Identity Crisis by Jefferson Bass

Identity Crisis by Jefferson Bass

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.

Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass form the writing partnership Jefferson Bass. Dr. Bass, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist, founded the Anthropology Research Facility at the University of Tennessee, also known as the Body Farm. He is the author or coauthor of over 200 scientific publications, as well as Death's Acre, a critically praised memoir about his time at the Body Farm. Dr. Bass is also a passionate educator who has been recognized as a U.S. The Council for Promotion and Support of Education named him Professor of the Year.

Jon Jefferson is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and seasoned journalist. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science, as well as being broadcast on NPR. He is the coauthor of Death's Acre and the writer and producer of two National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm that have received great ratings.