 17 years old and above due to the erupted wisdom teeth. In addition to the new DNA profiling information, it is safe to conclude that the mandibles in images 1-4 are father and son: Herman Hartono and Adi Hartono. But we still cannot identify which mandible belongs to who.

The mandible in image 5 indicates a child's mandible, and since its DNA matches to the missing twin, it is Anya Suriati.