Mansfield police detective's daughter says TV's 'Bones' led her to forensic anthropology

Mansfield police Detective Rob Skropits and his daughter have worked together on several death scenes in Mansfield and Richland County.

Unlike her father, Hannah Skropits is a forensic anthropologist.

Hannah Skropits, 24, who graduated from Ontario High School in 2018, has come back home as a graduate student on several occasions volunteering with Mercyhurst University Forensic Scene Recovery Team to help identify human remains and search for causes of trauma alongside Mansfield police.

More: Human remains identified as missing person Billy Bays III

Hannah Skropits will graduate in May from with a master's in science in forensic and biological anthropology. She earned her bachelor's degree in forensic chemistry from Bowling Green State University.

Daughter and father have a lot in common. They're both problem solvers. They both rely on evidence to solve cases.

Although she is still looking for jobs in death investigation, she knows wherever she lands will be science based.

"I've always loved crime shows," she said recently. She fell in love with the TV show,"Bones." Her parents encouraged her to look into similar careers in the real world since she loved problem solving.

So she job-shadowed Dr. Dennis Dirkmaat, the director of Mercyhurst Forensic Science Department, on a couple of death investigation scenes in Mansfield so she could see how graduate students worked. And she liked it.

In April, she and other volunteers with the Mercyhurst team came to Mansfield to help police and the Richland County Coroner's Office identify human remains found inside a house. Hannah Skropits has been part of the team for two years and traveled around Ohio, Pennsylvania and western New York.

"We spend a lot of time in our big passenger van," she said.

Trained to identify a person, and figure out the manner of death, Hannah Skropits said the team also looks to see if there is any trauma.

"We're able to provide closure to the family," which is rewarding, she said.

She said she is interested in investigative work and what it entails. "It is a field always in need of workers," she said.

Part of the attraction of the career is that she loves doing something different every day, whether it is performing a scene recovery or a lab analysis.

"Usually people don't know what a forensic anthropologist is," she said. "Sometimes it's not a murder but police don't have ID. Dental records help ID people."

In the graduate program, some classmates will continue their education and become board certified. She is interested in becoming a certified analyst with the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

The team has taken her to some interesting locations.

She's typically out in the woods or in the basement of a house. She's been on about 20 scenes, she said. Graduate students travel to scenes and return to Mercyhurst in Erie, Pennsylvania, the same day. There are no overnight trips.

In high school she loved science, chemistry, math and anatomy. She knew she wanted to go to college and study forensic chemistry,

"I actually went in wanting to be a forensic anthropologist and came out still wanting to be a forensic anthropologist," she said.

Dirkmaat is in charge of both the undergraduate program in Applied Forensic Sciences and the Masters of Science in Anthropology, Forensic and Biological Anthropology Concentration, considered one of the top master's programs in the discipline in North America. He is a professor of anthropology and teaches courses in physical anthropology, human skeletal biology and forensic anthropology.

Dirkmaat’s many high-profile cases include his role as primary scientific advisor to Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller in the recovery and identification of remains from the 9/11 crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, according to the university.

"Hannah will be graduating from our Masters of Forensic and Biological Anthropology program this spring, as one of our best students of the last 10 years," Dirkmaat said.

"We met her while she was still in high school when we conducted a few cases in Mansfield for the Richland County Coroner’s Office (her dad was also working the cases). You could tell then that she had great potential…..," Dirkmaat said this week.

Rob Skropits, who has been with the Mansfield Police Department for 31 years this month, said he and his wife, Amy, recognized early on that science was a subject that came to easily to their daughter.

"She has definitely put the time and energy into it. Now it's the time in her life to make the next step. I don't know where it's going to lead her, but I think she has a path and she definitely knows what she wants to do. She definitely has the drive and determination to move the way she wants to go," Rob Skropits said.

"Until a case in 2016, I didn't even know that even existed, that opportunity," Rob Skropits said. "She knew what she was getting into and she jumped right in there."

2016: Missing Mansfield woman search: Remains found

Human remains believed to be those of a missing Mansfield woman were recovered at multiple sites in northern Richland County in 2016, Skropits said. Mercyhurst students identified the remains.

He said he would be honored if Hannah followed in his footsteps but said he knows there is a lot that she can do in her field.

"These cases just roll in to where I look at it and go. They know what to do," Rob Skropits said. "We have not been trained what to do, but when Mercyhurst comes in and does what they do, it's amazing."

lwhitmir@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Woman follows 'Bones', Ohio detective dad to forensic anthropology