New 3D technology raises hopes for the coldest of cold cases

New 3D technology raises hopes for the coldest of cold cases

The clay busts were the effort of University of South Florida forensic anthropologists and forensic artists who pulled images of unidentified bodies from cold case files, printed their skulls in 3D plastic, then molded heads and faces that someone might recognize.

Investigators hope that updated DNA procedures and chemical isotope testing will help them identify the bodies and ultimately, learn what happened to them.

Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell talked about the case, and said there is a "tsunami" of missing and unidentified cases in Florida, partially because of the state's transient population.

For Dr. Erin Kimmerle, a USF anthropologist and director of the school's Institute for Forensic Anthropology & Applied Science, it's about justice for the families, especially in cases of homicides.

Two sisters showed up, and intensely compared one of the clay faces to a picture they carried of their older sister, missing since the late 1970s.