Elayne Pope Ph.D. Forensic Anthropologist Fatal Fire Research & Education:
Specializing in Forensic Casework Involving Burned Human Remains
Forensic Course Instructor of Fire Fatality Investigation
Forensic Subject Matter Expert in Burned Human Remains
Welcome to Fatal Fire Research & Education -Dr. Elayne Pope
Dr. Elayne Pope is an experienced forensic subject matter expert in burned human remains. She provides ongoing instructional Fire Fatality Investigation courses for training fire investigators, law enforcement, CSI, medicolegal death investigators, Medical Examiners, Coroners, attorneys, and forensic practitioners.
About Dr. Elayne Pope & Fatal Fire Research & Education
Experience
Since 2001, Elayne Pope Ph.D. brings 24-years of experience to the table as a forensic anthropologist who has researched fire deaths, the effects of heat on burned human remains through hypothesis testing, and how the body burns differently in vehicles, structures, outdoors, confined space, and incendiary fire scenes regarding what types of physical evidence remains of the victim's body for forensic investigators to find at the fatal fire scene. She continues to share those findings from her ongoing research from observational work with experimental mock fire scenes involving burned human remains to study how the human body burns under a variety of environmental conditions.
Dr. Pope practices as a forensic consultant and qualified subject matter expert in the analysis of burned human remains from death investigation casework with courtroom experience.
Throughout the year Dr. Pope provides educational lectures on Fire Fatality Investigation hosted by various professional training organizations and conferences for fire investigators, law enforcement, CSI, medicolegal death investigators, coroners/Medical Examiners, attorneys, forensic anthropologists, other forensic professionas, etc. The goal of Dr. Pope's Fatal Fire training is to provide the attendees with a foundational knowledge based on scientific principles to increase their confidence for what they can expect to see in the field at the fatal fire scene involving forensic casework along with the importance of their roles in the examination of the fire scene, the victim's burned remains, and how it relates to the death investigation.
Dr. Pope has authored and co-authored several journal articles and book chapters on patterned thermal damage, burned human remains, and forensic cremation. She provides findings from current scientific research that examines the effects of fire damage to study how different tissues of the human body burn under a variety of environmental conditions and effects from external variables involving different types of fire events and fatal fire scenes.
Forensic Consultant & Qualified Subject Matter Expert in Burned Human Remains for Fatal Fire Casework
Dr. Elayne Pope is an experienced forensic consultant and qualified subject matter expert on the analysis of burned human remains from fatal fire casework involving accidental deaths and victims of homicide. Each fire death investigation is unique, including the fire patterns on the victim's burned body that tell a story of how they had burned in relation to different fuel types and amounts, durations, temperatures, dynamic thermal changes during the fire, and other external factors.
**Case analysis, forensic examination, and reported findings that evaluate fire damage that is unique to the decedent's burned remains in relation with other circumstances of the case
**Time estimates for how long the victim's body burned based on the patterns and extent of fire damaged tissues and burnt bones
**Questions specific to the death investigation
**Presence or absence of pre-fire traumatic injury
**Questions about complex cases
As a private forensic consultant, Dr. Pope can assist with forensic casework throughout all stages of the death investigation process from the point of search, fire scene recovery, postmortem examination from autopsy or photographs, ongoing case investigations, complex cases, legal preparations for courtroom trial and testimony, cold case review, and selective post-conviction cases.
Dr. Pope has experience testifying as an qualified expert witness in courtrooms throughout the United States for 18 criminal trials during 2004-2024, and 13 cases involved burned human remains.
Fire Fatality Investigation Course Instructor for Training Law Enforcement & Fire Investigators
Elayne Pope Ph.D. has trained law enforcement, fire investigators, Coroners/Medical Examiners, crime scene investigators, medicolegal death investigators, and first responders about Fire Fatality Investigations.
In 2025 Dr. Pope received the IAAI "Instructor of the Year" Award at the International Association of Arson Investigators International Training Conference in Atlantic City, NJ.
Dr. Pope has been an invited instructor and lecturer for national and international training and professional scientific conferences:
-International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) Chapters
-American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS)
-International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME)
-National Homicide Investigators (NHI)
-Coroner and Medical Examiner's training conferences
-Fire and Arson Officer Training
Free Online Training in Fatal Fire Investigations by CFITrainer.net
The Destruction of the Body by Fire
https://www.cfitrainer.net/en/Training_Programs/Investigating_Fatal_Fires.aspx
Fatal Fires: Fire Effects on the Body
https://www.cfitrainer.net/en/Training_Programs/Fatal-Fires-Fire-Effects-on-the-Body.aspx
Fatal Fires: Investigations
https://www.cfitrainer.net/en/Training_Programs/Fatal-Fires-Investigation.aspx
Education, Research, and Experiences
In 2001, Dr. Pope began researching how tissues and bones of the human body burns in fire scenes which became the focus of her Doctorate degree in Biological Anthropology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 2007. Her dissertation was titled " The Effects of Fire on Human Remains: Characteristics of Taphonomy and Trauma" that combined research driven by questions from complex forensic cases involving burned human bodies and cremated bones with different field experiments to test a variety of hypotheses. Results from that research led to reliable scientific findings for those cases and improvements in understanding how the human body burns uniquely in structures, vehicles, confined space, outdoor space, ignitable liquids, and incendiary fire events. This information has impacted field investigators who now better recognize how to preserve physical evidence associated with the victim's burned body, the importance of investigating the body in situ within the fire scene, the importance of proper archaeological excavation techniques through fire debris to recover the maximum amount of burned bones and teeth commingled within similar-looking fire debris.
