Forensic team outlines lab processing steps in Tulsa Race Massacre investigation

Phoebe Stubblefield, lead forensic anthropologist for the CA Pound Human Identification Lab, gave commissioners a tour-style description of lab processing on March 30 as part of the ongoing Tulsa Race Massacre investigation.

Stubblefield explained staff use radiography to locate bullets, metal scatter and funerary hardware in recovered remains before moving each burial to a dedicated tray for inventory and analysis. "We inventory the skeletal elements that we can find...we look for parts of the skeleton that tell us what sex a person was, parts of the skeleton that tell us how old they were," she said.

The lab keeps one burial per processing table to avoid mingling remains from different burials, photographs specimens, records measurements and stores processed trays in a purpose-built rack while digital and paper records are reconciled. Stubblefield described collaborative workflows that include osteology analysts, artifacts specialists and graduate students, and she directed commission members to cityofTulsa.org/1921graves for reports, historical documents and photographs from the investigation.

She said the lab’s artifact and radiography work shortens time spent sorting soil and debris from burial remains and helps identify features relevant to cause-of-death or funerary context. "We use a CR scanner system...we look for features that might be associated with the cause of death like, bullets or metallic scatter from bullets," Stubblefield said.

Stubblefield closed by inviting the public to review the project’s web resources and by describing the lab’s storage and paperwork processes used to prepare remains for reinterment.