Identity Crisis

The Murder, the Mystery, and the Missing DNA

De: Jefferson Bass

Narrado por: Charles Constant

Renowned forensic anthropologist Bill Bass - founder of the Body Farm - tackles one of his most baffling cases ever in this real-life spellbinder.

In 1978, 56-year-old Leoma Patterson left a bar in Clinton, Tennessee, and was never seen again. Six months later, a female skeleton was found on a wooded lakeshore in a neighboring county. The bones were consistent with those of the missing woman, and one of Patterson's daughters recognized a ring found at the death scene as her mother's. The bones were buried, and six years later, a relative of Patterson's - one of the men she was last seen alive with - confessed to killing her. Case closed.

But the tentative identification - made years before DNA testing was available to confirm it - failed to convince some of Patterson's relatives. And so it was that in 2005 Dr. Bass found himself winding around hairpin curves to the mountainside grave, where he would unearth the disputed remains and collect DNA samples. The forensic twists and turns that followed would test the limits of DNA technology...and of Dr. Bass's half-century of forensic knowledge.

©2015 Jefferson Bass LLC (P)2020 Tantor

Preface to the Jefferson Bass Books

I have totally enjoyed his books and wish I had read this book before I read the series on the Bone Farm. So much background information.

A really good series that is fascinating.

This serious is so informative and scientific that I can’t put it down. This book is a little slow but all the others I’ve read are fantastic. This one is good and belongs in the series but I read it out of order and left me with questions. The plot is so crazy and interesting and the man character is real and all you read/hear is really real. Wow!

Tedious little informative book

Enjoyed the subject of the book, just had a little too much unimportant information, e.g. the rooms of the office. That has no relevance to the topic.

Great true story.

Loved Bass' writing as always. Such authentic description and a kind view of humanity shining through.

Notes from A Interesting DNA Case

If you are a fan of CSI, you will have heard of the legendary Body Farm and how led to forensic techniques that have helped solve many cases and advanced science in several fields. I have been interested in reading the Body Farm books and thought I would start with a real life interesting case. The book covers what would have made a great episode of CSI, a question of the identity of a murder victim by the family and the complicated process of discovering the truth. There are no photos in the Kindle version unfortunately and the links no longer work. The audio book narration was excellent and this was an enjoyable listen. I will be reading about their fictional works as well.