Mark Johnson spotted this story on Thursday: Inside the chill of the county coroner’s office, the detective and the forensic anthropologist stood over soot-covered bones arrayed on a metal table.
Over two hours, Elizabeth Miller provided a running dialogue for each bone. She picked up one rib after another, studying them for knife scrapes.
The bones were those of a boy, perhaps 12 to 15 years old, found in the chimney of an abandoned building in South Los Angeles. The boy wore faded and stained tan jeans and a white shirt, but no shoes.
“I’m sure if we had a photograph, we’d be able to recognize him,” Miller said.
More than once, Los Angeles Police Det. Chris Barling asked: Was he killed?
There was no sign of trauma, Miller said. No self-defense wounds on the finger bones, no scrapes or damage to other bones. The jaw suggested major dental work to repair an injury, but that was it.
That was March 28, 2005, and the homicide detective and the anthropologist had hunches, nothing more.
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