Dr. Ford

What do you do for a living?

Forensic Analyst and Consultant in Melodia

Where did you go to school?

Yale University — Chemistry. West Virginia University — PhD in Forensic Science.

After graduation?

Melodia State Department of Investigation Crime Lab as an analyst for FOUR years

I wanted to move into teaching and started as an Associate Professor at the University of Melodia.

Started firm on the side Ford Solutions, LLC

What classes did you teach?

Forensic Techniques - crime scene investigative and forensic analysis techniques, including DNA and dental record identification.

I also taught a few advanced seminars on DNA collection, extraction, and analysis.

What made you get into consulting?

I had a feeling about starting my own consultation firm. The firm took off, so I retired from my professorship five years ago, and focused

Why are you here today?

 I was retained by Mr. Pastore's attorneys to determine if there were any forensic errors made in this case.

Rates?

$450/hr to testify

$350/ hr non-testimonial

I have spent six hours reviewing and analyzing the file, four 33 hours generating my report, and two hours doing other work on the case.

Any experience as an expert witness?

36 cases (retained)

18 (testified)

17 of those cases involved victim identification in homicide trials (police fuck up)

8 dental record ID.

What did you review?

the indictment,

the affadavit of Officer Lavelle,

the forensic report of Casey Vidales,

the certificate of death

the autopsy report

and the x-ray comparisons between Jane Doe and Ms. Tiedlebaum

What were your conclusions? 

I was able to come to two conclusions in today's case. The first is that the Walkup P.D.'s analyst's dental record analysis must be discounted due to the signal distortion present on the only image of Jane Doe's dental records used for comparison with Ms. Teitelbaum's records. 

What does comparing dental records entail?

A forensic analyst will take the dental records of one individual and compare them to the dental records of a deceased victim, to determine the identity of the victim. It is especially helpful in cases such as this one, where the body is unidentifiable by sight or circumstances alone.

What do you look for when doing dental record comparison?

We look for points of concordance in the mouth. These are unique similarities in the mouth that help in positive identification. I generally recommend having eight to twelve points of concordance to establish the positive identification of a victim. The analyst also conducts a directional change analysis to find any impossible directional change.

What is impossible directional change?

they are points in the mouth where there are major differences that are impossible for a match. Adult teeth don't grow back. So, if a one set of records is missing an adult tooth and the other isn't, that would be an impossible directional change.

Tools that make the process easier for analysts? 

Oh yes, and Casey Vidales utilized one of those tools. The one she used is an algorithm called Speeded Up Robust Features or SURF, which identifies points of concordance or impossible directional change.  

Is the algorithim successful?

SURF is a very successful algorithm, but even the best algorithms perform less reliably when the dental data is incomplete. Such is the case with the signal distortion in Jane Doe’s dental records.

What is signal distortion?

A signal distortion can occur when there are issues in capturing the images needed for dental comparisons. This can happen from improper stabilization or objects blocking portions of the mouth, distorting the images.

Was there signal distortion in this case? 

Yes. A coroner took the postmortem dental images used for identification. It is clear they did not use a proper stabilization system to capture the images.

Is it standard for a coroner to do this?

No. Typically, a dental professional would capture the images for comparison.

Why does it matter that there was signal distortion?

The signal distortion here distorted the entire left side of Jane Doe’s mouth. Therefore, a full directional change analysis is impossible. Casey Vidales was only able to perform that analysis on the right side of the mouth.

Was Vidales aware of the signal distortion? 

Yes, she was. She did the best she could under the circumstances, but the signal distortion present precludes any positive identification.  

Did Vidales continue analysis despite the signal distortion?

Yes, and she identified the victim as Molly Teitelbaum. But again, the signal distortion present was unacceptable. The identification must be discounted because of that error.  

Any additional postmortem records taken by a dental expert?

No. The only set of postmortem dental images taken were the distorted records used for identification.

What’s the second conclusion?

The other conclusion I reached was that the Walkup Police Departments failure to collect enough DNA evidence to compare Jane Doe's DNA with Molly Teitelbaum's DNA was in error.

DNA evidence collected in this case?

None

Any DNA taken from Jane Doe or Teitelbaum?

No, and although the body was deeply decomposed, it was still possible.

What does the state of the body have to do with DNA ID?

Some forensic evidence decays over time, such as fingerprints. However, DNA can be extracted from the tooth pulp and sampled long after the death of an individual.

Did Walkup PD try and get the tooth pulp?

No, but it wouldn’t have helped.

Why is it not helpful?

For DNA to be useful, they have to have something to compare it to. However, the Walkup Police Department failed to collect a DNA sample from Ms. Teitelbaum's home once she disappeared. Even if they had extracted DNA from Jane Doe, the department had none of Ms. Teitelbaum's DNA to compare it to.

What should the police have done?

DNA Samples from both Molly Teitelbaum and Jane Doe should have been taken. Doing so would have allowed them to rule out the possibility that Jane Doe is a different person entirely.

Distortion?

The kind of distortion in these images is unacceptable. In radiology, distortion is present when some factor causes the radiograph to misrepresent or give inaccurate impressions of the structures being surveyed. There are a number of kinds of distortion, including size distortion, which makes objects appear larger or smaller than they actually are, and shape distortion, which shortens or elongates structures.

Points of concordance?

To allow for consistency between cases and to prevent dispute of matches, it is important for every law enforcement entity to establish a necessary number of points of concordance when using dental record identification. I generally recommend eight to twelve points; when I worked for the Melodia Department of Investigation, the standard was ten. Admittedly, I do not know of any scientist or law enforcement entity who requires more than twelve points of concordance to declare a match.

Jane Doe’s Mouth

Here, while most of the mouth can be compared, the lower incisors cannot be compared at all due to the distortion. The radiograph shows the presence of some structure in the front of the mouth, but even with a high filter setting, nothing specific about that structure can be determined. Main area to check but could not