Criminal incidents usually take place throughout the United States on a daily basis. The work of law enforcement officers is to notify the forensic team when a crime has taken place and that there needs to be physical evidence that should be collected. The work of the forensic team is to go out and collect the evidence. The forensic team is made up of a team of scientists that provide help with the physical evidence. Physical evidence can involve DNA, fibers, fingerprints, hair follicles, and blood spatter patterns. The particular case involves a situation where an individual stumbled upon a decomposing body and five skeletons. It is the work of the forensic team to try and identify the decomposing bodies and identify the reasons for their death. This paper will analyze the case study by looking at various steps and procedures undertaken by the forensic team from the collection of evidence to the final DNA identification and identification of suspects.
Why The Case Will Require Forensic Biology
The case at hand involves skeletal remains and a decomposing body that was discovered. These are the major pieces of evidence in the crime scene and would require the use of forensic biology. Forensic anthropologists and forensic pathologists are forensic experts that will be called upon to discover the facts surrounding the criminal activity. Forensic biology experts are usually required for deaths involving partially decomposed bodies or skeletal remains, violent deaths, deaths caused by mysterious diseases, sudden death, and suspicious death due to a disease that could be considered a public threat (Hanzlick, 2016). Forensic biology experts remain the key people that will be important in solving the case. The only evidence available is that of DNA evidence and there is a requirement to collect and identify the DNA evidence.
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First Course of Action at the Scene
First, in order to enter the homicide site beyond the yellow tape, the investigator has to sign their contact information. Upon arriving at the scene, the first course of action is to talk to the officer in charge of the crime scene. The first responder officer to the crime scene will also be important in gathering information about the incident. The first step will be talking to the investigator regarding the discovery of the evidence. The officer will have already had an analysis of the situation and should be able to answer various questions regarding what he or she thinks about the incident.
Avoidance of Contamination at the Stage
The first responder should be able to escort the forensic biologists to provide a briefing regarding the evidence. The forensic investigator is not supposed to touch or move anything until the briefing process has been completed. The forensic investigator should take note of all the areas that have been highlighted or have been flagged by the officer that is in charge of the situation. The first responder and investigator should wear gloves and make use of covered shoes in order to prevent contamination. One should not move anything and the investigator should first inquire whether the images have been photographed and well-documented.
Control and Challenges Posed by First Responders
Crime scene contamination can be caused due to the actions of other personnel at the crime scene. The higher the number of individuals at the crime scene, the more the likely chance that the evidence is going to be contaminated. Some of the challenges posed by other individuals in the crime scene are that they can deposit hairs, fibers and trace material from clothing, destroy the footwear paths, and destroy or put fingerprints. For the given case, footwear patterns and the depositing of hair fiber can create contamination at the crime scene. This creates challenges of bringing in false evidence and taking away the right evidence from the crime scene.
Prevention of the contamination should be done by ensuring that there is a minimal number of individuals that have access to the crime scene. The scene should thus be secured by one officer. It will be easy for the given scenario to protect the scene through the use and help of only one officer. Another way to control the crime scene is for the officer and investigator to decontaminate their equipment before and after the crime scene incidence. The officer’s equipment and that should be decontaminated may include their clothing, note pads, sketching equipment, photography equipment, and other processing equipment required at the crime scene.
Identification of Remains at the Crime Scene
The collection of various evidence should be collected. For the different skeletons, all parts should be fitted together in order to identify that they are from the same body. The nature and character of the parts that have been collected should be put together. For the decomposed body, it will be important to identify various external features such as the color of the skin and their facial patterns. The possible age of the individual can be considered by looking at the skull, the teeth, the color of their hair, and the ossification of the bones. Further identification can take place by considering fingerprints, tattoo marks, the condition of teeth, the color of hair, scars on the body, old or recent fractures, and the clothing of the individual. All these factors should assist in identifying the cause of death and the probable time of death.
The identification of remains at the crime scene is going to be a challenging and difficult process. Ante-mortem is a process of data collection and storage that should report regarding an individual that is presumed dead or missing. It should be able to provide data such as hair color, sex, tattoos in the body, dental record, and age. The antemortem data should involve other information such as clothes and jewelry that the individual was wearing before they went missing (Langley, 2016). All these will be considered when looking at the decomposed body found at the crime scene. Once the data is collected, it will be compared to similar information that has been obtained from missing persons to identify a match.
Documentation Process for Collection and Preservation of Evidence
The first thing that the investigator will consider in the given crime scene is the gravesite by considering its dimensions. The total area of bodies and the spread of the bodies should next be documented. Other evidence such as the presence of personal belonging, bullets, and jewelry around or within the gravesite should be documented. The equipment that is used to remove the topsoil for the given case can be analyzed by considered digging marks at the site and this should be documented. All aspects of that will be required for the DNA evidence should also be collected. Any type of fluids that have been collected at the evidence site or hair follicles and body parts should be documented.
In order to preserve the DNA evidence identified in the scene, there should be proper storage such as the prevention of sunlight and avoidance of warm conditions which could destroy the evidence. Any type of DNA evidence that can be considered such as hair follicles, body fluids, or bones should be carefully collected and put in cold storage for preservation. Additionally, a complete map of the crime scene before any removal of the bodies and skeletons should be performed. Everything that can be used in the courtroom should be photographed, collected and sealed as evidence that can be used in the courtroom.
