History
Solving crimes with forensic clay facial reconstructions
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A selection of cases in which clay facial reconstructions have been utilized to aid in identifying unidentified persons.
Betty Pat Gatliff and the Gacy Victims
Betty Pat Gatliff and the Gacy Victims
"I think everybody deserves to be identified."
Betty Pat Gatliff, working on her clay facial reconstructions of nine unidentified victims of serial killer of John Wayne Gacy, 1979. The young man whose facial reconstruction is pictured, wearing a collared shirt, is known as "Body 28." He has still not been identified.
Photograph by Kevin Horan via the Chicago Sun-Times
Betty Pat Gatliff (1930-2020), of SKULLpture Lab, was a pioneer in the field 3D clay facial reconstruction, developing the Gatliff/Snow Method with forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow (1928-2014), which according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "combined science, intuition and art.”
Throughout her career Gatliff consulted on multiple serial killer cases. She is perhaps best known in the world of forensic facial reconstructions for her 1979 clay facial reconstructions of the nine remaining then-unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The nine reconstructions made up the most extensive forensic facial reconstruction project of its time but, sadly, did not result in any breakthroughs.
Years later 1990, Gatliff helped to save the life of a living young man, after he was in a car crash and nearly died. Gatliff assisted his surgeons in rebuilding his skull, by creating a model of what it looked like before the crash.
Read more about Betty Pat Gatliff's life and legacy here
Digital, 2D reconstructions of two of the remaining five unidentified victims, known as Bodies 10 and 13, were released in 2018.
For information on donating a DNA sample to directly compare against the remaining five unidentified victims, or on how to submit a tip, visit the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, here
First image: Cook County, Illinois, medical examiner Robert J. Stein shows a composite photo of Betty Pat Gatliff’s clay facial reconstructions of the nine then-unidentified victims of John Wayne Gacy, 1980.
The first four men, from left to right, have since been identified. They are Francis Wayne Alexander (identified through DNA in 2021), Timothy McCoy (identified through dental records in 1986), James “Jimmie” Haakenson (identified through DNA in 2017), and William “Bill” George Bundy (identified through DNA in 2011). The remaining five young men, known as Bodies 21, 28, 13, 26, and 10, remain unidentified.
Photo from the Associated Press
Second image: Composite photo, uploaded by Reddit user VickzDaBest in 2024, showing all thirty-three known Gacy victims. Enhanced images of three of Gatliff''s facial reconstructions still represent the young men known as Bodies 28, 26, and 21.
From left to right, top to bottom: Timothy McCoy, Body 28, John Butkovich, Darrell Sampson, Randall Reffett, Sam Stapleton, Michael Bonnin, William Carroll, Body 26, James Haakenson, Rick Johnston, Body 21, Body 13, Michael Marino (this identification is contested by Michael's mother), Kenneth Parker, William Bundy, Francis Wayne Alexander, Gregory Godzik, John Szyc, Jon Prestidge, Body 10, Matthew Bowman, Robert Gilroy, John Mowery, Russell Nelson, Robert Winch, Tommy Boling, David Talsma, William Kindred, Timothy O'Rourke, Frank Landingin, James Mazzara, and Robert Piest
Karen T. Taylor and Nikki Reed (1990-2006)
Karen T. Taylor and Nikki Reed (1990-2006)
Karen T. Taylor, a protégé of Betty Pat Gatliff, was a pioneer as well, but in the field of 2D facial reconstructions, in the 1980s. She branched out, however, following the footsteps of her mentor, Gatliff.
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In December of 2006, a Chicago teen named Marlaina Nicole Reed, known as “Nikki,” went missing. The next month, her body was found, stuffed in a keyboard box and abandoned in an alley.
She remained unidentified for over a year.
Then authorities reached out to Karen T. Taylor for assistance.
Taylor created 2D and 3D reconstructions of Nikki, including identifiable features like the colorful hair band found on Nikki’s then-unidentified remains. Noticing her skull had a chipped tooth, Taylor left the lips slightly parted, hoping her unique teeth might help identify her. The reconstructions began circulating, and were featured on America’s Most Wanted. One of Taylor’s reconstructions was seen by Nikki’s dentist, who recognized her and identified her to authorities as Nikki Reed.
Nikki Reed had been a ward of the state, she had run away from her group home. She was vulnerable, and she was alone. "She really didn't have anyone looking out for her. Her life was tragic, and she died tragically." said Detective Michael Landando, who added that, though he considered himself jaded, Nikki’s case really bothered him.
William McIntosh, the man who took Nikki Reed’s life, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2015, for her murder.
