- A personal identity is a basic human right.

Everybody is born and they have a name, they are given a name.

And so after you die, if you don't know that person or that person becomes a Jane or a John Doe they still deserve their name back.

- [Narrator] That search for identity is what drives the North Carolina Unidentified Project.

- Everybody deserves their identity.

As far as forensic genealogy I mean the evidence is in the bones, their DNA is in the bone, and so it doesn't matter if there's a, you know, the murder weapon is there we're gonna bring their identity back at the minimum.

- [Narrator] Identity is defined as the fact of being who a person is.

Your identity is what makes you, you.

But there are roughly 135 cases across North Carolina in which human remains are not identified.

Most of the cases are homicide.

The cases date back to the 1950s.

- I guess it's the way that we treat those who have died is just as important as how we've treated them when they're alive.

And giving them an identity when they aren't able to give one to themselves is kind of the most powerful thing about our work.

- [Narrator] So the State Bureau of Investigations is working with the North Carolina Human Identity and forensic Analysis lab at NC State to reexamine the remains in hopes of restoring identity.

- So we established that biological profile to help police narrow down potential missing persons so they can ultimately identify the remains.

- [Narrator] Forensic techniques have changed, technology has improved but every profile starts with the roughly 206 bones in a human adult.

The bones change throughout a person's life but together those bones tell the story of you.

- For sex, the most reliable is the pelvis because you know females have to give birth.

So we have some shape differences in there.

Mostly that women have like a wider pelvis.

Their pubic bone, which is this bone right here is a lot broader and has more of a rectangular shape.

In males, it's more of a triangular shape.

- [Narrator] The ratio between the lower leg and thighbone reveals a person's natural height.

- And then we plug in those numbers through some equations that are population and sex specific to get an approximate stature.

- [Narrator] Most of the joints in the body get worn down by age or the intensity of our activities but the joint that holds the pelvis together as well as rib number four, are reasonably stable and can be used to estimate age.

- There's some characteristics in there that follow age ranges and so we use those.

- [Narrator] The skull can also be used to determine sex.

In general, males have a more robust skull.

The skull also reveals ancestry.

- We do that by taking several points and measurements along the skull and inputting them through a computer program.

And it estimates then statistically assigning a population, which it's close most closely resembles.

- [Narrator] The skeleton also records your childhood how you lived your life, even your nutrition.

Taken together, that biological profile is the first step in restoring an identity.

- You have to work in a multidisciplinary setting.

Anthropology is not solving them.

Anthropology just provides a very small piece of the puzzle.

It requires the medical examiner, it requires law enforcement.

We need investigations.

Without them, we can't do it.

And when the case is warrant we will also send them out for forensic genetic genealogy.

- [Narrator] Think of forensic genealogy as submitting a DNA sample to find your family origin but then reverse it.

- You're trying to find that one origin that you don't know who it is instead of you finding your family.

So we find the family and go back to the identity.

And even though they are identified by forensic genealogy then we send out for a familial DNA match.

You need a scientific validation for that identity.

- The number one priority is to find out who they are.

You have to know who your victim is bring their identity back, do some digging into their background and then the case may be revived if you will.

- [Narrator] SBI investigators search their files for cases with the best chance of a victim being identified.

The cases selected are those in which significant amounts of remains were recovered and there is enough information still available to law enforcement to move forward.

- The minimum we could do is to get their identity back, return the remains.

- [Narrator] The identities of eight unidentified remains have been restored in the past year.

- We had one case that didn't have a name and they died in 1976.

- Due to his remains, we were able to find his DNA and identify him and return his remains to his family.

- Family had been hoping and waiting to see them walk through the door all those years.

So now they know, which is good, but it's still painful for them.

- [Policeman] We may not be able to solve his homicide because so much time has passed.

But we've brought him his identity back and we've returned his remains to his family.