WCU is a University of North Carolina Campus
Western Carolina Human Identification Laboratory
The Western Carolina Human Identification Laboratory (WCHIL) is a fully equipped facility dedicated to the recovery, storage, and analysis of human remains. The main WCHIL facility covers 1100 square feet. This laboratory has a single body morgue refrigerator and freezer for the handling and maintenance of fresh and decomposing human remains. The facility is fully equipped for:
- routine micro and macroscopic analysis and description of bone
- removal of soft tissue for dry bone analysis
- thin sectioning of bone and histological aging
- casting
- maintaining chain of evidence
- state of the art GPS survey and recovery of human remains
- burned bone and cremation analysis
- bone trauma replication and assessment
The WCHIL director is a board certified forensic anthropologist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and has over 25 years experience working with the human skeleton and human remains.
The WCHIL also maintains at a separate facility a decomposition research station. Here, through scientific cadaver donations, time standards are being developed for decomposition in the western North Carolina mountain habitat. This facility will also assist in cadaver dog training.
For more information on the WCHIL, contact the Forensic Anthropology Program.