Today's case will show how difficult it can be to establish an identity if there is very little left of a body after death. In this case there was in addition a bad antemortem material, only a small written record, which was not correct carried out and a couple of intraoral radiographs. But still, as many other times before, the dental evidence proved to be enough to establish identity without any doubts.

A farmer in south Sweden, let's call him Andersson, was missed by his wife by the time he used to come home one evening. He had been a bit depressed during the last time. The wife takes one of the family´s car and her sons with her and starts to search for him. Among other places, they go to a spare house property, owned by the family. There they find the other car of the family totally burnt down and within the car, in the driver´s seat are the remnants of a human being.

The remnants are really seriously burned, so the wife and her sons are not even sure that they are human remains. They contact the police, who soon arrives and make a scene investigation, which gives the following information:

Behind the car wreck, near the opening of the exhaust pipe, a rubber tube is found, linked to an device of teat rubber (Andersson had some milk cows). This apparatus has with all certainty been mounted to lead exhaust gas into the car. The drivers seat is adjusted in a lying down position, and here are the human remnants found. Some yards away from the car, behind it, a ragged fan belt is found, belonging to the car.

The following course of events seem very likely: Andersson has driven to this place to commit suicide. The fan belt is lost only just before he stops. He fits the device to guide the exhausts into the car and lies down in the down adjusted driver´s seat. As he becomes unconscious, the engine will be overheated, the petrol tube is out of order and a car fire is started.

The postmortem material is of very meagre. One half of the maxillae is missing, due to the fire and of the lower jaw, there is only one fragment from the area of tooth 34 and backwards. The written records are also meagre, but there are some antemortem intraoral radiographs from the lower jaw.

According to the written records, stated when the radiographs were exposed, the patient came for an emergency visit. A crown in tooth 34 had come lose and according to the radiograph this tooth was in a bad condition. It had resorption in the root and behind it was the root from 35 still left from some earlier emergency treatment. All molars were then missing in this quadrant.

The written daily record also claims that an extraction of 34 and the remaining root of 35 were performed.

The case seemed to be difficult to solve. By chance we could try to use the trabecular bone pattern to establish an identity, since all teeth now were missing. But, it is very difficult to use only the bone pattern, the method is not so wellknown or used. However we took a radiograph of the remaining bone rests and were very surprised of the result: The root from 34 persisted and it had of course a very characteristic appearance with its resorption areas. An identity could be established with a good security. And in a case like this, it is very important for the family, so that insurances can fall out and other legal matters can be carried out.

                                                                                Leif Kullman