Burned Bone Gallery

After a devastating fire, when the body is considered “burned beyond recognition,” it can still retain valuable information about personal identification, patterned burn damage, and in some cases, evidence of preexisting trauma. Dr. Pope specializes in the analysis of burned human remains from structural, vehicle, confined-space, and outdoor fire scenes.

Each fire environment is unique and produces specialized burn patterns. Dr. Pope has researched burned human remains for over 20 years and has collected data from the annual Fatal Fire Death Investigation Course in San Luis Obispo, California since 2008. The course provides realistic fatal fire scene scenarios involving burned human remains (www.slofist.org).

Data from more than 170 bodies includes time, temperatures, photographic images, and the resulting condition of the body. Burn patterns are affected by duration, fuels involved, fire environment, body orientation to heat sources, and suppression techniques.

Process of pugilistic positioning — The process of pugilistic positioning during a fire, with the fingers, wrist, elbow, and shoulder repositioning from shrinking muscles that pull on bones and move the limb.

Just as each case is unique, so are the burn patterns produced during the continuum of heat-related changes to the human body. These patterns can tell a story about duration, temperature ranges, fuels involved, fire environment, and tissue changes.

After the fire, burn patterns in soft and skeletal tissues survive as physical evidence that can help explain how the body burned.

Above are examples of burned and fragmentary remains from a vehicle fire that lasted for hours, leaving burned bone as evidence of the body.
Left photograph by Jamie Novak.

See Gallery

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Elayne Pope, Ph.D.

Website: Burned Bone
Position: Fatal Fire Forensics LLC
Forensic Consultant and Instructor: .
Location: Knoxville, TN
Linkedin: elayne-pope/9/994/a4a
Resume: Elayne J. Pope CV

Elayne Pope, Ph.D. Fatal Fire Forensics LLC.

Dr. Elayne Pope is a Forensic Anthropologist who researches how the human body burns for application to fatal fire casework. She received her doctorate from the University of Arkansas in 2007 for “The Effects of Fire on Human Remains.” Dr. Pope has been a researcher and instructor for the San Luis Obispo Fire Investigation Strike Team (SLO FIST) Fatal Fire Death Investigation Course since 2008 where human cadavers are utilized to recreate fatal fire scenes (www.slofist.org). She worked as the Autopsy Supervisor and forensic anthropologist for 6 years at the Tidewater Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Pope is a forensic consultant and owner of Fatal Fire Forensics LLC (www.burnedbone.com) who specializes in fatal fire case review and examinations, burn pattern analysis, skeletal trauma analysis, expert witness and testimony, training lectures and course instruction, and identification of fragmentary burned bone (human vs. non-human/non-bone). Dr. Pope has been an instructor for numerous IAAI state chapter conferences since 2002 and has testified as an expert witness in criminal state court cases since 2004.

Additional research interests include forensic anthropology, fatal fire investigation, skeletal trauma & injury patterns, burn patterns to the human body, identification of fragmentary burned bone, forensic taphonomy, forensic illustration.

Forensic Consultation Services

·Burn pattern analysis (normal and abnormal burn patterns)

·Structures, Vehicles, Confined Space, Outdoors

·Examination of traumatic injury

·Burn time estimates based on fire damage to the body

·Fragmentary bone identification (human vs. non-human vs. non-bone)

·Court illustrations/diagrams

Forensic Consultation Materials for Review

·Cover letter with case summary information with any specified questions.

·Crime Scene Photographs

·Autopsy Photographs

·Autopsy Reports

·Fire/EMS reports

·Witness statements relating to fire events

·Investigative reports (Fire, Law Enforcement)

·Legal documents (depositions, court transcripts)

Publications:

•Elayne Pope Manuscript submitted (n.d.) Fire Environments and Characteristic Burn Patterns of Human Remains from Four Common Types of Fatal Fire Scenes. In The Forensic Evaluation of Burnt Human Remains: Forensic Science in Focus Series. (eds) Ellingham S., Adseria Garriga J., Zapico S., and Ubelaker D. Wiley Publishers.

•Elayne Pope, Alison Galloway, and Chelsea Juarez Manuscript submitted (n.d.) Refined Classification System for Thermally Damaged Human Remains by Body Segment.

•Alison Galloway, Chelsey Juarez, and Elayne Pope Manuscript submitted (n.d.) How Human Bodies Burn: The process of thermal damage, body movement and shifting fuel loads in Book: In Path of Flames (eds) Kendal A, Mulligan C, and Galloway A. CRC Press

•Elayne Pope and O. C. Smith (2004) Identification of traumatic injury in burned cranial bone: An experimental approach. Journal of Forensic Sciences 49(3)431-440.

•Elayne Pope, O. C. Smith, and Timothy Huff (2004) Exploding skulls and other myths about how the human body burns. Fire and Arson Investigator Journal 55(4)23-28.

Online Articles:

https://coronertalk.com/tag/dr-elayne-pope

https://ditacademy.org/how-bodies-burn/

https://www.sott.net/article/185067-Body-burners-The-forensics-of-fire

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/09/missing-womans-body-could-have-been-incinerated-in-her-own-fireplace-expert-tells-jury.html