ARTIST TALK / MARCH 9, 2021 FROM 10-11AM / Zoom Meeting Info: Meeting ID: 979 1737 2052 / Passcode: VITALI
Michelle Vitali, Forensic Artist
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Michelle Vitali is a tenured professor of art at Edinboro University, where she has taught human anatomy, scientific illustration, painting and commercial illustration since 1999. She received her undergraduate education at the University of the Arts and Tyler School of Art (Rome) with a major in painting. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the New York Academy of Art, studying both painting and sculpture. Before arriving at Edinboro University, she served on the faculties of Pratt Institute, Parson’s School of Design and the New York Academy of Art.
About 7 years ago, Michelle’s knowledge of human anatomy and interest in law enforcement led her into the forensic arts. She was asked to serve as the court artist on the Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong legal trial (a locally famous trial known as the “Pizza Bomber” case.) She has researched and published ways to increase the efficacy of 3D facial reconstructions and has presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She has worked on cold cases and historical cases in the United States, Europe and in Central America, and her work has been distributed globally. Facial reconstructions are not exact, but they can be quite accurate with good measuring, knowledge and skills. All reconstructions should be considered a “family likeness”, rather than a precise portrait of an individual. With her primary interest in research, Michelle has taken on a variety of cases that in some way can serve to advance the field of forensic art while also providing a measure of resolution for law enforcement and the public. |
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
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Civil War Soldier from the Battle of the Wilderness
In 2014, Edinboro’s Institute for Forensic Sciences was given access to the collection at the National Museum of Health and Medicine near Washington, D.C. in order to develop updated methods of digital 3D facial approximations. Historical cases provide a means to develop new techniques with lower emotional stakes than active missing persons cases. Of the requested crania in the museum’s collection, only one proved to be intact enough for the process being tested and its matching mandible was identified from a collection of loose and unidentified mandibles. While meeting research needs, accessing crania of general historical interest results in reconstructions that can be used by others while simultaneously advancing positive outcomes for law enforcement and advancing the field of knowledge. |
Pizza Bomber Courtroom Art
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The Severed Head
In December of 2014, a school boy found a severed human head in the woods while walking from the school bus to his home in Beaver county, PA. No other body parts were recovered at the scene. It was plain to see that the head belonged to an older Caucasian female, as the head had been embalmed and was in relatively good condition. The woman was highly identifiable because of the condition of the remains, but a post-mortem portrait of her was needed to disseminate her image over public media. The local police chief was introduced to Michelle Vitali by the Erie County Coroner who knew of Vitali’s forensic art work. She made a drawing of the woman’s head within 24 hours and it was shared nationally. While the police searched for an identification and evidence of a crime, another theory was raised by Vitali. Having carefully examined the severed head, it was clear that the head had been professionally removed with great care, as by an anatomist. This critical detail pointed not toward a crime, but toward a body donation. Complicating matters were the fact that her eyes had been removed and were replaced with small, red plastic balls — children’s toys. How did she end up in the woods of western Pennsylvania? No one on the case had seen anything like this before.The scope of the police investigation broadened from one in which a crime may have been committed against a living person, to one in which a person may have died naturally, donated their body to science, but then was mishandled in some way by the donor organization. Abuse of a lawfully donated corpse leads to a different kind of investigation from criminal acts on a living person. The strangeness and complexity of this case attracted international attention and spotlight treatment by Reuters Investigates. While much more has been learned and evidence gathered, including polygraph testing of a person of interest, this case remains open. In the absence of matching dental records or keys persons willing to share their DNA, the current theory of who this person was and how she ended up in those woods can not be confirmed. |
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The Frontier Park Skull
In April of 2019, a troop of boy scouts was cleaning up the creek in a city park in Erie, PA. They found a skull sitting along the edge of the creek. Parents thought it had to be fake, but called the police anyway. More bones were found, collected and cataloged. All seemed to belong to a single person — an older Caucasian male. While the police have ruled out known missing persons, they are still investigating whether he could be a homeless man or an overdose victim. It was also possible that this person was in an unmarked historic grave that eroded in that spring’s unusually heavy rains. Vitali provided multiple options to the Erie Police that align with multiple theories. For the first time, she also embedded the images in a template that provides all the pertinent information to the public in one place and that seeks to educate the them about the nature of forensic images. One of her research interests is identifying best practices in the forensic arts and developing a protocol to allow for more universal treatment of the images across jurisdictions. Almost two years after the bones were found, the individual was identified. More on this story will be shared during the exhibition lecture. |
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Notes on Age Progression
When people are missing for a long period of time, their appearance can be expected to change. Similarly, when skeletal remains are found, there will be many surface details that will be difficult if not impossible to discern. For these reasons, forensic artists are sometimes called upon to provide variations, whether known or hypothetical, to aid in finding or identifying persons of interest. One research project provides an example of age progression in a 16-year-old female of African American ancestry. And the Embalmed head case provides an example from law enforcement of age regression. The reasons can differ, but both processes are useful in forensics.
