BATON ROUGE &045; There are multiple TV shows and books on the subject of forensics, but Mary Manhein lives the profession.

Manhein runs the FACES lab, or Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services, where she along with her team &045;Eileen Barrow, Beth Bassett and Ginny Listi &045; perform age progression work, 3-D clay facial reconstruction and clear up videos, mostly for police.

&uot;It’s not like any other lab in the country,&uot; Manhein said.

The transplanted Louisianian received her bachelor’s degree in English at LSU and then decided to do graduate work in anthropology. One class with then-professor Doug Owsley and she found her love &045; forensics. After volunteering in the forensic lab, many hours a week, &uot;I knew then I had to do it,&uot; Manhein said. She took it over in 1987, when Owsley left LSU for a job at the Smithsonian Institute.

The lab started as a small room in the Life Sciences building at LSU. Now it is its own complex complete with state-of-the art equipment. &uot;He started it and I improved on it,&uot; Manhein said.

Manhein, an forensic anthropologist and director of geography and anthropology at LSU, will be at the Comfort Suites at 6 p.m. Thursday to talk about her profession and cases she has worked on throughout the years.

Not only has Manhein worked with cases in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and throughout the United States, she also has worked in the Miss-Lou. Several years ago, Manhein recovered the physical remains of colonial soldiers in Natchez at Rosalie. &uot;So we do not only forensics but historical remains as well,&uot; Manhein said.

Some of her notable works include helping with identification in the Baton Rouge serial killer cases, mainly dental identification, Manhein said.

Last year, when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over East Texas, she along with many others working with DMORT, Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, helped with finding bones and distinguishing whether they were human or animal remains being found.

Manhein said it was &uot;hard to believe&uot; how many agencies, about 70, were on hand to help with the national tragedy.

Manhein also has had appearance on television, even on A&E’s Cold Case Files. She talked about a case she worked on a while back from Kansas City, Mo., with a child that was killed and decapitated, Precious Doe.

&uot;She’s a great case&uot; but remains unidentified, she said. The lab has performed tissue depth studies on children, had a good amount of data on the subject and was asked to reconstruct the face.

&uot;If one (reconstruction) lead to our identification, that’s our goal,&uot; Manhein said.

Manhein said the lab has about 50 unidentified cases and is building a database that could potentially be a model across the United States.

IDA, Identification Data Analysis would put dental X-rays together with DNA samples to create profiles to help with identification. The lab is working with the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab and the North Louisiana Crime Lab.

Already published once with her non-fiction work &uot;The Bone Lady,&uot; Manhein expects to publish a new nonfiction book &uot;Trail of Bones&uot; in the fall of 2005.