MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Sharon Long's work has earned her the nickname "Skull Lady."



Sharon Long is a forensic artist whose job is to help identify the dead, often murder victims.



She is a forensic artist whose job is to give faces -- and sometimes identities -- back to anonymous murder victims who have been robbed of both.



Armed with sculptor's clay, glass eyes, wigs and research, Long creates a face from a human skull.



When Fort Myers, Florida, police found eight sets of human remains in the woods in March, they turned to her -- anything to help identify the people who were so mercilessly left to rot amid the trees and mud.



"[Police] have no other way. They have no fingerprints; they have no flesh. Usually, the last resort is building a face," Long said.  See the "skull lady" at work »



She hopes that when the faces of those killed get printed in newspapers or appear on TV or online, a friend or loved one recognizes them and says, "Gee, we haven't seen so-and-so for a while, and that kind of looks like him."



"Then, at least, you have a lead, and then you can get DNA from people. And then [police] have something to go on."



Long, 67, has made faces for the unknown victims of grisly homicides and solved historical mysteries. During her 20-year career, the forensics specialist from the University of Wyoming helped identify the crew of the H.L Hunley, a Confederate submarine sunk during the Civil War. She also created the first picture of the only explorer to have died on the Lewis and Clark expedition.



When law enforcement asks for Long's assistance, it is almost always on a case that has gone very cold. And that was exactly the case in Fort Myers, where police were desperate for any information on the dead they found: eight men killed, their bodies discovered in a wooded area on March 23, 2007.  Watch how bones can give clues to investigators »



There were no witnesses, no leads and little evidence of killings other than the victims' bones.



If Long could identify the victims of the crime, it might help to catch a serial killer. But before Long could create any likeness of the victims, she would have to do a lot of work -- hundreds of hours of it.



Long first creates a mold of the skull and uses it to make a plaster replica. She puts eraser tips on points to mark tissue depth. Sculptor's clay fills in for skin and muscle. The faded gumline on the skull's teeth helps Long determine how thick the person's lips were.



The victim's hair and eye color requires guesswork and research, Long says. Often while working on cases, she talks to people who lived in the same area as the victim or victims to find out the most common eye color and what hairstyles are in fashion.  See how to decode a face »



She spent two months on the Fort Myers skulls.



"I start working, and 15 hours can go by, and I don't get up and move, and you don't realize how much time has gone by, and, well, that's how intense I get," she said. "It's like you get carried away in this life of somebody. I start trying to think of them as being an alive person and doing something and not getting killed."



Eventually, publicity about the Fort Myers case would lead people with missing relatives to submit their DNA. Testing revealed that two of the men were Erik Kohler and John Blevins. Both men lived hardscrabble lives and had run-ins with police. Both disappeared in 1995.



At a news conference last month where Fort Myers police unveiled Long's sculptures, investigators said they still need to identify the other six victims if they are to solve the case.



Kohler and Blevins didn't closely mirror Long's sculptures of their faces, but there were some
Of those found, how many were identified? what does sharon long do what did police find Who were the identified remains? Who creates art from skulls? what happened in florida Where is the forensic artist from?
two forensic artist eight sets of human remains Erik Kohler Sharon Long police found eight sets of human remains in the woods in March, the University of Wyoming
question: Of those found, how many were identified?, answer: two | question: what does sharon long do, answer: forensic artist | question: what did police find, answer: eight sets of human remains | question: Who were the identified remains?, answer: Erik Kohler | question: Who creates art from skulls?, answer: Sharon Long | question: what happened in florida, answer: police found eight sets of human remains in the woods in March, | question: Where is the forensic artist from?, answer: the University of Wyoming