Phillips, Dave. “Forensic Artist Helping to Name the Nameless.” TheOaklandPress.com. The
Oakland Press, 7 Aug. 2010. Web. 2 Feb. 2011 <http://www.theoaklandpress.com/
articles/2010/08/07/news/doc4c5e0d6a4f212035460164.txt?viewmode=default>.
Naming the nameless is a difficult endeavor, but it’s one that Barbara Martin Bailey accepts with
open arms.
It took decades for Martin Bailey to achieve her goal of becoming a forensic scientist with the
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, but her persistence paid off in the end. After 23 years of
working at the Sheriff’s Office as “a clerk who drew well,” Martin Bailey was offered the
opportunity to sell the position to Sheriff Mike Bouchard in 2004.
“I had put through a slew of memos every year for why we needed a forensic art position,”
Martin Bailey said. “Everyone looked at it as a luxury position. In 2004, I was given the
opportunity to go across the street to sell the position, and I did.”
It’s a role she had prepared for all her life. Martin Bailey got her start in police work in 1968.
She was an art major in college, but a serial killer was on the loose, and she wanted to help.
After being rebuffed multiple times by police, Martin Bailey was finally allowed to make a
sketch of the suspect. Soon after the sketch was released, the suspect was arrested.
Later, Martin Bailey created a sketch of a suspect who had killed 13 girls.
“I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if I could do this for a job?’ I did a lot of what-ifs. During
those what-ifs, I realized there really was something to this. I kinda got hooked on it and didn’t
want to let it go.”
The job consists of much more than sketches of nameless victims. Martin Bailey makes threedimensional facial reconstructions in clay, creates video enhancements and age progression
pieces and does photo comparison analysis. She also provides testimony in court.
Working in the field, Martin Bailey has helped identify countless people, including victims and
suspects. She’s also volunteered for many groups, working with NamUs (The National Missing
and Unidentified Persons System), the DOE Network and the EDAN (Everyone Deserves a
Name) Project, and helped reconstruct mummies for the “Accidental Mummies” exhibit at the
Detroit Science Center.
With all that work, not to mention the nature of it, the schedule and demands can be brutal at
times. Martin Bailey admitted to being a bit burned out last year.
“Last summer, I sort of did (get burnt out) with all the mummies that came from Mexico,” she
said. “Then I would come and work (at the Sheriff’s Office) for eight hours or more and work
on reconstructions here. Then on my off-duty time, because it was a freelancing art job, I did
portraits and worked on some of the full-length, head-to-toe drawings and three-dimensional
sculptures of the accidental mummies.”
A glance at the files in the Sheriff’s Office’s forensic art department revealed locations from all
over the country as well as Canada. Many of those files have come to Martin Bailey as part of
NamUs or Project EDAN.
Martin Bailey works closely with the programs. She said a recent change with coroners
throughout the United States has helped identify people in several cases.
In January 2009, all coroners began putting unidentified bodies into a database, where they could
be cross-referenced with missing-persons databases.
“We were starting to get hits left and right,” Martin Bailey said.
That followed a move to create NamUs in 2005. Then the National Institute of Justice
assembled law enforcement officials, medical examiners, coroners, forensic scientists and victim
advocates and families for a national strategy meeting in Philadelphia.
During the meeting, dubbed the “Identifying the Missing Summit,” those groups discussed the
major issues involved in investigating and solving missing persons and unidentified decedent
cases, according to a post on the NamUs website (namus.gov).
NamUs was born out of that meeting, with a goal of improving access to database information by
people who could help solve such cases.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice figure released in 2007, about 4,000 unidentified
decedent cases are handled throughout the country in a typical year. About 1,000 victims in those
cases remain identified after a full year of investigation.
NamUs was instituted in three phases. The first involved the design and creation of the database,
gathering resources and studying the legal ramifications of privacy laws and their impact on
public access to information on missing persons.
That phase, which lasted about three months, was followed by the year-long second phase, which
focused on the development of the database with a focus on reporting, investigating and solving
the cases.
Finally, phase three went into effect in 2009 with the release of the complete NamUs system
which could be searched by anyone.
The system is still a work in progress, but it helped identify nine missing persons cases in its first
full year.
In one case, a citizen searching the NamUs database noticed a match between a woman who had
been missing since 2002 and an unidentified body found in New Mexico two years later. The
proper authorities were contacted, a forensic dentist confirmed the identity, and the victim’s
family was notified two days after the link was noticed.
Another case involved the positive identification of a man who went missing after an April 2009
car crash in Connecticut. The man’s wallet and clothing had been found near the accident scene,
but his body was not found until a month later. After the body was discovered, the man was
easily identified by law enforcement after the man’s aunt entered thorough information into the
NamUs system.
In July 2009, the system had another upgrade. It now continually searches the missing persons
and unidentified decedent databases, looking for any similarities. Cases with similarities are
presented automatically to an investigator, and those that provide a close match can be quickly
turned over for forensic testing.
Another key development in the past few years also has led to more positive identifications,
Martin Bailey said.
“It was not until a few years ago that an automated fingerprint system searched nationwide
(databases),” she said.
At least one active case with the DOE Network is related to Oakland County. An unidentified
white or Hispanic female was found in a field off Lake Angelus Road near Baldwin Road in
Lake Angelus on Sept. 12, 1999. The death was estimated to have occurred at least four to nine
months prior to recovery, and the body had deteriorated to the point where no flesh was left on
the bones.
The victim was wearing a long-sleeve pullover sweatshirt, faded blue size 14 Basic Equipment
jeans and youth size 6 Nike sneakers. She wore an angel pendant and cloth bracelet with the
letters WWJD on it.
According to a description of the case, the woman may have died naturally or from something
that would have left no trace on her skeleton. A stab wound could have left no trace on what
remained of the body, but there was no evidence on the woman’s clothes that she had bled before
dying.
The woman could have been anywhere between 30-70 years old at the time of her death. Her
height was between 5 feet 1 and 5 feet 3, and her weight was estimated between 130 and 160
pounds. She had long red hair and four of her lower front teeth appeared to have been in poor
condition. The body was found more than 100 yards away from the nearest road, in an area that
gets little foot traffic.
Martin Bailey drew a sketch of the victim and another organization created a reconstruction of
her face, but she has still not been identified.
Anyone who may have information about the case should contact the Pontiac Police Department
at 248-758-3395.
The art behind the art
There is an art to being a forensic artist, says Martin Bailey. Her method is one of detail.
“I ask for anything and everything I can get my hands on from the law enforcement agency,” she
said.
That information includes requests for dental X-rays, reports from medical examiners and
photos. She also seeks details about a person, ranging from the obvious (age, height, weight) to
the less obvious (diet, whether the person used drugs or was a smoker).
“All of that takes a toll on your face,” Martin Bailey said.
Profession probably can be added to that list, and the role of forensic artist is one that certainly
does take a toll. It’s hectic, and the work can be gruesome, relentless and mentally taxing, but
Martin Bailey—who plans to write a book about her profession—enjoys her job.
“I do like my job,” she said. “It’s interesting. Every case is different, every person is different
and each presents its own unique problems to solve and to work with. You get to get out and see
people and different cultures and different lifestyles. Different things.”
“If I have a heart attack, don’t cry for me. It has been an interesting ride, and it’s still going on.”