CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION 1. Introduction

What is crime scene investigation?  this is seemingly a trivial question with an obvious answer  investigation – the study of something, gathering information, making conclusions  crime scene – the place where the illegal event occurred Is this a satisfactory definition? If not, why not?

Exercise 1.1 a) Can you think of any reasons why the definition of crime scene is inadequate?  not all relevant evidence is found exactly where the incident occurred examples – trace evidence on criminal’s clothes, discarded weapons, Lockerbie  the term crime isn’t really appropriate because not everything that must be investigated is actually a crime – incident is better examples – suicide, car accidents

Exercise 1.1 b) What is a more useful definition of “crime scene” for our purposes?  all locations related to the incident where evidence may found

Example - Lockerbie  Dec.21, 1988 – Pan Am flight 103 from Frankfurt to New York exploded midair over Scotland  the largest pieces landed on the Scottish village of Lockerbie  all 259 on board died, as well as 11 on the ground

Lockerbie  the debris was spread out over a 300 km path, an area of 2000 sq. km

Lockerbie  the cause of the explosion was determined to be the result of a bomb in a suitcase in the luggage hold  the suitcase was unaccompanied, meaning that the person(s) who checked it in did not travel on the plane with it  This incident sparked one of the largest international investigations before September 11  The British Army began the task of covering the area, marking sites, making notes  the job of collecting forensic evidence came later

Lockerbie  one searcher told of finding a body, absolutely intact, sitting seemingly calm, still strapped into his airplane seat  thousands of bits of Boeing 747 were taken to a warehouse and pieced together, until they made what almost looked like an aircraft

The nature of crime scenes  large, small or in-between  the incident will always be serious for at least one person, regardless of whether an outsider might consider it trivial  it may be in a mansion or a sewer  the evidence for investigation might be bits of glass or a three week-old rotting corpse covered in maggots  it will never be a happy scene  it might be a job for you but remember to treat the victim as a human with feelings!

Exercise police response 2. evidence collection (testimonial & physical) 3. investigation by police/analysis of evidence by forensic lab 4. arrest of suspect 5. charging of alleged criminal 6. trial 7. conviction or acquittal 8. appeal

Exercise 1.3 SecureDocument CollectAnalyseInterpret Present Evaluate

Types of crime scenes  affects the evidence gathering process  most important are: location nature of incident

Exercise 1.4 interior vs exterior  ability to seal off the area  security of evidence  confined spaces  need to allow public access within a reasonable timeframe size  problems of security  time and number of people required to search geographical location  time taken to get people and equipment to scene  difficulty in access prevailing conditions  difficulty in finding & preserving evidence person (dead or alive)  need for sensitivity Nature of incident => evidence gathering process  priority order for allocating resources

Evidence types  impression – marks left in or on a surface, e.g. fingerprints  biological – material from a natural (human, animal or plant) source, e.g. blood  trace –small pieces of a range of materials, transferred by person to crime scene or vice versa, e.g. glass fragments  weapons  documents – including electronic forms, e.g. stolen credit cards  miscellaneous items – objects that don’t fit into the above categories, e.g. stolen merchandise

E XERCISE 1.6 In the list of evidence types in Table 1.1 are a number described as standards. What does this mean?  samples taken for comparison with evidence recovered from crime scene  e.g. blood & fingerprints from suspect

E XERCISE 1.7 What evidence types would you look for in a car theft?  fingerprints  tool marks  footwear impressions  tyre patterns  hair  fibres