Anthropology in Our Backyards presents:   

Dr. Richard Lazenby, Professor, Department of Anthropology UNBC

Northern BC comprises over half a million KM2 with a population of less than a quarter million. It is both wild and at the same time accessible, with over 50,000 km of forest service roads, to say nothing of rivers and lakes. Illustrated from his forensic casework experience, this talk discusses the challenges and rewards of ‘doing forensic anthropology’ in (mostly) rural and remote environments. Some of the cases discussed include: ‘Before DNA We Had Toenails’; ‘The Amputation That Wasn’t’; ‘Heads Will Roll’; ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Where’s Vernon?‘’, and ‘The Jigsaw Puzzle’.

Dr Lazenby has been the consulting forensic anthropologist in Northern BC for over two decades. He has worked closely with the BC Coroner’s Service and the RCMP in the investigation of found human remains, from cremations to single isolated bones to the Pickton Farm, and has been an expert witness in seven homicide trials.

Anthropology in our Backyards is a speaker series brought to you by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia: unbc.ca/anthropology. The watering can artwork appears under Creative Commons license. It was created by Claire Skelly at Noun Project. Photograph: 2017 (c) Richard Lazenby.