Applied Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Jesse Goliath, Assistant Professor & Forensic Anthropologist & Archaeologist

Dr. Jesse Goliath (Source: Grace Cockrell)

 

The early 2000s saw the rise of various television shows centering around criminal investigations. These programs inspired scores of individuals to pursue careers in forensic sciences, including a young Jesse Goliath, who found a niche that combined his interests in history and science: forensic anthropology. This blog post will discuss Dr. Jesse Goliath's career as a rising faculty member, researcher, and applied anthropologist. 

 

Goliath hails from Brooklyn, New York, but was raised in West Virigina.  Growing up he enjoyed visiting museums, consuming content related to criminal investigations, as well as anything involving science and history.  His passions drove him to seek a career where he could successfully pursue both, and with the rise of criminal investigation television shows, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Goliath’s interests were piqued but not fully satisfied.  He found the fulfillment he was seeking in anthropology, specifically forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology.  He attended the University of Notre Dame, earning his Bachelors in Anthropology in 2007.  He followed this up by pursuing graduate work in both anthropology and anatomy at Ohio State University, successfully earning his PhD in 2017.

 

Goliath realized having a rigorous education was not enough to help him secure employment.  He realized that experience was also necessary.  He volunteered to consult with the Franklin County medical examiner’s office and the Columbus (Ohio) Police Department as a forensic anthropologist and archaeologist.  The majority of the cases he worked involved unhoused individuals, but this experience did lead him to be involved in a dangerous case involving a drug cartel when he and his colleagues located the dumping ground of the cartel’s executed victims.  The danger associated with this investigation gave him pause, and he decided to pursue safer employment options.

 

He next took a position Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in locating and identifying MIA/POWs overseas.  While he enjoyed this work he realized that he missed teaching and research, which were not options in this position.  This led him to take a position as an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University.  In this role he teaches a variety of classes, maintains an active research agenda, and consults for local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

 

In the two years he has been at Mississippi State University he has worked on seven forensic anthropology and archaeology cases, including the widely publicized Felecia Cox case.  Her brother-in-law left a written confession that he requested be read after he was executed by the state of Mississippi (for a different case he was found guilty of).  In his confession he admitted to killing Cox and left a crudely drawn map concerning the location of where he buried her body almost a decade and a half earlier.  Through the use of ground penetrating radar and assistance from Cox’s family Goliath and his associates were able to locate and recover her remains.  Goliath noted that it was difficult seeing the emotional responses of the family, but he was glad to provide them with the closure they desperately sought and needed.

 

It was through these cases that Goliath realized the need for a state-wide database containing information of both missing persons and the biological profiles of unidentified deceased individuals.  A federal database already exists, but individual states are not mandated to contribute data to it, leading to gaps in information that is critical to both law enforcement agencies to help them resolve cases and families of missing individuals to understand what happened to their missing loved ones.  Goliath and his Mississippi State University colleague Jordan Lynton Cox moved forward with the research necessary to create and implement the Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons, which launched in November 2023.  This database makes information concerning missing persons and the biological profiles of unidentified deceased individuals available to the public, which can then be used by either law enforcement personnel or members of the public to help resolve open cases.  Goliath cited a need for this database to alleviate the backlog of unsolved cases and help with victim identification, particularly for People of Color.

 

Goliath’s short career has had a very promising start, and it is expected that he will continue to his successes that will benefit his students as well as the public at large.  This is said because his research concentrations are in improving current forensic methods and analytical techniques, and his focus on overlooked but important issues within the field means that these areas will receive the attention and resolution they need.

 

References

Goliath, J. (2022). About. Retrieved from Jesse R. Goliath, PhD, RPA: Skeletal Biologist/Forensic Anthropologist: https://www.jessegoliath.com/

Lassetter, S. (2023, Summer). Closure. Mississippi State University Alumnus.

Nicholas, S. (2022, October 31). Jesse Goliath. Retrieved from Mississippi State University: https://www.msstate.edu/our-people/2022/10/jesse-goliath

Nicholas, S. (2023, November 1). MSU anthropologist hopes to crack Mississippi cold cases with help from new online database. Retrieved from Mississippi State University: https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2023/11/msu-anthropologist-hopes-crack-mississippi-cold-cases-help-new-online?fbclid=IwAR0aUOrY0Lo4iyoRNaPqfSHnKBggLwvo0qx1AbzjiVGEY1hb7rk1A7At4pE