Crime Scene Investigation

For the Crime Scene Investigation, I was assigned to Scene 1 with seven other people. Once we "arrived at the scene," we each took one or two of the eleven pieces of evidence to analyze. I had the footprinting clue, where there was what looked like the bottom of the victim;'s shoe and and image of a shoe-print that was pointed in the direction away fromt he crime scene. Below is all of the information and analysis of the clues:

       Background Information:

A dead body was found decaying in an open field by the woods.

                                 

Analysis of Clues:

Exhibit 1: Handwriting: Forged suicide note: "Please forgive me. I do love you all."

                                 : Characteristics include large loops, semi-connected letters 

                                 : Note: Handwriting changes throughout the note, the victim DID NOT write it.

Exhibit 2: Hair: Caucasian, short (boy?)

Exhibit 3: Fingerprint: Plain arch

Exhibit 4: Poison: pH between 7-8, cocaine tested positive.

Exhibit 5/6: Pictures: The pictures are of maggots and a decayed face. The maggots show that the victime is in the "active decay" stage. This means the body was found approximately 20-50 days after the victim was killed. The face/body has undergone botynic fermentation.

Exhibit7: Footprinting: Shoe found on victim's foot: height: 6 7/8 inch

                                                                                      : Width: 4 inch

                                                                                      : Looks like an athletic/running shoe. It s very small, which leads me to believe that the victim was a child, most likely a boy.

             : Suspects foot/shoeprint: Height: 11 inch

                                                  : Width: 4"

                                                  : It is an athletic/running shoe. The size and type of indicates that the person who committed the crime was most likely a man. The print was found walking away from the scene.

Exhibit 8: Lift Print: The fingerprint found on the scene was an ulnar loop.

Exhibit 9: Fingerprint: Another print found on the scene, a double loop, possibly the victim's.

Exhibit 10: Fiber: Black, long string. Under the micrso scope it looks like nylon. 

Exhibit 11: Syringe: Could have been used to drug the victim.

Possible Suspects:

After our analysis of the clues, we identified three possible suspects as Courtney Smith, Jet Trong, and Lucas Moore. After further analysis, we determined the perpetrator to be Lucas Moore because of the finger prints, footprints, handwriting, and facts about him. 



The Final Story:





Lucas Moor's wife divorced him, and took his young son with her. Soon after he fell into a deep depression, went crazy, and was admitted into a pchysiatric ward. He broke out and stole cocaine. He left a suicide note for the mother, planning to take his child. He waits in the woods for his son to pass by on his way home froms school. Spotting his son, Moore jumps out of the woods and tries to take the boy. The child fights back, which explains the missing tooth of the victim and the handful of short, caucasian hair. Moore tried to drug his child, but accidentally killed his son during the stuggle, so he left his son on the field by the edge of woods and the fled the seen.



Poison Activity

Research:

1) Definition of poison- substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by that organism.

2) Common poison sources: bites

                                          : medicine (overdose)

                                          : food (allergies/rotten)

                                          : plants

                                          : household products (ex/ bleach)

                                          : lead

                                          : carbon monoxide

3) How do crime labs handle poison cases? What are some signs of poisoning?

                                          : enlarged pupils

                                          : sight of injection (bruise, etc.)

                                          : foaming/drooling

                                          : skin discoloration

                                          : excess vomit

                                          : vessels burst= extensive bleeding from the inside out

                                          : elevated heart/breathing rate

Class Activity:

For this activity, we had to use various reagents to identify which substance was a specific poison out of multiple unknowns. Here are my results of the experiment:
 1) Metal Poisons: Info: Chromium turned orange when acidified  
                                  : Lead forms a yellow precipitate when KI is added
                                  : Iron turns blood red when KSCN is added
                          : Results: Unknown 1 is lead
                                       : Unknown 2 is iron
                                       : Unknown 3 is chromium

Sample 2: The substance on the very right
turned blood red when KSCN was added

2) Sugars: Info: When sugar test reagent is added, a purple color will form.



                        : Results: All tests responded negatively. All of the unknowns were colorless, but then turned blue when the reagent was added.



All samples tested negatively



3) Household Ammonia: Info: An odor is present

                                            : pH is above 7 (solution is basic)

                                            : phenolthaline is pink/purple in solution (solution is basic)

                                      : Results: Unknown 2 tested positive for all three tests

4) Aspirin: Info: Bromythymel Blue will be yellow (solution is acidic)

                      :pH is below 7 (solution is acidic)

                : Results: Unknown sample 1 turned yellow in the BTB and had the pH paper indicated a pH of 2

                           : Other samples did not turn yellow and the pH paper indicated that both unknown 2&3 had a pH of 8

These are all three of the samples. Sample 2 tested positively because it
turned yellow when BTB waas added and the pH paper turned red,
indicating a pH of 2.

5)Cyanide: Info: Turns blood red when Fe+3 is added

                : Results: All unknown solutions were clear, but sample 2 turned red after the reagent was added.

