Pitt-Bradford Hosting Talk by Forensic Artist

 The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will hold an online artist March 9 talk with Michelle Vitali, a working forensic artist and professor of art at Edinboro University.

            Vitali was teaching human anatomy, scientific illustration, painting and commercial illustration at Edinboro when she was asked to serve as the court sketch artist for the federal criminal trial of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, the defendant in the widely known “Collar Bomb” or “Pizza Bomb” robbery of a PNC Bank in Erie.

 That experience whetted her interest in the area of forensic art, specializing in facial reconstruction.

            Vitali has worked with historic remains ranging from 1,500-year-old Mayan remains to those of Civil War soldiers. Her work in this area has included using three-dimensional digital scans and improving methods of using those to create approximate two-dimensional recreations of faces.

            Vitali said working with historic remains gives her a chance to develop and improve techniques on cases with lower emotional stakes in the present.

            She has also worked to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional faces from found remains to help law enforcement identify victims. In the case of missing persons, she is sometimes asked to create a sketch of how a person may have aged.

            She has researched and published ways to increase the effectiveness of 3D facial reconstructions and has presented at the Academy of Forensic Sciences.

            Vitali’s talk, which is open to the public, will take place at 10 a.m. For more information or to access the talk, visit www.upbartsvirtual.com/michelle-vitali.html.

Pictured, Michelle Vitali scans a skull belonging to a Civil War soldier at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. She used the scan to create a likeness of how the soldier appeared when alive.