A puzzle of skeletal remains: how forensic science and medicine succeeded in unravelling a complex and controversial murder case.

A case is presented where skeletal remains recovered from a remote, wooded area in Karnataka State of South India, which posed difficulties in identification were eventually successfully tackled by systematic forensic methods. Though most of these constituted well-established conventional techniques, the case can yet be considered as a fairly complex one beguiling some of the Scientific Investigators involved.