FACES Lab
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The FACES (Forensics Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services) Laboratory at Louisiana State University is a laboratory headed by Mary Manheim to help identify missing persons. It uses computer-aided facial reconstruction techniques using human skulls to generate busts of missing persons in order to jog someone's memory and provide information about the details of a crime or that person's whereabouts. FACES staff also use computer-aided age progression techniques for missing children and adults to aid in visual recognition. The lab also uses clay to create facial reconstructions based on the study of human remains (using models of skulls and tissue depth markers), and conducts training seminars for law enforcement personnel.
Law enforcement agencies (including the FBI) regularly come to FACES to locate missing people. The FACES lab is one of eight Model Age Progression Sites (MAPS) associated with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was the first lab recognized as a MAPS site at a university.
