Contact: Vickie S. Kirby, (903) 813-2414
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
World-Renowned Forensic Anthropologist to Speak at Austin College
SHERMAN -- World-renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow will make major international announcements when he presents two lectures at Austin College October 1 and 2. Presenting with Snow will be Fredy Peccerelli, director of the Guatemala Forensic Anthropology Foundation, in his first international speech about controversial exhumations at the Police Military Academy in Guatemala City. The exhumations are anticipated to be the largest mass grave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly including 3,000 to 5,000 of Guatemala's "disappeared," according to the Guatemala Human Rights
Commission/USA. The public is invited at no charge.
Friday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. in Hoxie Thompson Auditorium of Sherman Hall, Dr. Snow will speak on "Witnesses from the Grave: Forensic Anthropology, Law, Medicine, and Human Rights." He will announce innovations in forensic science and how they are affecting national and international legal cases.
Snow and Peccerelli will make a second presentation, "Unveiling the Past, Digging up the Future: War Crimes and Social Reconciliation: the Case of Guatemala," at 11 a.m. on Saturday, again in Hoxie Thompson Auditorium. Major announcements will be made about unprecedented Guatemala exhumations which will begin one day later in Guatemala City.
Dr. Snow has been a pioneer in forensic law, biological anthropology, and human rights, and is the only full-time consultant in forensic anthropology in this country. During his career he has served as a consultant in over 2,000 cases involving the identification and determination of cause of death of skeletonized remains. His cases include the American Airlines DC-10 crash in 1979 which claimed 273 victims, the John Wayne Gacy murder
case, and the Seattle Green River murders.
In 1985, as a consultant to the Simon Weisenthal Institute, he was part of the international team of forensic scientists formed to aid in the identification of the skeletal remains of the notorious Nazi war criminal, Dr. Josef Mengele.
Under the sponsorship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Snow served as a consultant to the Argentine government's National Commission on Disappeared Persons in its efforts to determine the fate of thousands of Argentineans who were abducted and murdered by military "Death Squads" between 1976 and 1983 when the country was under military dictatorship. As a result of his investigations he was asked to testify as an expert witness in the trial of the nine Junta members who ruled Argentina during the period of military repression. He is currently a consultant in the investigation of the 1921 Tulsa race riots, which is being covered by Sixty Minutes this fall.
Dr. Snow is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. He earned his BS from Eastern New Mexico University, the MS from Texas Tech University, and the Ph.D. from University of Arizona. He has held many teaching positions throughout his career, including continuing positions at University of Oklahoma, Central State University, and University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He retired from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1979 where he worked for many years with the Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City and served as chief of the Physical
Anthropology Laboratory.
Dr. Snow serves as a forensic anthropology consultant with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation; Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office; Cook County Medical Examiners Office of Chicago, Illinois; Illinois State Coroner's Association; Rhode Island State Medical Examiner's Office; Nassau County, New York, Medical Examiner's Office; New York State Police Forensic Pathology Unit; Ministry of the Interior, Republic of Argentina; and Simon Weisenthal Center. He has also served as independent consultant to law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and private law firms in several
hundred skeletal identification cases from over thirty states and foreign countries.
Austin College is a 150-year-old private liberal arts college celebrating 150 years of learning, leadership, and lasting values in its history. The campus is located 60 miles north of Dallas. For information about the Dr. Snow's presentations contact Dr. Terry Hoops, assistant professor of anthropology, at (903) 813-2219.
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9-23-99
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