Forensic scientists often identify disaster zone victims from their teeth, fingerprints or DNA.
But for Dr Maria Maclennan jewellery can hold the key to discovering who a deceased person is.
The Dundee forensic jeweller has been drafted in to aid identification in disasters and mass fatalities around the world.
She helped identify victims of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps in 2015 and those killed when a Mozambican airliner went down in Namibia in 2013.
Maria, 36, was drafted in in the aftermath of the 2015 Tunisia terror attack and she was placed on call after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
She’s often billed as the world’s first forensic jeweller. It’s a description she shies away from.
But she acknowledges being a pioneer in marrying methods long used by archaeologists with forensic science.
Telling The Courier how a childhood fascination with her grandmother’s jewellery box inspired her unique job, she explains: “Jewellery is almost an extension of the body.”
“In the same way we can recognise someone from their gait, their accent, their clothing, it [jewellery] can be part of their identity.
“We often don’t take off our favourite jewellery; we might never be seen without certain pieces.
“They will become integral parts of our identity that can help with prompting recognition or recall among the public or a witness.”
How jewellery survives when bodies may not
Bodies recovered from incidents such as mass fatalities, fires, crashes or water submersion can be in state that makes identification difficult.
In these situations what Maria describes as the ‘holy trinity of primary methods’ – teeth, fingerprint, DNA – are the most reliable ways to establish who the bodies belonged to.
But, she explains, jewellery can prove a valuable secondary identifier.
“Jewellery can often remain with the body for a very long time.
“The robust nature of many metals, gemstones, plastics mean they can withstand a lot of extreme environments, whether that’s fire, burial, water, extreme pressure.
How jewellery can hold clues to its owner’s identity
“Sadly, the human body may perish but often jewellery will survive.”
Maria can find clues in this jewellery which lead her to its owner.
“A lot of pieces are very traceable. The might have some kind of mark, a serial number, a hallmark.
“A lot are very personalised, they can connect to a manufacturer, a designer, a maker and we can trace something back to the place of purchase.
“Distinctive pieces are recognised, they’re memorable.
“Something that has been worn often or for a long time can be a physical repository for DNA.
“There are a lot of different avenues.”
While it means spending a lot of time in mortuaries, being a forensic jeweller can be emotionally rewarding.
Returning that piece of jewellery to the deceased person’s next of kin is just as important to Maria as using it identify them. If not more so.
“When I started doing this it was more about if we can trace and identify the object we can potentially identify the individual.
“I didn’t realise until I was in it how important a part of the process the return and repatriation was.
“Especially if you don’t have somewhere to go to say goodbye. Or you don’t have a body to bury. These little objects take on such a higher degree of symbolism after death and disaster for family members.”
Recognising the importance of a particular ring, necklace or bracelet to the deceased’s loved ones, Maria takes great care.
Precious items will be returned packaged in a gift box. And in some cases they may remain in that gift box until families are ready to open them.
‘It experienced what they experienced’
Families are also asked whether they want the item restored or in the state it was recovered.
“I was always so touched and humbled that the vast majority choose to have the piece returned as is,” Maria says.
“I often wonder if that’s because it was with their loved one at the end.
“It experienced what they experienced. It physically accompanied them through this traumatic experience.”
Today, Dr Maria Maclennan is more likely to be in a lecture hall than a morgue, teaching others the skills she has acquired.
She has worked with law enforcement and academic institutes around the world, including Interpol, the National Crime Agency and the Brazilian Federal Police.
To the latter she taught those dealing with illegal mining and exporting of emeralds and diamonds.
‘I’m a classic example of the dangers of making assumptions’
She’s also senior lecturer and associate professor in design at Edinburgh University, where she teaches students at Edinburgh College of Art.
Outside her academic work, she leads an international project recording the personal belongings of dead or missing migrants.
Identifying the Displaced is a database of more than 390 items held in a Greek hospital mortuary.
Maria is petite and heavily tattooed, even on her face. She wears lots of make-up and jewellery, including facial piercings. She describes herself as “quite girly”.
Particularly early in her career she says her appearance attracted the “odd raised eyebrow” when she arrived to work in such a serious field.
Now she uses that in teaching her students.
“I wear my heart on my face and you connect with people.
How Dr Maria Maclennan’s career began in Dundee
“The nature of the work I do is about appearance and communicating your identity through what you wear and how you choose to express your identity.
“A lot of the time I lean into that.
“I’m a classic example of the dangers of making assumptions about people.
“If you’re not objective you’re in danger of allowing that to influence your investigation.”
Maria has four degrees and a post-graduate certificate from Dundee University.
She moved from Muir of Ord, in the Highlands, in 2006 to study an undergraduate degree in jewellery and metal design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
She also has a masters degree in design for services, a PhD in design and a PGCert in teaching in higher education.
Last November she added to her skillset, graduating with a masters degree in forensic art and facial imaging.
This means she can reconstruct the face of a deceased person using techniques including forensic photography, 3D scanning and physical modelling from as little as a bare skull.
It was during her postgraduate studies in 2010 that what she describes as a “serendipitous encounter” set her on her unusual career path.
Dundee University’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification was working with Interpol and others on a database to track missing people and identify bodies.
It wanted students for a project involving body modification, tattoos, jewellery, clothing and such.
“I can’t quite think why they took me!” Maria jokes.
Her grandmother’s jewellery box
This inspired her masters research on forensic jewellery and the career that ensued.
And it all started with her grandmother’s jewellery box.
“Like a lot of little girls I used to play a lot with my granny’s jewellery box,” Maria recalls.
“I was really interested in the shiny stones and what were mostly big pieces of costume jewellery.
“What I liked most was picking up a piece and she would be able to recite a story about how she got it or who gave it to her.”
Maria’s grandmother was married twice but sadly both her husbands passed away, the first when she was in her 30s. Due to arthritis later in life she had a third wedding ring made.
Rings were a ‘way of connecting with the person’
All of them she kept in little red heart-shaped box, which Maria has since inherited.
“I never met my other grandparents so it was like being transported through time.
“The rings were like a narrative prompt. I would ask ‘what about this one? What about this one?’
“She would say ‘oh well, I got that from so and so’. And I would ask ‘when?’
“So you got these stories and it was a way of connecting with the person themselves.”
Maria remains “utterly obsessed” with jewellery and confesses to psychoanalysing people through the pieces they wear.
‘I just like shiny things’
“I do probably find myself reading into things a little bit too much!
“Like anything you need to be careful when combining your hobbies with your job that the joy doesn’t go out of it.
“But I can still appreciate when something is just beautiful.
“And beauty is a function. If an object is nothing more than beautiful to look at and it brings joy into people’s lives that’s a purpose and a function.
“I try not to be too detective-y in everyday settings and just appreciate things as they are.
“I just like shiny things.”
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