Scientist bottles smell of bones to help solve cold cases

STORY: A Belgian research scientist is working with the federal police to develop a scent that mimics the smell of dried human bones.

The goal is to help sniffer dogs locate long lost remains more effectively.

:: Clement Martin, Researcher at Liege University

“It’s a bit like a perfumer developing his perfume, he mixes different aromas to develop his perfume.”

:: Gembloux, Belgium

Clement Martin has already succeeded in isolating the smell of decomposing human flesh, which is currently being used to train Belgium’s cadaver dogs.

Now, his focus has shifted to creating a similar tool for dried bones rather than soft tissue.

To achieve this, Martin is working with various samples of dried bones, including remains of an unidentified man found in a suitcase.

These bones are carefully stored in a glass cylinder, allowing the scent molecules to permeate an enclosed space for easier extraction.

“We’re going to mix different molecules together that are characteristic of a body in decomposition and we mix them together to get the final kit.”

Unlike decomposing flesh, dried bones emit far fewer scent molecules, making the process particularly challenging, according to Martin.

Adding to the difficulty is the fact that skeletal remains are porous and absorb smells from their surrounding environment.

“The aim is to characterize the smell of human bones, a stage that’s particularly complicated because there aren’t many odours and so the aim is to select molecules in this odour that are going to be specific to the smell of bones.”

:: Linter, Belgium

:: Kris Cardoen, Head of police dog training unit

At a police training center near Brussels, Kris Cardoen, head of the police dog training unit, is currently training dogs using Martin’s corpse scent.

Here, he tucked tissues between cinder blocks, contaminating only a few.

“The scent of death is one of the three tools we use during the basic training of our human-remains dog.”

Recreating the smell of dried bones would be particularly helpful in cold cases, he says.

“We are optimistic that one day an operational tool would be made available to us, that would mean that in cold cases we could still bring added value to the investigators’ requests in the search for human remains even with dry bones.”