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The University of Sheffield

Forensic Facial Reconstruction: Finding Mr. X

The University of Sheffield via FutureLearn

Overview

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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 431 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at FutureLearn based on 297 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
  • 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
  • Anonymous
    The course was recommended to an audience by Jennifer Rees on a tour and encouraged me to investigate a topic that I'd never previously considered before. As someone who isn't particularly interested in Science, but is into History, crime and the impact of technology on establishing a clearer understanding of our past, it was interesting to see the steps taken in a real investigation, in addition to gaining insight into more of the human anatomy. It was clear, informative and appropriate for a wide range of users. The fact that it was free was an added bonus.
  • I've enjoyed this course a lot, everything was easy to understand. I managed to learn a lot within two weeks. Thank you.
  • Anonymous
    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…
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Anonymous
    I learned more in this course that could help jump start a career in forensics, it can be a game changer for most who look into this course. It’s fun and if you are serious about doing a career in forensics, I really recommend taking this course.
  • Anonymous
    The whole course was extremely well taught, appropriately paced and also kept to the introductory level, which is important for beginners in this field. It was one of those online courses that you can't wait to log onto when it was time to study.
  • Anonymous
    Great introduction to facial reconstruction process and applications. A short course; but enough to wet your appetite for more.
  • 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 enjoyed the course and found it very interesting. The quality of the presenters was impressive. One comment I have is that there was less interaction between the students and the mentor(s) than I've seen on any other course I've taken. For examp…
  • Anonymous
    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 understa…
  • Sarah Jones
    This was a really informative course. I learnt quite a few things I didn’t know. I do come from a medical background so did have some knowledge but still learnt from it and found it really interesting. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone with interest of resolving murder cases and how they find who people are
  • Profile image for Krishika Katyal
    Krishika Katyal
    The course was absolutely intriguing. I had an astounding experience of learning the recreation of the face of an unknown individual just with their skeletal remains. I’m looking forward to engaging in more such amazing courses.
  • Anonymous
    Fantastic course! I'm interested in CSI because of the TV series I've seen these years, so I joined this forensic course. As the name of the course suggests, I followed every steps to see how the final imagines and model were reconstructed based on a skull. From the body in a bag to the police finally arrested the killers, now I know the whole picture of facial reconstruction in this particular case. The professors and experts provided the evidence and methods in great detail which impressed me the most, thank you Sheffield!
  • Anonymous
    Great compact course with general information as well as the opportunity to follow a real forensic case from discovery to idenification.
  • Anonymous
    I knew nothing about this subject when I started this course, which I did out of curiosity. I'm retired now and have been learning from these Future Learn courses for several years to keep my brain active and get knowledge of things that I know little about.
    This course was so interesting and it was good to follow the case through from the beginning right to the end of result of seeing the murderers brought to justice.
    Thank you to all the experts who put this course together.
  • 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
    I really enjoyed this course. Being a student studying Forensic Science I knew a lot of the background information needed to understand the characteristics they used for identification and highly related to the course , It felt like I was there solving the case with them and trying to figure out what the identity of the individual was. This course is highly enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it.

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