Imagine being shown video of just one unknown person in America and having to identify them? That might sound damn near impossible, but it becomes a little more plausible if you are forensic expert. And that is the premise for National Geographic’s The Great American Manhunt that debuts tonight at 9p. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Natalie Shirley, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Dan Shapiro and veteran police officer Bill Erfurth will be shown an unidentifiable person, given their clothes, hair, skin and some other effects that will help them identify the person. They will not be able to use databases, fingerprints or dental record to look into the John Doe’s ID, but instead they will have to use their smarts and investigative skills. They will give the person a name like Autograph Man and then try to figure out as much as they can. They will think they know what the person does by scars on and in their bodies and they could be right or wrong. Once they have a really good sense of what the person do for a living, they will then try to guess where the person lives. Now that they know that, they will now go to that area and pray they can find that needle in the haystack. It is incredible to watch them find just one person among the millions in the United States of America. In fact on tonight’s show they will find a person we have all heard about, and it is not by what he does for a living. If you think shows like CSI and Bones are exciting then you are really going to love watching the real life pursuit to find one person.
