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• Feb 15, 2007 7:45 pm US/Pacific
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  New Fingerprinting Techniques Identify The Dead

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New Fingerprinting Techniques Identify The Dead

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― No two people have the same ridges or patterns on their fingers. While some physical characteristics on a person may change, fingerprints never do.

Fingerprints offer an infallible means of personal identification for law enforcement. But when someone is burned in a fire or a body is so badly decomposed it's beyond recognition, how does the coroner's office make an identification?

According to Los Angeles County, between four and five hundred John and Jane Doe's come through their doors each year. Some bodies are so badly decomposed, charred, water logged or dehydrated that taking a fingerprint is a hopeless endeavor.

Enter fingerprint specialist Jose Hernandez. He's the Los Angeles Coroner's secret weapon in identifying the unidentifiable. In a tiny room tucked away near a refrigerated morgue, Hernandez works tirelessly to give unidentified victims a name.

"I try to put a name to unknown faces," Hernandez explains. "My priority is to help people."

One of the challenges that Hernandez faces is try to get a fingerprint off the severed hand of a John Doe. The body was discovered after it had lost all liquid and the fingertips had hardened into a leather-like substance making it impossible to take a legible print.

Using a blend of chemistry and ingenuity, the finger specialist soaks the hardened finger in a solution that breathes new life back into the finger.

Next, using his own finger as a guide, the fingerprint is pumped up by injecting some of the same solution directly into the second joint.

Now, with the ridges softened and raised, a perfect post mortem print can be made.

It's these prints created by this detective of death in the basement of the coroner's office that finally helps lost loved ones find the peace they've been searching for.

Police say these post mortem prints are imperative in solving missing persons and murder cases.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)