How a Healed Fracture Can Help Establish Identity
A healed fracture can leave a feature that an examiner can compare with records made during life. Saukko and Knight list healed fractures among the individual characteristics that may assist in identifying skeletal remains.
The comparison depends on the details recorded. A prior image that shows the same bone and location gives an examiner more to assess than a general history of a fracture. The report can explain which features correspond and what uncertainty remains.
Saukko and Knight, Knight’s Forensic Pathology, 3rd ed. (2004), p. 124
