on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C. In 1980, Owsley joined the faculty at
Louisiana State University on a full-time basis. Initially, he began working with North American collections. While other anthropologists were traveling to exotic locales, he considered his work with Plains Indians a practical choice, due to his lack of financial resources. While working at Louisiana State, he was the only forensic anthropologist on staff.
Mary Manhein, who later established the FACES laboratory at LSU, worked with Owsley as a volunteer. The focus of Owsley's career involved directly working with law enforcement to identify skeletal and human remains that were discovered primarily at crime scenes and local construction sites. It was during his time at LSU that the focus of his career in forensic anthropology became firmly established. One summer day, during a visit to see Owsley in the lab, it became evident to Bass that his colleague was ill. Visibly fatigued and experiencing shortness of breath, rather than go to the doctor, he went home to his wife and family. Later that night, when Owsley started coughing up blood, Susie immediately assessed his condition and took him to one of her former colleagues, who diagnosed a lung infection from an unknown source. Just 30 years old, Owsley received a medical diagnosis that essentially served as a death sentence. Fully understanding the ramifications of the situation, Owsley and his wife chose to face the problem, while refusing to accept defeat. Susie's own professional background and medical knowledge kicked in and she began to determine the best course of action. That evening, she contacted the physician and challenged the diagnosis. She provided a profile of her husband that directly ruled out commonalities found in lung cancer patients. The source of the lung infection was traced to unhealthy conditions in the bone lab, which was located directly beneath
Neyland Stadium's football field. Owsley often worked up to 16 hours a day in damp surroundings that cultivated toxic organic mold. Daily exposure to the mildew conditioned Owsley's lungs, making them into a virtual
petri dish of infection. Once Owsley's health recovered, Bass, along with the school administration addressed the unhealthy conditions of the lab and work went back to normal at the University of Tennessee, while Owsley returned to Louisiana. Owsley brought on
Karin "Kari" (née Sandness) Bruwelheide, who he had met during an earlier visit to the
University of Nebraska–Lincoln's
College of Arts and Sciences, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in Physical Anthropology. Three years later, he was promoted and became the Division Head of Physical Anthropology. Much of his work is done in collaboration with Dr.
Dennis Stanford, director of the Department of Archaeology, In defining his work, Owsley states, "You can learn more about a person from their bones than from anything else." While he was raised in the local St. George's Episcopal Church of Lusk, where he attended services on Sundays and served as an altar boy, Owsley eventually stopped believing in God and life after death. In his professional role, he never mentions his lack of faith, understanding that his position often brings him into contact with individuals who are grieving the death of their loved ones. Holding on to religion and deeply held spiritual convictions about death and dying seemed to help the families of the victims he was working with cope better with the sense of pain and loss.
Prominent excavations and investigations Owsley's primary research is focused on human skeletal remains from the 17th-century Chesapeake region of Virginia and Maryland. The results of this research have been presented to the public in an exhibition at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History entitled "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake". Dr. Owsley is the co-curator of the exhibition, along with Kari Bruwelheide. The exhibition has been held since February 7, 2009, and is scheduled to end on January 6, 2014.
Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim On July 22, 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for the abduction and assault of a man in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The subsequent investigation revealed that Dahmer had been murdering young men going back to 1978. A search of his home revealed human remains stored in acid-filled vats, a human heart in the freezer, and seven skulls scattered throughout the apartment. Prior to Dahmer's arrest in Milwaukee, a murder had been discovered in
Bath, Ohio, on land belonging to
Lionel Dahmer, an
analytical chemist. Law enforcement officials in Ohio were unable to identify the victim and requested assistance from the
FBI to solve the murder. The FBI sent the skeletal remains to Owsley at the Smithsonian. The remains equated to a collection of teeth and bone fragments that were twisted, splintered, and shattered into 286 pieces. Thorough study of the skeletal remains lasted for over three months. Owsley was eventually able to identify the victim as 18-year-old Steven Hicks, who had disappeared in 1978. The case was particularly difficult, because the victim's body had been cut, broken, and literally chopped into several pieces. The document on his presented a summation of the disappearance of the two American journalists while traveling in the
Guatemalan Highlands, stating that the US Embassy at Guatemala had declared the rescue and recovery operations a failure. After the seven-year FBI investigation ended in a failure, the family of Blake and Davis continued searching for leads on the whereabouts of their family members. When information about the murder of the two journalists was eventually uncovered, Randy and Sam Blake, brothers of Nicholas, along with the US Embassy, asked for Owsley's help to recover and identify the remains from the Guatemalan jungle. The following morning, five or six members of a paramilitary patrol hauled the journalists from their sleep and shot them just outside the village. While clear motive was unknown, Nicholas Blake had previously traveled to the highlands and reported on human rights violations committed by the corrupt military forces in the area. The Guatemalan army had
intel that Blake had returned to the jungle with a photographer, so it was surmised that the motive was related to his previous work. On June 11, 1992, the Blake brothers chartered a jet to
Nebaj,
Guatemala, along with Owsley; colleague
John Verano, professor of anthropology with
Tulane University; and Colonel Otto Noack-Sierra of the Guatemalan Army. Once the deception of Alva was uncovered, Noack directly confronted Alva, demanding under threat of death to direct the party to the accurate site. Surrounded by Noack and a group of Guatemalan Army Rangers in military fatigues, the team returned to El Llano, fully protected. They entered the schoolhouse where the journalists spent the night and began learning more about the truth about what happened in 1985. The bodies were believed to belong to
Phillip Calvert, fifth Governor of Maryland, his wife, and his infant daughter by his second wife, Jane Sewell. Following forensic examination, Owsley confirmed the identification of Anne Wolsely Calvert. As the wife of the governor, she was a woman of high social standing in historic St. Mary's City, making her home in a large, red brick mansion known as "St. Peters". In 1678, her home was the largest colonial mansion in English America. She would have owned the highest quality and most desired material possessions available in the colony. Her teeth were in very poor shape, indicating that she had access to sugar, which was only available in low quantities and highly prohibitive to others due to the financial cost. Her consumption of sweeteners had a destructive effect on her teeth. Historical data indicated that the death occurred after 1667, when the Brick Chapel was built, and prior to 1705, when the doors of the church were locked by legal decree of the Royal Governor. For practical reasons, the individual also had to live close enough to the church to have been buried there. Through a process of elimination, Owsley, along with professional historians determined that the coffin held the remains of Philip Calvert, youngest son of
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore.
Waco Branch Davidian compound victims On February 28, 1993, outside of
Waco, Texas, violence erupted during an attempt by the United States
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to execute a search warrant on a Protestant group of religious adherents disfellowshipped from the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. Allegations were made against the
Branch Davidians that they were stockpiling illegal weapons at their headquarters at
Mount Carmel. Shortly after officials approached the compound, gunfire erupted, which lasted nearly two hours. After the initial exchange of gunfire was over, four agents and six Branch Davidians were dead. in flames during the Waco assault on April 19, 1993 After regrouping, a
siege was initiated by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, resulting in a virtual 50-day standoff. A second assault on the compound was made by the US government on April 19, 1993, during which there were numerous explosions throughout the compound. As the fire spread, some Davidians were prevented from escaping, with others refusing to leave, becoming trapped. Only nine people were able to safely leave the building during the fire. A week after the end of the siege, Owsley was contacted by special agent Joseph DiZinno from the
Forensic Science Research and Training Center at the
FBI Academy in
Quantico. On behalf of Danny Greathouse, chief of the FBI's Disaster Unit, who was overseeing the situation at Waco, DiZinno requested Owsley's and
Douglas H. Ubelaker's assistance in identifying the victims from inside the Branch Davidian compound. Overall, the remains of the victims in the compound were badly burned beyond recognition. In addition to being burned, many bodies were blown apart, leaving charred flesh and bone fragments scattered throughout the remnants of the property. The forensic team found it difficult to assess the full impact of the tragedy due to continuing intense heat and the collapse of the building. They lacked information on the number of bodies previously buried in and around the compound, prior to the siege. They were also unaware that there were individuals being held in the underground bunker, which had been used to store compound supplies, including food, weapons, and ammunition.
Texas Rangers and FBI field agents began gathering remains in body bags and shipping them to the medical examiner's office over a hundred miles away in
Fort Worth. The medical examiner quickly determined that the remains were so intermingled that before the victims could be identified or be prepared for autopsies, the remains would need to be pieced back together. On April 27, Owsley arrived at the
Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office to lend his support.
