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The University of Sheffield

Forensic Facial Reconstruction: Finding Mr. X

The University of Sheffield via FutureLearn

Overview

Solve the mystery of the body in the bag

On Saturday 22 January 2000, two men found a small holdall, abandoned on an industrial estate in the north of Sheffield. Upon opening the bag they made a gruesome discovery. A badly decomposed body.

Who was this person? Why did they die? Where had the body been stored all of this time?

On this course from The University of Sheffield, you’ll learn alongside the experts who worked to determine the identity of Mr. X. You’ll discover the forensic science techniques that were used to identify the body and understand the circumstances surrounding their death.

This course is suitable for anyone interested in how forensic anatomy and facial reconstruction can assist police investigations. No prior qualifications in forensic science or other disciplines are required.

Students and practitioners in the fields of archaeology, anatomy, and anthropology may gain valuable insights into the use of anatomy expertise in forensic work that they can apply to their study and work in the field.

Syllabus

  • The story in the bones
    • Welcome to the course
    • Forensic anatomy: identifying human remains
    • What information can a skull reveal?: Sex
    • What information can a skull reveal?: Ethnicity
    • What information can teeth reveal?
    • Do we have enough to identify the body?
  • Reconstructing the face
    • When would you need a facial reconstruction?
    • The anatomy of the face
    • Reconstructing the face
    • Finding Mr. X: solving the case
    • Career and study in Forensic Anatomy and Facial Reconstruction

Taught by

Katherine Linehan

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 424 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at FutureLearn based on 282 ratings

Start your review of Forensic Facial Reconstruction: Finding Mr. X

  • This course diverges a lot from the regular Futurelearn courses I had dealt with earlier. The course has something weighing in on me in every chapter; a sense of relief, a collective sense of duty, a genuine cause. Every click of the subsequent chapters turns pages of progressive investigation of years. This course is highly supererogatory. Meanwhile, kindly check Durham's "Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology" course, which would be an excellent follow-up to this one.

    https://www.change.org/p/university-of-sheffield-save-sheffield-s-archaeology-department

    #SaveSheffieldAcraheology
  • Naser Aldhawi completed this course.

    Forensic Facial Reconstruction for me is quite new I learned many things about how to find the criminals or suspected murders and to investigate and the meaning of Forensic many specialists can participate, Anthropologist pathologist Anatomy and got new Idea that after death long period we can reconstruction human remains to find out the reason of the death and functionalist of many parts of the body and how to make clay for reconstruction
  • Fantastic course. I learned many things!!!!!

    Forensic Facial Reconstruction is a wonderful job. This course showed me something fantastic about the police's job. I recomend to everyone that loves investigation.
  • I like this course so much, it was helpful, consist all basic information and reading sooo interesting. I would like to learn more actually about this topic, so only pity this course is hort: only 2 weeks long.
  • I've enjoyed this course a lot, everything was easy to understand. I managed to learn a lot within two weeks. Thank you.
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    I signed up for this course following an email from Futurelearn and have to say that I am glad that I did. It is well paced and easy to follow and whilst it is obviously only covering the basics I feel that I have learnt a lot about the human skull,...
  • RICK Lee
    I have always been a "BIG TIME" TV detective, I enjoy watching crime programs like Dateline or Forensic Files, in which I try to solve the crime before the announcer does.
    Prior to taking this course, I never knew any of the steps that it took to start from nothing and be able to solve a murder.
    I have enjoyed sharing/reading ideas, comments, and remarks from my fellow classmates, and am looking forward to the next session.
  • Anonymous
    Me parece muy interesante el tema. Respecto a la metodología de la enseñanza es totalmente asertiva, práctica y entendible, cada uno de los capítulos del proceso de aprendizaje, se reforzaron con un conjunto de procedimientos académicos como artículos, evaluaciones (sólo con la finalidad de reforzamiento).

    En suma un tema muy práctico, ilustrativo y necesario en la formación profesional.
  • شكرًا جزيلاً على إنشاء مثل هذه الدورة التدريبية الشيقة لك! إنني أقدر كل الجهود التي بذلها كل من شارك في الدورة. لقد تعلمت الكثير ووسعت أفقى. نأمل أن أراك مرة أخرى في دورة علمية أخرى. شكرًا لك!
    معا تحياتي: اسلام احمد قمحان
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous completed this course.

    I found this course really interesting and informative as it gave a real insight into what it takes to reconstruct someone's face. I liked how the individual facial muscles were highlighted in separate diagrams as it made it much clearer to understand,...
  • Anonymous
    This was a fascinating introduction and I would recommend it to others who express an interest in facial reconsruction. Unfortunately, I was unable to access certain links provided; however, other students shared links they found. This case is from 2000. It is now 2022 - almost 2023. perhaps amore up to date case can be used. Well done!
  • Profile image for Moohialdin A.
    Moohialdin A.
    It is so great . that i learned a lot of things in facial reconstruction espically how determin the depth of tissue and applaying on the cast or on skull. i want to learn more and more in this scince .
  • Anonymous
    Well presented, information and interesting course.
    I enjoyed being able to follow the investigation from start to finish.
    Explanations of how each department/team work together to analyse data was great.
  • Anonymous
    I learned a lot in this course. It was smooth and understandable, uncomplicated and exciting. I would like to learn more about this topic, as it is very interesting. Thank you
  • Ibrahim Ridwan Madaki
    I really appreciate this cause of mine initially I thought I can't do it the fact that I'm a law student but when I stated I find it more interesting and more important in time of finding Mr X's and the identification of the male and female skeleton and their ethnicity I indeed appreciate the cause
  • Anonymous
    I really enjoyed this course, very interesting and i get alot of knowledge about forensic facial reconstruction.
  • Anonymous
    Very interesting and great introduction into how ethnicity, sex etc are helped to be determined by skull and bones
  • Anonymous
    fantastic course highly recomend. it opened my eyes to differerent posibilities in archeological work
  • Rena Marks
    This course was so informative and interesting I would recommended it to anyone regardless of age. Thank-you for a fascinating look into Forensic science.
  • Anonymous
    It is a very informative course detailing what can be achieved with this specific knowledge; it also gives an insight of what other sciences can be called upon to achieve a satisfactory end result in a case, these could be of interest to future learning also.

    The two media downloads was a good ending to the 'story' of the demise of Mr X as this contained a lot of information which did not need to be included in the actual science of facial recognition but was interesting to see the whole picture.

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