LACOMBE, LA — The Saint Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office is hoping a model can help solve a murder mystery.
The case involves a dismembered body that was found on July 29, 2016, along a remote area of Highway 90 east of Slidell. The coroner says the body was badly decomposed and fingerprints could not be collected.
The Saint Tammany Parish Coroner is enlisting the help of the Forensic Anthropology Computer Enhancement Services, or FACES, Lab at LSU for help to identify the body. The coroner says that the man was between 60 and 80 years old. He had also had open-heart surgery. Forensic investigators even know what heart medications the man was taking.
FACES uses the skull of a body to painstaking recreate the facial features. The skull from the body was provided to the lab in December 2016. The rendering were recently returned to the coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office is asking anyone who has a missing family member who may have resembled the model to call 985-781-1150.
The coroner also says that, while molds have been taken, there are no dental records for comparison because there isn’t even a list of missing persons in the case.
The lab has been used many times by coroners and law enforcement agencies around the state and country.
Below is a photo gallery of other cases in the New Orleans area.