A current student at Ringling College of Art and Design recently helped to resolve a 2024 Florida John Doe case. During a spring break workshop on forensic facial reconstruction, Noah Shadowens ’25, Illustration, created a sculpture based on unidentified remains from the Fort Myers Medical Examiner’s Office. The sculpture was later identified by family members as Shane Michael Williams, whose remains were found in August 2024.
The workshop was led by Joe Mullins, a forensic imaging specialist from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Using 3D-printed skulls based on unidentified remains from active cases throughout America and other countries, workshop attendees were given limited anatomical and background information about their subjects and instructed in techniques for recreating potential likenesses of their busts with clay.
Readers are encouraged to view and share the photo gallery in this article, featuring the busts created in this year’s workshop, to facilitate additional identifications of unidentified remains and missing persons. This is the second year in a row that Mullins has taught this workshop at the College; Shadowens also attended last year’s workshop.
If you recognize someone from the busts created in this workshop, please contact Ringling College’s Office of Continuing and Professional Studies, who will direct you to the detectives in charge of each case, at cps@ringling.edu, or call 941-955-8866.
Ringling Studio Manager Noah Coleman 3D-printed and assembled the skull recreations based on skull scans provided by various national and international medical examiner’s offices. “He contributes to the success of each completed bust,” said Diane Zorn, Ringling College’s Education Program Coordinator of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Mullins will next be at Ringling College to teach The Forensic Art of Facial Reconstruction Digital Drawing Workshop, from May 16-18. That course, geared toward advanced artists and medical professionals familiar with Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, will provide an in-depth analysis of the skull’s anatomy and related soft tissues, with additional anthropological insights.
Many of the busts are currently onview at the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center on the second floor of the Alfred R. Goldstein Library.
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