![\"\"](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/04\/Daniel-Marion_9610_170405-detail300x200-300x200.jpg\")
\u201cThe remains are often found in the mountains where someone attempted to get rid of the body,\u201d Marion said. \u201cThey\u2019re always cold cases, and often a homicide. I don\u2019t investigate and I don\u2019t identify people, I take the given skull and produce the most reasonable likeness based on my skills and knowledge of anatomy to provide a lead for law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marion credits a UWM mold-making class taught by Narendra Patel, who\u2019s now a professor emeritus of art and design, with assisting his forensic career. As a 3-D forensic artist with the IAI, he is one of only two who still knows how to make a mold from a skull.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel is soft-spoken and intellectual with a deep understanding of art in general,\u201d Patel said. \u201cHis contributions in the fields of forensics and art education are admirable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patel and his former student remain close, getting together a couple days a year, \u201cjust chatting over a Guinness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marion, who retired after a long career teaching art in Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, became interested in forensic sculpture while doing graduate work at what\u2019s now Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. A fellow student showed him a Wall Street Journal article about Betty Pat Gatliff, a pioneering forensic artist. He\u2019d never heard of the specialty, but he was intrigued. It was a few years later before he got the opportunity to sign up for a two-day workshop on facial reconstruction at the Denver Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n
\u201cI completed two reconstructions in two days, while other students did one or didn\u2019t even finish one,\u201d Marion said. His instructor, Michael Charney, who had a doctorate in anthropology, wrote a letter of recommendation, which he took with one of his reconstructions to the Jefferson County Coroner\u2019s Office to ask about work.<\/p>\n
He talked to the chief deputy coroner, who laughed and walked away. \u201cI thought she could have at least said no thank you,\u201d Marion recalled. \u201cShe returned with a skull and said, \u2018Get to work.\u2019\u2019 That was 27 years ago. Now, Marion continues the work as an on-call freelancer for the Colorado Coroner\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n
Although DNA testing and other scientific advances have helped law enforcement with many cold cases, such technologies (for example, DNA) require having a matching database to compare to the DNA taken from the remains. So, when other leads are exhausted, Marion gets the call.<\/p>\n
UWM gives breadth of experience<\/h3>\n
He discovered his passion for sculpture at UWM. \u201cI realized I could better understand the illusions of form in a drawing if I sculpted them,\u201d he said. \u201cTurning that corner helped me realize I wanted to work in three dimensions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although sculpture was his primary interest, he is grateful for UWM\u2019s well-rounded art education he received. \u201cI explored visual art, music, theater and dance,\u201d he said. \u201cI took a multitude of art classes \u00ad\u2014 jewelry, printmaking, weaving courses.\u201d<\/p>\n
That breadth of experience was the foundation for his teaching career, he said, because schools often seek instructors experienced in many artistic mediums. He teaches art-based adult education classes at the Metropolitan State University in Denver.<\/p>\n
But the work of a forensic sculptor can be challenging. Marion remembers a particularly difficult case. The body had been dumped into a river, and after he removed the remaining soft tissue, he discovered a bullet had fractured the skull. \u201cI had a pile of bone shards that had to be glued back together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Marion said his work doesn\u2019t provide closure for families, but it does provide certainty. \u201cUsually if someone has been missing for a long time, the family has already come to the conclusion their loved one may no longer with us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more a matter of knowing for sure, to resolve that issue. Are they, or are they not?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daniel Marion, who earned his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees at UWM\u2019s Peck School of the Arts, uses his talents as a sculptor to help re-create the faces of unidentified bodies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":47184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[249,250],"section":[127,129],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167,344,153,164],"class_list":["post-47183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-community-engagement","tag-student-success","section-arts-humanities","section-film-fine-arts","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association","uwmnews-feed-arts-architecture","uwmnews-feed-graduate","uwmnews-feed-arts"],"yoast_head":"\n