17th-century Jamestown Colony excavations In 1994,
Preservation Virginia, a historical conservation organization that owns over 22 acres alongside the edge of
Jamestown, Virginia, hired
William Kelso to conduct archaeological digs on the site of
Historic Jamestowne. The primary goal of the project was to locate remains of "the first years of settlement at Jamestown, especially of the earliest fortified town; [and the] subsequent growth and development of the town". In 1996, the team discovered the remains and early colonial artifacts of the original 1607 settlement. While the archaeological project was successful, the results came as a surprise to historians, since it had long been thought that the original site had disappeared due to erosion along the island's western shore of the James River. While most professional historians and archaeologists believed that James Fort was lost below the water's surface, others thought that at least portions of the fort site remained. The excavations performed during the project revealed that only one corner of the fort had been destroyed. In 1900, a
sea wall that was built to hinder erosion on the banks of the river served to preserve a tangible piece of history for future generations. When the original fort was discovered, Kelso invited Owsley to assist in the excavation and identification of skeletal remains recovered from the burial site, constructed after London's Virginia Company settled in Jamestown in 1607. During scientific analysis, Owsley studied skeletons excavated from graveyards in the 1940s and 1955, as well as individual remains unearthed in locations other than the known cemeteries. All of the remains had remained curated in the museum for several decades. In the 1950s, five skeletons were discovered at Jamestown Colony and identified as Native American. Advanced forensic analysis performed following the discovery of the original fort reclassified the remains as
African. Supporting the results of the scientific study, a comparative analysis of historical documents, including ship logs and correspondence between the early colonists confirmed that the first Africans arrived in 1619, aboard a ship that arrived from Holland. The research completed by Owsley documented the earliest known Africans in the British North American colonies to date. In 2013, Owsley participated in the introduction of "Jane", the reconstructed remains of a 14-year-old resident of the colony whose skeleton bore signs of her having been eaten by other humans. The search for archaeological evidence had been prompted by surviving contemporary documentary accounts of cannibalism during the colony's "starving time" winter of 1609–1610. In July 2015, the remains of four principals of the colony were
excavated and identified by the Rediscovery/Smithsonian team, including Owsley. The four colonists were identified as Rev. Robert Hunt, Capt.
Gabriel Archer, Sir
Ferdinando Wainman and Capt. William West.
Kennewick Man Owsley's forensic work and scientific studies have included the research and analysis of ancient skeletal remains throughout North America. His most prominent and
controversial case has been the study of a prehistoric Paleo-Indian man, known as "
Kennewick Man" or the "Ancient One." The discovery of the skeleton itself was notable for being in good condition while dating back to a
calibrated age of 9,800 years. On July 28, 1996, two men found the skeletal remains while walking alongside the
bank of the
Columbia River during the annual
Tri-City Water Follies. The popular sporting event is attended by several thousand
hydroplane boat race fans every July. Upon the initial discovery of the remains, the
Benton County Coroner, Floyd Johnson, contacted local forensic anthropologist,
James Chatters, who had owned and operated a small consulting business, Applied Paleoscience, out of a laboratory established in the basement of his home. With over 40 years' professional background in forensics and anthropology, he had worked with local law enforcement officials with assessing crime scenes and determining whether any discovered human remains were forensic or archaeological. Chatters' assessment concluded that the remains displayed "Caucasoid features," which describes a long, narrow skull. This was later misreported to the media as the skeletal remains having "
Caucasian" or European ancestry. It was during the analysis performed by Chatters, that his wife, Jenny Chatters, visited the lab and asked her husband, "So, how's 'Kennewick Man?'" using the common
moniker for the first time. Soon after the discovery, several Northwest tribes, including the
Umatilla,
Colville,
Yakama, and
Nez Perce claimed him as an ancestor, requesting the return of the remains for reburial based on the rights afforded to them under NAGPRA. Chatters said that he had approximately two weeks at the most to conclude his study of Kennewick Man, and that much more time would be needed to make a full and accurate assessment of the remains, before they could be handed over to the Native American tribes for burial. Seeking advice from his colleagues due to his belief that the remains were caucasian, Chatters was counseled to contact Owsley at the Smithsonian. During their initial conversation, Owsley agreed to assist Chatters and encouraged him to contact attorney,
