Page 22 - Aug Sept 2016

An Insirational Interview with Lois Gibson
Lois Gibson: One of the most difficult cases upon which I worked was sketching
a perpetrators face from a woman who he shot 15 (fifteen!) times. She lost an eye

and seven teeth. She woke up bleeding to death, realized she could walk and trav-
eled the distance of 3 football fields to some apartments where she somehow got

help and survived. My sketch identified the shooter when he was caught still driving
her car. Another horrendous case was a 2 year old baby who was murdered, put in
a blue utility box, and thrown off the Galveston Causeway Bridge. She landed on

shore where a fisherman found her. I went to the morgue and drew a laughing blond
baby girl in full color. The grandmother of the baby who lived in Ohio recognized

her the next day which led the Galveston Sheriffs to find the parents who indeed
were the killers. They confessed and were both sentenced to life in prison.

Sonya Trippett: I see that you do reconstruction of the skulls of murder victims.

Please tell us about that process.

Lois Gibson: I teach how to reconstruct a face just from the skull. One simply fol-
lows the landmarks and uses tips from the Anthropologist about the sex, race, and

age of the individual to draw a proper face. One can learn how by getting my text-
book on the subject Forensic Art Essentials (2007, Elsevier Press). I explain every-
thing clearly in that book.

Sonya Trippett: You have also done age progression on certain cases, Please tell us
how this process is done and explain the types of cases that this process can be used
on. Does age progression process solve a lot of cases?

Lois Gibson: I do not get a lot of age progression cases. Those are usually done of
fugitives who have escaped justice and it has been several years ago they were pho-
tographed. All of those cases upon which I have worked were solved, many of them

appearing on the America’s Most Wanted TV show. I have also reunited 3 family
members by age progressing two babies from one and two years old to 31 and 32

years old. Almost no artists’ age progress babies to adult, but I was wildly success-
ful. Immediately after my age progressions of these two adult males were shown on
a TV show, a relative recognized them and they were reunited with their long lost

sister who lived on the other side of the country. I teach age progression and cover it
thoroughly in my above mentioned textbook, Forensic Art Essentials(2007, Elsevier

Press).

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