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Entries in crime scene (1)

Wednesday
Oct172012

...that fingerprints...

I attended a presentation by my local RCMP Forensic Ident officer this evening and learned things about fingerprints, footprints, DNA and other crime scene clues. Here's a few fun facts I picked up:

  • fingerprints are particularly easy to lift from potato chip bags because
  • it is grease and oil one gets from touching body parts, such as face or hair (or from chips you eat), clinging to the fingers that creates fingerprints
  • this grease sticks to the fingers because we have many sweat pores on our fingers. We can see these if we look closely. They look like tiny holes.
  • fingerprints can be easily lifted from paper. It is heated and then treated and voila! Prints appear!
  • put superglue in a heating chamber with a plastic bag and the glue will become gaseous and cling to the oily finger prints on the bag, making them visible. This is a valuable technique as many illicit drugs are stored, traded, transferred in ordinary plastic Ziploc bags.
  • a technique has yet to be discovered for lifting prints from rocks...which means if a rock smashes through your window, it likely won't be useful in the ensuing vandalism investigation.
  • Despite digitalization of fingerprints, computerized transmission of fingerprints, and the national fingerprint data base Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), it still takes a human to do the ultimate match up. The computer can only narrow it down to a dozen or so similar prints. It is a labour-intensive job and truly does still involve lab techs staring at prints through magnifying glasses.
  • A partial print on a revolver leads investigators to suspect young Katrina Buckhold played a part in a horrific gang slaying in FATAL ERROR, my new crime novel. Sequel to The Traz.

 

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FATAL ERROR on Amazon.com

FATAL ERROR in the UK

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                                                                                THE TRAZ on Amazon.com 

                                                                               THE TRAZ in the UK