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Taylor taught for twenty years at the FBI academy, and now teaches workshops at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University (FACTS). Learn more here
First image: Forensic and portrait artist Karen T. Taylor
Second image: Taylor's 2D facial reconstruction of April Dawn Lacy (1982-1996), which helped aid in her identification
Images from Karen T. Taylor
Images 1-5: Taylor's 2D and 3D facial reconstructions of Nikki Reed, then known as "Chicago Jane Doe"
Image 6: Taylor's full figure drawing of Reed
Image 7: Taylor's 3D facial reconstruction of Reed featured on America's Most Wanted
Images from Karen T. Taylor; see more from Taylor's reconstruction, as well as Taylor's original captions, here
Marlaina Nicole "Nikki" Reed (1990-2006) in an enhanced, uncredited photograph uploaded to Unidentified Wiki by the site's founder "Gourami Watcher"
Samantha Molnar and Tiffany Dawn Chambers
Samantha Molnar and Tiffany Dawn Chambers
Forensic artist Samantha Molnar, working on a "Jane Doe."
Images from the Akron Beacon Journal. See and read more, here
The most notable case forensic artist Samantha Molnar has worked on is probably the "Belle in the Well” case. At the time, the case was 38 years cold. The unidentified woman, known as the “Belle in the Well” would later be identified, through Genealogy DNA by DNA Doe Project (DDP) volunteers, as Louise Virginia Peterson Flesher.
Her murder is still being investigated.
Molnar has successfully aided in the identification of less notable, though no less important, formerly unidentified people. In 2016, her clay facial reconstruction of an unidentified woman’s skull resulted in the identification of Tiffany Dawn Chambers, who had gone missing in 2015.
Prentiss Rashan Hare pled guilty to her murder in 2018.
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Molnar believes hope is important in her line of work. “Some of these people are homeless or they live very high-risk lifestyles or they don’t have contact with their families for extended periods of time. They may not even be reported missing... You’re always hopeful.”
Read more about Samantha Molnar and her work with forensic clay facial reconstructions here
Time lapse video of Samantha Molnar working on the then-unidentified Tiffany Dawn Chambers' facial reconstruction
First image: Tiffany Dawn Chambers, from an Ohio Attorney General news release
Second image: Molnar's clay facial reconstruction of the then-unidentified Chambers, from an Ohio Attorney General news release
Forensic artist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Kelly Lawson, photographed by Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kelly Lawson and Shada Esther (1987-2016)
Kelly Lawson and Shada Esther (1987-2016)
In 2017, the remains of a woman were found in the woods next to a church in Banks County, Georgia. In an attempt to help aid in the identification of the woman, authorities turned to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's forensic artist, Kelly Lawson, who used DNA analysis from the woman’s skeleton to create a 2D drawing and a 3D clay facial reconstruction of what the then-unidentified woman may have looked like.
In 2019, DNA confirmed the woman was Shada Esther, who had been reported missing in August of 2016, after she missed picking up her three children from their bus stop.
On April 23, 2019. Michael Head, Shada Esther’s live-in boyfriend, and the last person to see her alive, was arrested for her murder.
Read more about the investigation here
Image 1: Shada Tameka Esther (1987-2016), as seen on her missing person poster from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Image 2: Shada Esther's missing person poster from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations
Image 3: Kelly Lawson's sketch, based off the then-unidentified Shada Esther's remains, from 11Alive
Image 4: Lawson's 3D facial reconstructions of Esther, from 11Alive
Learn more about Kelly Lawson and her clay forensic facial reconstructions in this WRDW-TV segment ^
Lisa Bailey, FBI Forensic Artist
Lisa Bailey, FBI Forensic Artist
"All we need is that one person to see it."
Identified After 39 Years: Donna Brazzell
Identified After 39 Years: Donna Brazzell
3D reconstruction of Donna Brazzell's face by an artist/artists at the LSU FACES Laboratory, from the Help ID Me Facebook page
Teenager Donna Brazzell’s remains were found near a highway in Louisiana in 1980, but nobody knew it was her.
Eventually the Louisiana State University's Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons, known as the FACES Lab, would create a reconstruction of the then-unidentified Donna’s face. They also obtained and stored a sample of Donna’s DNA. The reconstruction was circulated, online and on social media, as the years went by.
Then, in 2014, Donna Brazell’s grandmother was scrolling on Facebook, and happened to scroll by a post from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Help ID Me Facebook page. It was Donna’s facial reconstruction, and her grandmother alerted authorities that the reconstruction looked similar to her missing granddaughter. They then compared Donna’s DNA sample to the sample her grandmother provided.
And after 39 years, Donna Brazzell was identified.
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In 2019, Leo Laird and Gary Joseph Haymon were charged with her kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder.
Donna Gayle Brazzell, in an enhanced, uncredited photo uploaded to Unidentified Wiki by the site's founder "Gourami Watcher"
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