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Meet the First ‘Forensic Jeweler’ in the World

Published

5 years ago

March 30, 2018

INSTORE Staff

Trained as a jewelry designer, she’s pioneering a new field.

If you’ve never heard of a forensic jeweler, there’s a good reason: It’s a job title that didn’t exist before.

Maria Maclennan is profiled in a new article published by OZY in conjunction with the Financial Times. The 29-year-old Scotlander has helped forensic teams to ID victims of catastrophes, including plane crashes, inluding various countries.

She’s described in the article as “the world’s first forensic jeweler.”

Trained as a jewelry designer, Maclennan says jewelry is useful in forensic identification for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that it’s sometimes relatively unscathed after a disaster. Additionally, she notes, gemstones frequently retain DNA from from their owners.

And watches, of course, often bear serial numbers that can be useful in identifying their wearers.

The doctoral thesis that she recently turned in at the University of Dundee is “on the use of jewelry in forensic identification,” according to the article.

Read more at OZY

Time to Do What You've Always Wanted? Time to Call Wilkerson.

It was time. Teri Allen and her brother, Nick Pavlich, Jr., had been at the helm of Dearborn Jewelers of Plymouth in Plymouth, Mich., for decades. Their father, Nick Pavlich, Sr., had founded the store in 1950, but after so many wonderful years helping families around Michigan celebrate their most important moments, it was time to get some “moments” of their own. Teri says Wilkerson was the logical choice to run their retirement sale. “They’re the only company that specializes in closing jewelry stores,” she says. During the sale, Teri says a highlight was seeing so many generations of customers who wanted to buy “that one last piece of jewelry from us.” Would she recommend Wilkerson? Absolutely. “There is no way that I would have been able to do this by myself.”