by K. Friday

Roger Haut, PhD, has a warning for any potential criminals in MSUCOM: "Pay all of your traffic tickets and keep your records clean," he jokes, "because the Michigan State Police are here all the time!"

Dr. Haut, a professor in the Departments of Osteopathic Surgical Specialties, Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, and Mechanical Engineering, should know all about the State Police’s interest in MSUCOM because he regularly assists with the work done by the Forensic Anthropology Lab here in East Fee.

Experts in the analysis of bones and bone fragments as well as cannibalism, Drs. Sauer and Fenton help the police and FBI identify skeletal remains, and often their expertise is used to ascertain causes of death. Dr. Fenton says that in many cases the lab determines that the remains in question are animal in origin, in which case interest quickly disappears, leaving a random collection of animal bones—now openly collecting dust on several shelves—that give the lab a vaguely sinister feel.

But frequently enough the remains are human, and in many cases a crime has been committed. Sometimes these are decades-old crimes being revisited for various reasons. Dr. Fenton himself has contributed his expertise to cases involving both the Boston Strangler and Jesse James.

The lab’s collaboration with MSUCOM is more recent. Four years ago Dr. Sauer moved the lab to the fourth floor of Fee Hall. He says that he did so because "the medical school was always a more desirable place to work because of the kinds of projects and the kind of tissues we were working on."

This move to MSUCOM proved fruitful—in part because it facilitated the anthropologists’ collaboration with Dr. Haut, whose expertise in soft tissues and their biomechanics has proven invaluable in some criminal cases.

This past year, for instance, Dr. Haut helped the lab in a case involving a Michigan man killed as a result of a cranial depression sustained in a fistfight. In question were the forces generated by a punch to a supine head: could it produce a fatal blow? As an engineer and biomechanics expert, Dr. Haut drew on studies involving boxers and automotive collisions, developed his own calculations, and eventually concluded that under the particular circumstances under question, the punch could have inflicted the damages. Dr. Fenton eventually testified at the trial to that effect. The assailant was convicted.

"Dr. Haut’s engineering skills were critical in that case," Dr. Fenton explains. "Although Dr. Sauer and I are familiar with forces and their impact, Dr. Haut is the real expert—the one who can find the relevant literature, devise the necessary equations, and tell us what we need to know."

And with that, the Forensics Lab in Fee Hall helped to close another case.