These are all three samples.
Sample 2 is cyanide because it turned
blood red after Fe+3 was added.

6) Iodine: Info: Turns blue/black when starch is added

               : Results: Unknown 1 remained yellow

                           : Unknown 2 remained red
                           : Unknown 3 was is Iodine because it was originally clear but turned blue after the chemical reaction took place.

Unknown Sample 3 turned blu-ish
when the starch was added.

Drug Analysis

As part of the exercise, we were required to gain background knowledge of cocaine, LSD, and meth before we started the experiment. Here is the information I gathered:

Cocaine:

     Correct Chemical Name: benzoylmethylecgonine

     Correct Chemical Formula: C17H12NO4

     pH: 7.2

LSD:
     Correct Chemical Name: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

     Correct Chemical Formula: C20H25N3O

     pH: 4

Meth:

     Correct Chemical Name: N-methyl-1-phenyl-propan-2-amine

     Correct Chemical Formula: C10H15N

     pH: 12.8

Class Activity:

Drug 4

Drug 1

For the Drug Analysis Lab, we were given 6 unknown drugs. For each we had to determine the pH and identify each as cocaine, LSD, or meth through the use of vrious reagents. Here are our results:

Drug	pH	Cocaine Reagent (turns blue)________	LSD Reagent (turns yellow	Meth Reagent
1	4	negative	negative	positive
2	9	positive	negative	negative
3	3	negative	positive	negative
4	8	positive	negative	negative
5	12	negative	negative	positive
6	4	negative	positive	negative

 This lab would be helpful in an investigation because it can further develop the profile of possible suspects; you can identify and illegal substances were used. 

Footprints

In my group of four we each made and footprint in dirt like this:



My Footprint

  After each footprint was made, we filled out a data sheet that required information such as the length, width, defining characteristics, subtrate, and weather conditions. It is important to know the climate of where the footprint was found and the terrain, or substrate, on which it was taken. Examples of possible substrates include dirt, mud, sand, and concrete. Footprints help us identify the approzimate size of a suspect and what type of shoes they were wearing when they comitted the crime. Also, if there are any disinct markings, such as a dent in the heel, that marking could be analyzed and then be compared with the shoes of the suspects.

After the practice, I came to the conclusion that footprints/footprinting is more helpful when trying to eliminate suspects rather than identify the individual the committed the crime. I thought the exercise was rather simple and footprinting is one of the easier aspects of a crime scene to analyze because footprints are easier to identify than, for example, fingerprints and hairs/fibers.

Witness Experiment

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if you would make a good witness at a crime scene.

For this exercise, we cut pictures of people's faces (similarly sized) out of various magazines. After we obtained the faces, we cut them up into individual facial features, such as the nose, eyes, mouth, and hair. Then, all of the same features were put into put into piles and your partner made a new face by picking one feature from each pile. One a new face was created, we were given 10 seconds to memorize it before each feature was put back into its pile. We had to then try to re-create the face our partner made.

In conclusion, this exercise was used to determine if you would be a good eye-witness based on your ability to memorize the distinct characteristics of a person's facial features.

I think I have a pretty good memory and would make a great eye-witness because I did really well in this experiment; I easily re-created the faces my partner made.

Create a Profile

For this activity, we were supplied with five individual pieces of evidence such as a set of fingerprints, two hair or fiber samples, a handwriting sample, and a lip print or blood sample. We were required to analyze each clue and determine if we could identify the type of person might have committed a crime and left these clues at the scene.

As a group we had to analyze each exhibit and record what we knew for sure, what needed more testing, and what we didn’t know. In the end, we determined the perpetrator was most likely a female African American. Also, we were led to believe that there was a Caucasian female on the scene. After reviewing our pieces of evidence, we discovered that there was a struggle between the victim and the suspect which resulted in the death or injury of the victim.

This exercise required us to use all of our forensics knowledge because we had to apply what we learned in fingerprinting, hair and fiber, handwriting, and lipstick in order to create a profile for the suspect of our crime. This technique of analyzing all clue to form the profile for the suspect of a crime is extremely useful in investigations because it is used to identify all of the possible people who committed the crime.

Lipstick

During the lip printing activity, we used lipstick to make our own lip prints on an index card. As seen in he picture below, we had to analyze our own prints and label 5 defining characteristics. Then, we were put into groups of 3-6 where we all put our prints onto a single sheet of paper. We then gave the piece of paper with the group's prints and our individual prints to another group. The other group then had to match each individual print to one of the prints on the big piece of paper by analyzing the distinct characteristics of each print and comparing them to the "unknown" prints.

After the preliminary practice, I have decided that it is not that difficult to identify the distinct characteristics of an individual's lip print, but our exercise was not very realstic. I don't think that it will be ver common to find full, clear lip prints on a crime scene; they will most likely be partial and smudged. Also, the prints would not be found on a white piece of paper; I believe it is most probable to find the prints on the victim.