Dr. Pope worked as the Autopsy Supervisor and Forensic Anthropologist at the Tidewater Office of the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Norfolk, Virginia for 6 years during 2011-2017. As the forensic anthropologist she examined casework involving traumatic skeletal injuries from gunshot wounds, blunt and sharp force trauma, dismemberment, child abuse, elder abuse, skeletonized remains, burials and surface recoveries, extensively burned bodies, cremation, and others. Dr. Pope has testified for several criminal court cases in Virginia related to her official report in the death investigation.
Currently, Dr. Pope is the Director of Fatal Fire Research and Education working as a private forensic consultant with services for a qualified subject matter expert in burned human remains, and an instructor for various Fire Fatality training and education courses nationally and internationally. She stands on a strong foundation from her experiences of working in an academic setting at the universities, the clinical laboratory setting at the Medical Examiner's Office for 6-years, and long-term research on burned human remains that began in 2001.
Ongoing Research and Education
Publications and Research Projects
PUBLISHED WORKS:
Alison Galloway, Elayne Pope, Chelsey Juarez
2024 "Bone Color Changes and the Interpretation of the Temperature/Duration of Fire Exposure to Human Remains" in the Forensic Context in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews WIREs Forensic Science Special Issue: Incorporating Archaeological and Forensic Anthropological Techniques for Interpreting Fire Scenes and Supporting Arson Investigations. https://doi.org/10.1002/wfs2.1517
Alison Galloway, Chelsey Juarez, and Elayne Pope
2023 "How Human Bodies Burn: The Process of Thermal Damage, Body Movement, and Shifting Fuel Loads" Chapter 10 in The Path of Flames: Understanding and Responding to Fatal Wildfires (Eds.) Ashley Kendell, Alison Galloway, and Colleen Milligan. CRC Press. p. 147-157.
Elayne Pope
2023 "Fire Environments and Characteristic Burn Patterns of Human Remains from Four Common Types of Fatal Fire Scenes" Chapter 2 In Burnt Human Remains: Recovery, Analysis, and Interpretation, Forensic Science in Focus Series. (Eds.) Ellingham, S., Adseria Garriga, J., Zapico, S., and Ubelaker, D. Wiley Publishers. p. 13-36.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119682691.ch2
Elayne Pope, Chelsea Juarez, and Alison Galloway
2022 "Refined Classification System for Thermally Damaged Human Remains by Body Segment" Forensic Anthropology 5(1)57-72.
https://doi:10.5744/fa.2021.0008
O. C. Smith, Elayne Pope, and S. Symes
2002 and 2009 "Look Until You See – Identification of Trauma in Skeletal Material" In Hard Evidence: Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology: A Reader. Ed. by Dawnie Wolfe-Steadman. Prentice Hall.
Elayne Pope
2008 “The Destruction of the Body by Fire” Instructional Training Module Video for the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) Certified Fire Investigator (CFI) Certification. Video Produced by Stonehouse Media. Filmed in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 2, 2008. Online Video Training Module “Investigating Fatal Fires.” www.cfitrainer.net
https://www.cfitrainer.net/en/Training_Programs/Investigating_Fatal_Fires.aspx
Elayne Pope
2007 "The Effects of Fire on Human Remains: Characteristics of Taphonomy and Trauma" dissertation from the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. 526 pages.
https://www.proquest.com/openview/58604459277f9e6ce0f5a291a9a514c5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
Elayne Pope and O. C. Smith
2004 "Identification of Traumatic Injury in Burned Cranial Bone: An Experimental Approach" Journal of Forensic Sciences 2004; 49(3)431-440.
https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS2003286
Elayne Pope, O. C. Smith, and Timothy Huff
2004 "Exploding Skulls and Other Myths About How the Human Body Burns" in Fire and Arson Investigator: Journal of the International Association of Arson Investigators 2004; 55(4)23-28.
MEDIA:
Elayne Pope
2025 “The Body Tells a Story with Fire Fatality Expert Elayne Pope- Fire Fatality
Investigation Tips and Research” on the Fire Investigator INFOCUS podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-investigation-infocus-podcast/id1739288903
Elayne Pope
2025 Podcast Guest “Murder of Ted Throneberry with Dr. Elayne Pope” on the Killer Genes the podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/killer-genes/id1525773645?i=1000717553281
Elayne Pope
2025 Podcast Guest "Fire Fatality Stories with Dr. Elayne Pope" produced by CFITrainer.net
https://www.cfitrainer.net/en/Training/Podcast.aspx
Elayne Pope
2014 Podcast Guest “Burning Bodies -the Dame of Flame” in Coroner Talk https://coronertalk.com/tag/dr-elayne-pope
Elayne Pope and John DeHaan
2009 Feature Article in the New Scientist “Body Burners: the Forensics of Fire” Science-in-Society Section. May 22, 2009. http://www.com/article/mg20227091.300-body-burners-the-forensics-of-fire.html
Elayne Pope
2008 “Myths and Forensic Science” Video Interview for the Discovery Channel Investigation X Television Series.
