HPD uses facial reconstruction to craft 3-D model of homicide victim

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Using a skull, computer technology, art supplies and years of experience, a graphic artist with the Honolulu Police Department has created a sculpture of a victim in an unsolved homicide that could be decades old.
Investigators hope you can help identify the man.
Ten months after the discovery of skeletal remains in Manoa, police say they have no solid leads on who the victim is or why he was killed. HPD graphic artist Chun Yee hopes the three-dimensional model he crafted will help.
There are several things police know about the man. He wore Levi's pants and tube socks. He was Caucasian and in his 40s or 50s, and he suffered an execution-style death.
But there's still great mystery surrounding the unidentified man, after his skull and other bones were found under a concrete slab at 3156 Oahu Avenue last September.
"Gee, I wonder what actually took place and if he could talk, tell me all these things and maybe tell me his name," Yee said.
Crews working on renovations near a cottage stumbled upon the skeletal remains which, investigators say, may have been buried for nearly three decades.
"In his pocket, a 1982 coin was found," Sgt. Kim Buffett, Crimestoppers, said. "This is very rare because they've searched the missing person cases way back and nothing that matches this description."
Forensics experts from JPAC, the Joint POW MIA Accounting Command, reconstructed the skull, the front of which was blown out by three gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
Yee then received a replica of the skull and went to work, using clay and computer diagrams to reconstruct the victim's face.
"Sometimes, it's almost like the skull is talking to you," he said. "Not verbally, but it's almost like guiding your hand to what my eyes might look like or my lips."
Yee says the structure of a person's skull says a lot about the position of the eyes, nose and lips.
"The real things that we don't know is the soft tissue, the ears, the exact shape of the ears," he said. "We can't tell the exact shape of the eyebrows."
Because it isn't sure about the eye color, or the hair color and style, HPD released different versions of what the man may have looked like. It hopes someone can identify him and help crack this unsolved homicide.
"I just think for closure for this family," Buffett said. "For whoever knows anything about it, maybe get it off their chest at this time and tell us about it."
Yee says it took him about a month to do the facial reconstruction.
Police believe the victim was between 5'6" to 6' tall with a medium build.
If you have any information about this case, call Crimestoppers at 955-8300.