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Staring death in the face
A FRESH appeal has been launched in a bid to identify bodies discovered around Britain's network of railways. Rod McPhee met the Leeds forensic artist bringing the dead back to life and closure for loved ones
SHARON McDonagh has spent the last 15 years doing a job most people would put at the top of their list of worst nightmares – drawing corpses. Not just any corpses, invariably they are those of poor souls who've been found by train and tube lines, often the victims of horrific accidents or suicide bids.
As an intelligence officer for British Transport Police in Leeds she's part of the team charged with tracing loved ones of those found dead and without any means of identification.
Many of her subjects have suffered facial trauma or burns, so trying to draw an image of how they might have looked prior to their violent death isn't always easy.
"I don't think people quite realise what happens to a human when it's struck by something travelling at high speed," says Sharon. "It can be horrendous and sometimes I simply can't begin to judge how they might have appeared."
Sharon, 41, who originally joined BTP as a personal assistant before working her way up the ranks, blends her art school training with police work.
She has just completed a cluster of 20 images for a new appeal the force is launching as part of a large cold case review. It deals with a variety of deaths collated from across the country.
Unidentified
The review also represents the tip of an iceberg. The police deal with around 1,000 cases of unidentified bodies across the country, dating back more than half a century. But many remain unidentified since detectives may be offered no clues as to their identity.
Fortunately Sharon had a series of photographs to work from, even if some date back 35 years and are in a poor condition, and she insists she could only sketch the faces from photographs because seeing the victims in a morgue would just be too upsetting.
In some cases she has had to work from stills from CCTV cameras which captured the final moments of an individual's life.
Her job is a fairly grim task, but not a thankless one.
"As hard as it can be, I genuinely love what I do," she insists. "I don't find it easy to do the job, but it does mean I can combine art, which is a personal love of mine, with my career. "
"But it also means a lot to me because the people in these photos have friends and relatives who may still be wondering where they are, which is a terrible state of limbo to be in.
"So, if only one person comes forward to confirm someone from the sketches I do then I will have felt it was worthwhile. Ultimately that's what motivates me to do it."
As well as attending art college she is helped by special 'efit' training given to officers in her field of work. This helps her understand patterns of bone structure, muscle tone as well as general anatomy, all of which allows her to piece together a face.
Another big help is descriptions of a person's general build and clothing, which allows Sharon to estimate how full or gaunt a person's facial features were before they swelled up through injury.
The final drawings she produces are invariably similar in style to the traditional efit because they are the medium which members of the public have been found to respond to.
But modifying them with her own realistic touches means that she is able to accentuate features she can be more certain about.
Some of the people featured in the new appeal are believed to have died of natural causes, but they still had no means of identifying them – meaning that someone, somewhere, could still be wondering what happened to a friend or relative.
Sharon would normally create about five images a year for the force, with each one taking her somewhere between two and three hours to produce.
She has just devoted two months of her time to researching and creating this new batch of illustrations in the hope that, even in cases which have remained open for years, someone could still come forward.
But how does she cope with staring at images of dead people for days on end?
"It's strange," she says. "It's a little bit like when you start out as an artist and have someone come in as a nude model. Yes, they're a naked person sitting just feet from you, but you very quickly forget the fact that you have such an unusual subject matter and just focus on their shape and form and shading.
"But I'm not totally detached from the work. Although we need to keep some distance in order to be able to do what we do on a daily basis, you can also form a strange attachment to a person without knowing who they are.
"Often we have some information about the circumstances and behaviour of an individual in their final moment and that can make you feel very sad for them.
"But the thing that can really upset you is seeing their photo because they're no longer just a collection of information they're now a human being you're staring in the face."
To view the images and related information vist www.btp.police.uk
rod.mcphee@ypn.co.uk
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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