By Stephenie Steitzer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BURLINGTON - Jurors in a Boone County murder trial received a science lesson this week from a forensic anthropologist with a national reputation.

Emily Craig, from the Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office, identified the remains of a Covington woman who was stabbed, cut up, stuffed into a garment bag and dumped over a ravine in Hebron in 1999. One of two people charged with the murder, Leonard Day, has been on trial since Monday and could face life in prison if convicted.

"She's absolutely fabulous," Boone County Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally Smith said of Craig. "She has a unique ability to explain things to lawyers and lay people alike."

Craig was a part of the identification team after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also helped identify bodies after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 Waco, Texas, Branch Davidian fire.

Craig has been in Boone County twice this summer to testify in high-profile murder trials. She previously identified the skull of a Verona woman who was murdered 23 years ago. The case went to trial in August, and a jury convicted victim Helen Marlene Major's husband, William Major, of murder.

In both Boone County trials, Craig took the stand in Judge Joseph Bamberger's courtroom and described the gruesome state in which she found the remains. In both cases, the victims' families broke down in tears as Craig talked calmly and clearly about maggot casings, defleshing and carnivorous scavenging.

After death, she said, "Humans are no longer at the top of the food chain, they are a part of it."

She said the prosecution always forewarns families of the graphic nature of her testimony.

"I would prefer that the families not be in the courtroom," Craig said in an interview after her testimony.

Craig has examined more than 500 cases since starting at the Medical Examiner's Office in 1994. She said it's not as difficult to deal with the horrific nature of human remains as it used to be, but it's still not a pleasant task. Part of her training at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville involved learning how to cope with the sights and smells.

"You just have to deal with it," she said.

The former orthopedic sports medicine clinician said she loves her job, despite its gruesome nature.

"I love the puzzle," she said.

The first thing both Judge Bamberger and Smith note about Craig is her ability to explain the complex subject of forensic anthropology.

"She's not only obviously intelligent, but she has a tremendous ability to convey technical scientific information in a way that makes it very understandable to the lay jury," Bamberger said.

In his 22 years on the bench, he said she is one of the most persuasive witnesses he's seen.

One way Craig simplifies the subject for a jury is her use of analogies.

To explain how she determined Stevens had been cut in the back of the neck, she compared it to cutting an apple and leaving a slice to dry out. She said the color of the bone that was cut was different from the other bones, just as the cut apple has a brown appearance after a while.

"When she explains it to you, it seems simple," Smith said.

Some of Craig's biggest cases

Five high-profile Kentucky cases in which Emily Craig has been involved:

1996: Craig identified a woman whose badly decomposed body was found in a cistern in Campbell County. Jackie Ann Boner, 41, of Cincinnati, was still alive when someone put her in a cistern full of water and replaced a metal cover on top of it.

1998: Craig identified "Tent Girl" - an Illinois woman who was found wrapped in canvas in 1967 in Scott County.

1999: Craig identified a Covington mother who was missing three years when her bones were found in 1997 along Interstate 275 in Boone County.

2001: Craig identified a Connecticut man who disappeared in 1966. The man, who was suspected of having Mob ties, was found along the banks of the Ohio River in Fort Thomas.

2003: Craig and Erlanger investigators recovered the remains of a man in January in a field off Dixie Highway. They had to use space heaters to thaw out the clothing and remains.

E-mail ssteitzer@enquirer.com