Missouri Emergency Response Identification Team

Fillable Registration Form

• Location: MDA Executive Office, 3340 American Ave, Jefferson City (lower level, park around back)
• Schedule: 8:30am to 4:30pm (8:30am Registration; 9am CE Begins) 
• CE: 7.5 hours
• Fee: $125 per person; continental breakfast and catered lunch included
• Hotel Block: Hampton Inn, 4800 Country Club Dr, Jefferson City. Room block has been reserved for Friday, March 21. Rates $144/nt Double Queen or $149/nt King. For reservations, call 573-761-0400 by March 17, under the Missouri Dental Association.

Cases that Never Die: A Journey in Forensic Pathology (Dr. Deiter Duff)

1. Describe the role of forensic pathologists and how they work with forensic odontologists.
2. Define manners of death and explain how these manners are classified.
3. Discuss common causes of death.
4. Formulate questions and hypotheses during case discussions of death investigations.

Functions within a Medical Examiner’s Office by a Forensic Autopsy Supervisor (Holly Cass)

This presentation will encompass several cases Holly has worked with throughout her 10 years with JCMEO. She will show many different aspects of her job, including her responsibilities inside and outside the medical examiner’s office. Attendees will learn about the differences between the coroner’s office and the medical examiner’s office. She will also explain when she needs to call in a forensic odontologist to help with the identification of the remains. This, like most forensic presentations, will have photography that is graphic in nature.

Deiter Duff, MD is a native Missourian and forensic pathologist with 10 years of experience who has performed more than 2,500 postmortem examinations. He is the Medical Examiner for Greene County in Springfield, Mo. and formerly was Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri and a Medical Examiner for Boone and Callaway Counties. His undergraduate degrees are from Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Mo. as well as the University of Missouri-Columbia, and he went on to complete medical school and a pathology residency at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Duff’s forensic pathology fellowship was in St. Louis. 

Ms. Holly Cass is the forensic autopsy supervisor for Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office (JCMEO). She attended Columbia College in Columbia, Mo. where she earned a BS in Forensic Science focusing on post-mortem forensic practices, with a concentration in biology, minor in chemistry and a certificate in CSI. She has been with the Jackson County Medical Examiner’s office since July 2014, as a Forensic Technician for three years and the Forensic Autopsy Supervisor for last 7+ years. 

The MERIT Meeting is each march at the MDA office. The 2025 event information will be announced here when it is available. 

The Missouri Emergency Response Identification Team (MERIT) is a statewide forensic dental team, which was born out of the Great Flood of 1993, during which a small-town Missouri cemetery was washed away and required that scores of bodies be identified for re-interment. A cadre of forensic dentists was called in to perform forensic identification, mostly from outside the state.

To provide a local resource for such disasters in the future, a state dental forensic team was formed. Each year MERIT team members meet for a CE program and annual meeting. You are not required to be a member of the MERIT team to attend the CE course. The program is open to dentists, auxiliaries, students or anyone interested in learning about the MERIT program and forensic dentistry.