When people are missing for a long period of time, their appearance can be expected to change. Similarly, when skeletal remains are found, there will be many surface details that will be difficult if not impossible to discern. For these reasons, forensic artists are sometimes called upon to provide variations, whether known or hypothetical, to aid in finding or identifying persons of interest. One research project provides an example of age progression in a 16-year-old female of African American ancestry. And the Embalmed head case provides an example from law enforcement of age regression. The reasons can differ, but both processes are useful in forensics.
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Teotihuacan Woman
The surprising discovery by the staff at the Erie Art Museum led to a series of texts and calls looking for regional expertise on what precisely they had found. Vitali’s involvement with the skull began with a phone call received while working on the Maya projects in Belize. Being surrounded by expert Mayanists, it was quickly determined that the skull was indeed ancient and most likely Teotihuacan, due to the artifacts found with her and still in the museum’s collection. Upon arrival back in the States, Vitali went to the museum to properly examine and photograph the skull and artifacts. In her imagination, a face emerged from that encounter because of the high degree of asymmetry in the bones and the idea to reconstruct this woman was born. The Teotihuacan woman has been appropriately repatriated to Mexico, where she currently resides in another museum. The ancient site from which she was taken has forever been sullied; it is as useless to archeologists as any looter’s trench. She and her accompanying artifacts have no context nor provenience. But photographs are all that were needed to do a 2D reconstruction of her face. She had so much taken from her already that the idea of reconstructing her face gained steam. It is hoped that her image and story continue to remind us to travel as lightly as possible and to take nothing but pictures as we interact with other cultures.
The surprising discovery by the staff at the Erie Art Museum led to a series of texts and calls looking for regional expertise on what precisely they had found. Vitali’s involvement with the skull began with a phone call received while working on the Maya projects in Belize. Being surrounded by expert Mayanists, it was quickly determined that the skull was indeed ancient and most likely Teotihuacan, due to the artifacts found with her and still in the museum’s collection. Upon arrival back in the States, Vitali went to the museum to properly examine and photograph the skull and artifacts. In her imagination, a face emerged from that encounter because of the high degree of asymmetry in the bones and the idea to reconstruct this woman was born. The Teotihuacan woman has been appropriately repatriated to Mexico, where she currently resides in another museum. The ancient site from which she was taken has forever been sullied; it is as useless to archeologists as any looter’s trench. She and her accompanying artifacts have no context nor provenience. But photographs are all that were needed to do a 2D reconstruction of her face. She had so much taken from her already that the idea of reconstructing her face gained steam. It is hoped that her image and story continue to remind us to travel as lightly as possible and to take nothing but pictures as we interact with other cultures.
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Nojol Nah 54
In July 2017, Michelle Vitali traveled to Belize to participate in a 1,500 year-old human burial excavation and to discern what special techniques would be required to perform a facial reconstruction of a Maya person with cranial and dental modifications. The site is in the rainforest of northwestern Belize, about 20 miles from the border with Guatemala and one mile from the border with Mexico. The early portion of the trip was spent excavating the burial pit of a male at the Xnoha site with Dr. Lenore Barbian, Physical Anthropology at Edinboro, and a Brandeis graduate student in Bioarcheology. The condition of this skeleton was beyond fragmentary and so was beyond reconstruction. Next, access was provided to a previously excavated skeleton with a modified cranium. The skull, that of a thirty-plus year-old woman of higher social status, was fragmentary and itself needed to be reconstructed. After the skull reconstruction, the process of performing a facial reconstruction was started using tissue data from Native American Indians. It was eventually determined that the pronounced cranial deformities presented perspectival challenges that would require advanced knowledge in linear and anamorphic perspective. For successful rendering, these perspectives need to be understood and applied. Otherwise, the facial reconstruction proceeded in a typical manner. As when the face took shape, it appeared to be surprisingly familiar — like a modern person, at least from the front view. Many Mayanists and an art historian were consulted for the cultural aspects of body modification and decoration and these additions helped to place her back within her own culture and time period, approximately 600 AD.The final outcome of this work will be large-scaled paintings of this ancient female and another case involving a male, which will be exhibited at the National Museum of Belize. |
Nojol Nah 12A
This Maya skull was Vitali’s second experience with the reconstruction of a modified skull. NN12A was a large male and was even more fragmentary than NN54. Still, there was enough information present to build a reconstruction.He was possibly a warrior because of his extraordinary size and robusticity and was definitely from a nearby community living within a century or so of the female NN54. The reconstruction followed much the same process, with the same concerns, as NN54,
This Maya skull was Vitali’s second experience with the reconstruction of a modified skull. NN12A was a large male and was even more fragmentary than NN54. Still, there was enough information present to build a reconstruction.He was possibly a warrior because of his extraordinary size and robusticity and was definitely from a nearby community living within a century or so of the female NN54. The reconstruction followed much the same process, with the same concerns, as NN54,
