Sketch artist combines science, anthropology, art to create face from skull

Winnipeg police said a facial reconstruction was completed by a forensic artist in the hopes of helping to identify the woman. Her body was pulled from the Red River on June 15, 2012.

Winnipeg police are still trying to identify a woman whose body was pulled from the Red River earlier this year in June.

Officers discovered her body in the river near the North Perimeter Bridge on June 15. Her death wasn’t considered suspicious, but police couldn’t identify her.

Shortly after, the investigators turned to the media for help. Days later the woman’s identity was still a mystery, so police put out another call for help. This time, they provided photos of items found on her remains.

Pictures of a necklace and several bracelets were released to the media. Months went by, with police still trying to determine the woman’s identity.

Finally, they decided to try something different and called in one of the Winnipeg Police Services’ forensic artists.

“Most of the time when we find people who are deceased, they’ll have their identification in their wallet, or they were with somebody who can easily tell us who that person is,” said Kevyn Bourgeois, a forensic artist with Winnipeg police. “In this case, there was none of that.”

The 18-year veteran of the force is one of two forensic artists with the Winnipeg police. The artists are called upon about 30 times a year to sketch the faces of suspects to help solve a crime.

But this time, Bourgeois was called on to sketch someone no one could describe to him. Instead he was given a picture of the woman’s skull.

“Believe it or not, the face is extremely predictable based on the bone below it,” said Bourgeois. “When you look at a skull, you can fairly predictably say what the face will look like.”

He combined scientific research, anthropology and art to turn the woman’s skull into a recognizable human face.

Bourgeois said he developed skill at FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va.

He developed a sketch that police released to the public on Sept. 12. He hopes it will lead to discovering the woman’s identity.

“It’s a really sad case because somebody’s missing her. She’s somebody’s mom, sister, daughter… Somebody,” said Bourgeois.

So far police said despite the sketch, no one has come forward yet to with a possible identity for “Jane Doe.”

Bourgeois said he won’t give up hope that she will eventually be identified.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the police’s missing persons unit at 204-986-6250.