Inside Forensic Science · Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science

Episode 2: Sin Eaters

·33 min·2 clips

Chief Constable Black says the remains looked like a younger woman and an older man.

The episode opens with a warning about graphic descriptions and upsetting content, and sets forensic work up as the kind of job that forces experts to stay scientifically remote and clinical if they want to keep going. Body recovery, reconstruction, and cause of death are shown as work that depends on distance. The case starts with two women finding a gruesome scene in Garden Home, two miles north of Moffat, on the main road. Dumfrieshire police first establish only that the victims are an adult man and an adult woman. The woman is complete except for the right forearm and hand. The man is missing the trunk, both feet, and the right upper arm. The episode lingers on the scale of the mutilation and on how long it must have taken to remove the skin of the face and parts of the bodies. There is very little evidence at first. The hands are soft, which does not fit a woman who has done manual work. The fingernails are carefully manicured, with the cuticles pushed back. That detail does not place her high in society, but it does rule out the idea of a vagrant. The teeth add another layer of restraint. Several are missing, there is no evidence of dental treatment, and one tooth is noticeably decayed while the rest appear sound. By the 6th of October 1935, the body parts have begun to tell more of their story to the experts examining them. Police surgeon Mr Dix, DPD Wilkie, concludes that the dismemberment points to at least eight hours of work, a table with good light, large sharp knives, and someone with anatomical knowledge or experience cutting up animals. He says the great majority of the incisions were clean cut and purposive, not hacked or ragged. The elbow joints were disarticulated without injury to the cartilaginous surfaces, which he treats as a difficult process and a piece of work for the uninitiated. The episode closes by returning to how the dead are treated and identified, with Professor Sue Black and Dr. Martin Hall named as the experts in a case of stolen identity.

As heard by us

A 1935 forensic case where the remaining evidence still speaks.

Inside Forensic Science takes the sin-eater idea and uses it to shape a mutilation case into a study of identification. It begins with a 1935 discovery two miles north of Moffat and a police record that first leaves only an adult man and an adult woman.

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Why you'd press play

When Sin Eaters turns body parts into evidence.

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