Legends in Forensic Science Lectureship

Dr. Douglas W. Owsley


Written in Bone:Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake



October 4, 2007
State Farm Room
Business and Aerospace Building

Dr. Douglas W. Owsley is the Division Head for Physical Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution. Within forensics Dr. Owsley identified Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim, and assisted in the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Texas where he identified the remains of David Koresh. He participated in the identification of the dead from the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, and the recovery and identification of civilian victims of war in Croatia. He was called upon to identify sailors on the Confederate submarine the CSS H.L. Hunley. Dr. Owsley was a member of the scientific team assembled to study the Kennewick Man skeletal remains. Dr. Owsley also studied skull fragments found in a 400-year-old trash pit in Jamestown and discovered evidence that hints at skull drilling and autopsy in 1600s.