Story highlights Carl Koppelman creates portraits of unidentified deceased people

One family positively identified a relative after seeing one of Koppelman's reconstructions

(CNN) At first glance, Carl Koppelman's portraits might seem innocuous.

But a single somber thread connects the computer-generated faces staring back from his screen: They are all reconstructions of unidentified dead people.

Since he lost his job as an accountant for Disney in 2009, the 53-year-old amateur painter from Los Angeles has been illustrating deceased Jane and John Does -- and helping family members identify them.

"I've always had the ability to draw faces," he says. "So when I got involved in this, it was skills I already had -- but put to a different application."

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