jan 1, 1989 - ≈1989: One of the first police sketches is created to help aid a Michigan kidnapping investigation. After this point, they see a rise in use in U.S forensics.

Description:

Although the reliability of forensic composite sketches has been highly debated in today's era, the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping investigation was one of the earliest times in U.S history where a police sketch was used. The sketches did not necessarily move the investigation at the time, but many years later in 2015 the sketches helped identify a man who did confess to the original 1989 kidnapping.

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