Robson Bonnichsen, who was a legal expert on NAGPRA law and related issues. Following the archaeological discovery, the forensic study of Kennewick Man became the focus of a controversial nine-year court case between the
US Army Corps of Engineers, a group of scientists including Owsley, and Native American tribes who all claimed ownership of the remains. These scientists had initially determined that the skeletal features had little in common with those of modern Native American populations. Under NAGPRA, the tribes maintained the right to rebury the remains of Kennewick Man and to refuse further scientific study of the man they refer to as "the Ancient One". The US Army Corps of Engineers, who owned the land where the remains were found, agreed to comply with the requests of the tribes. Before the transfer could be made, Owsley, along with seven other anthropologists, including Smithsonian colleague
Dennis Stanford, filed a lawsuit claiming the right to study the skeleton. They argued that the reburial of Kennewick Man before they could study him unjustly imposed the beliefs of the Native Americans upon them. In Fall of 1996, the US government and the Native American tribes argued that it was illegal for Owsley as an employee of one branch of government to sue another branch of government. Owsley's participation in the lawsuit, and pursuit of remedy against the federal government, placed him in direct opposition to his employer. In 2002, a federal court in the state of
Oregon ruled that the tribes failed to establish continuous and definitive cultural links between themselves and the remains. This ruling opened up the way for Owsley and his team of scientists to study the skeleton. Following an appeal in February 2004, a panel of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the decision. The ruling additionally set a precedent, ensuring that any future discovery of ancient remains could also be made available for scientific studies. In July 2005, Owsley, along with a team of scientists from around the United States gathered in
Seattle for ten days to study the remains, making detailed measurements and determining the cause of death. Much in the same way that
Ötzi the Iceman of
South Tyrol, Italy, the analytical study of Kennewick Man yielded valuable scientific data. The scientific study and analytical data appeared to contradict the notion that
Indigenous peoples were the
first peoples of the Americas, suggesting that a man with Caucasoid features lived in the
New World nearly 10,000 years ago. These results, which were later disproved, were widely reported by the press on a global scale. , Kennewick Man was housed at the
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the
University of Washington. In June 2015, scientists at the
University of Copenhagen in Denmark determined through DNA from 9,500-year-old bones that Kennewick Man is in fact more closely related to contemporary
Native Americans, including those near where he was found, than any other human population. The international team of scientists had confirmed this finding to the Army Corps of Engineers as far back as 2013. The results were published in
Nature magazine. The same year, two bills were introduced, both titled
Bring the Ancient One Home Act, to repatriate Kennewick Man's remains to the tribes who claimed him in spite of the court's 2004 ruling. This led to the passing of a bill on on 16 December 2016 as Section 1152 of the
Water Infrastructure Improvement for the Nation Act. On 28 February 2017, only 63 days after the bill was passed, the tribes reburied Kennewick Man in an undisclosed burial in Washington. In April 1995, the wreck of the
H. L. Hunley, along with the skeletal remains of eight crew members was discovered by diver Ralph Wilbanks, while overseeing a
NUMA dive team led by
marine archaeologist Clive Cussler. Five years later, the submarine was recovered from the Charleston Harbor and transferred to the
Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former
Charleston Navy Yard. The wreck was placed in a 55,000-gallon tank filled with fresh water and treated with an
electric current to minimize corrosion, beginning the process of
desalination. Owsley and
Richard Jantz of the University of Tennessee were called to lead the forensic investigation. At this time, the tank and submarine were raised to
drydock and periodically drained in preparation for research and analysis. The anthropology team established an excavation plan that would take place in four stages. The first phase involved laser scanning technology, which would determine the safest manner of access, making sure that the wreck would be protected from damage, along with any artifacts she may have held. The second phase included an examination of a hole in the
