[TV broadcast] “This just in: You are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there.”
[Dr. Hartnett McCann] So in 2001, I was a graduate student at Arizona State University and
I was a member of a group called DMORT, which stands for Disaster Mortuary
Operational Response Team. I went to work at Ground Zero and at the landfill on
Staten Island where all the 9/11 debris was being sorted. As a forensic
anthropologist, I interpret the skeletons to find out information about who a
person was and what happened to them. I started out as an archaeologist, but at
the end of the day I couldn't tell you who this 2,000 year old skeleton was.
I love puzzles and like to put things back together. Being able to get that
answer in solving the puzzle at the end is very important to me.
I actually share quite a few of my cases with my classes. It's one thing to have a
lecture with slides on it, but it's another thing to see the real-life cases.
I feel like forensic anthropologists - myself included - and people in the
forensics field who deal with deceased individuals have to be able to detach. If
you can't do that then it gets very, very difficult. Being able to focus on the
remains that you're working on as a case and not necessarily as a person, as
somebody's loved one really helps. We're also known to have
very weird senses of humor. That helps as well. But for the most part it's
all about being able to separate yourself from the work and not take it
home with you.