starboard side of the tank, which provided access for preliminary excavation of the stern. The third phase involved removing a series of iron plates from over the vessel's hull. This process would allow access to begin phase four, which consisted of using hand tools and sifters to screen sediment and identify any possible artifacts. On March 20, 2001, the first human remains were discovered in the sediment. Owsley confirmed the identification of three ribs from the right side of a man's body. When he viewed the submarine tomb of the Confederate soldiers, instead of merely seeing scattered skeletal remains and sediment, he solemnly visualized the men at their stations as the vessel began to slowly fill with water. He imagined their lives turn to panic as the water crept in, quickly resulting in death. In the final stage of advanced decomposition, bones crumbled to the metal iron floor of submarine to rest in the blue-gray clay-like sediment, which served to preserve the remains for over 137 years. With the ethical and humanitarian respect that had long guided his career, Owsley began assessing and excavating the interior and skeletal remains of the soldiers who served on the
Hunley. On January 25, 2002, the focus of the work shifted from recovery and excavation to the study and identification of the human remains. Through careful examination of American Civil War records in comparison with DNA studies performed with the cooperation of possible relatives, forensic
genealogist Linda Abrams was able to identify the remains of Lt. Dixon and three other Americans, including Frank G. Collins of
Fredericksburg, Virginia; Joseph Ridgaway; and James A. Wicks. Several thousand people participated in a funeral procession, including approximately 6,000
American Civil War reenactors, 4,000 civilians wearing period clothing, and
color guards from all five branches of the U.S. armed forces. Even though only two of the crew were from the
Confederate States, all were buried with full Confederate honors, including burial with the Confederate national flag.
9/11 Pentagon victims On September 11, 2001, Owsley was sitting at his desk in his rural Jeffersonton, Virginia farmhouse, when he received a call from colleagues at the Smithsonian, telling him to turn on his television. The news report revealed that the
Pentagon in
Arlington, Virginia, was engulfed in flames, explaining that terrorists had flown a jetliner into the building, killing untold numbers of government workers and military officials. Owsley's initial concerns following the attack were for his daughter, Hilary, who had recently started working as a budget analyst with the
US Navy. Her office was located in the C Ring at the Pentagon, at the site of the impact. While her office was destroyed in the fire, Hilary and her colleagues had fortunately escaped serious harm, exiting the building just prior to the collapse of the ceiling. On September 14, 2001, Owsley and Ubelaker were called in by DiZinno to assist in the identification and analysis of the bodies that were recovered from the Pentagon. The human remains were transferred to the oversight of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office, who established a mortuary at
Dover Air Force Base. Owsley arrived at the base on the following day to join a team of radiologists, dentists, and medical examiners gathered to identify victims, primarily through the use of DNA typing. After arriving onsite, he was held to a confidentiality agreement, known as the "Dover Code", which essentially translated to "What you see here stays here." When he was finished, he wrote down his thoughts about the experience, sharing his emotion and heartache, along with an overwhelming sense of gratitude that his daughter was not among the victims of the attack on the Pentagon. He then gave the document to his daughter, Hilary. On May 30, 2002, the
US Department of Defense and
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology honored both Owsley and Ubelaker with the
Commander's Award for Civilian Service in recognition of his work identifying 60 victims of the attack on the Pentagon.
19th-century Washington D.C. iron coffin excavations In April 2005, public utility workers working on a construction project discovered a buried
Fisk metallic burial case, or coffin, at an apartment complex in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The coffin was shaped a bit like an
Egyptian mummy case, with a glass plate on the front above the face, which was designed to allow viewing of the body without the risk of exposure to odor or possible disease. After the discovery of the coffins, Owsley was asked to provide analysis and eventual identification of the remains, so that proper burial could take place. He gathered a team of physical anthropologists, clothing specialists, pathologists, DNA scientists, and historical archaeologists. Through forensic and genealogical analysis, it was determined that one of the remains was that of 15-year-old William Taylor White, who died in 1852 and was buried in the
Columbia College cemetery. The researchers believe that his coffin was overlooked when the cemetery was relocated in April 1866. White was a descendant of Anthony West, one of the Jamestown settlers. He was a student in the college's preparatory school, which was the predecessor of
George Washington University. White was one of several potential candidates the team focused on after studying census records, obituaries, and other public documents. After several false leads, Owsley's team contacted some of White's living relatives through historical records. They then used DNA testing to make the positive identification. The pathologists and forensic anthropologists reported that White had
congenital heart disease, a
ventricular septum defect that contributed to his death. ==Honors and awards==