Transportation of Evidence
Transportation of evidence from the scene will require special considerations in order to prevent any form of contamination or destruction. Some evidence could be biological and could be sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. The body that has been discovered should be placed in a bag and the bag sealed so that it can be ready for transportation. Other skeletons that have been discovered should also be sealed and made ready for transportation. All evidence should be sealed since leaving them open places the risk of contamination as a result of dust. When transporting the evidence, it is important to ensure that they are covered from direct sunlight. The individual handling the evidence should also wear disposable gloves in order to prevent contamination. The evidence should also be separated so as to prevent the mixture between one piece of evidence and another.
Risks of contamination at the Lab
There are significant risks of contamination that will exist at the lab. One of the first risks of contamination is in the event that there are fluids that were discovered and the storage leads to a leaking problem. Any such form of leaking can lead to contamination of other pieces of evidence. Containers that are porous have the potential of passing fluids through their wall. The other risks posed comes about through the analysis of the evidence. Additionally, poor storage of the decomposing body can result in further decomposition leading to loss of evidence. Various individuals that handle the evidence run the risk of contamination.
In order to avoid contamination caused by leakage, the area should be checked on a frequent basis and decontamination of the area undertaken if necessary. The evidence should also be stored separately in a temporary vault. Containers that should be used when closing the evidence should not be porous or allow the flow of liquid. The evidence should be stored in a cool place in order to prevent additional decomposition. Individuals that handle the evidence should follow standard procedure and wear gloves any time they handle the evidence.
The process of DNA Analysis on the Decomposing Body
After receiving the decomposing body, the first process of the DNA analysis will involve identification and analysis of groupings such as hair, bone, hair bulbs, tooth, and vertebra. All the DNA that should be analyzed should be documented so that the final results can be grouped correctly. Analysis of the DNA should be done through serology, DNA tests, and interpretation of the DNA results.
Specific Tests to be Used
One specific test that will be used to carry out the examination is the short tandem repeat (STR) markers. The test makes use of a high level of polymorphism that is abundant in the human genome to identify the DNA. Methods that will be used to carry out the multiplex genotyping of STR markers will make use of sensitive and highly reliable fluorescent technologies that are widely used by forensics (Kaur et al., 2019).
Significance of Serology
Serology will play a significant role in the use and identification of body fluids. Serology involves an examination of bodily fluids that should be used to identify the fluids that have been segregated by an individual (Dumache et al., 2016). The decomposing body should have some fluids such as blood, sweat, semen, saliva, and even human feces which should be collected. It can be used to collect other information whether the victim was raped and fluid evidence prove that intercourse took place. Fluids such as blood can be used to identify the specific individual by collecting DNA samples of the suspected victim.
The process to Conduct the DNA test.
The process of conducting DNA tests is usually carried out through a series of steps and procedures. The specific steps include extraction, quantitation, amplification, separation, analysis & interpretation, and quality assurance (Butler, 2015). Extraction involves releasing DNA from the cell. Quantitation is used to determine the amount of DNA available. Amplification is used to make multiple copies of the DNA in order to characterize it. Separation involves separating the amplified DNA in order to permit subsequent identification. Analysis & Interpretation involves quantitatively and qualitatively comparing the DNA evidence samples to that of known DNA profiles. The quality assurance process will involve a review of analyst reports to improve technical accuracy.
Challenges and Barriers When Interpreting Results
One of the challenges that could come up when interpreting the results is the absence of the DNA profile for comparison. The decomposing body was found in a distant location and there were no suspects found. While the DNA sample could be identified, it will be difficult to identify the actual suspect. Another challenge when interpreting the result could occur in case there was contamination of the crime scene. This could mean that the DNA evidence gathered could be misleading.
The Role of Facial Reconstruction
Facial reconstruction will play a significant role in solving the given case. Facial reconstruction will be used to identify the victim. The body of the victim is partially decomposing and facial reconstruction can be performed. Tissue markers and clay can be used to perform an approximate reconstruction to identify the possible victim. Additionally, two-dimensional reconstruction will make use of photography and sketching to try and identify an approximate reconstruction of the victim (Gupta et al., 2015).
Scenarios of Court Case Outcomes
Scenario 1: Successful Identification and Conviction
For a successful and accurate identification and conviction, the evidence collected at the crime scene should be enough to fill in the blanks. The evidence gathered should be used to first identify the specific victim, their age, gender, time of death, and cause of death. The specific victim could be a female that was raped and later killed through struggling by the assailant. The DNA evidence that could be gathered could involve hair follicles and semen. The possible suspect could be a friend to the victim and the location identified through video footage showing the victim meeting the perpetrator at the possible time and location of death. This would present an overwhelming level of evidence that would lead to a successful conviction.
Scenario 2: Wrongful Conviction
A wrongful conviction will take place in the given case in case the forensic material that has been gathered such as fiber and hair comparison remains invalidated. The DNA of hair follicles from a close friend could be found with the victim. The forensic team may decide to stop there and not consider any other possible evidence and this may lead to wrongful conviction.
Conclusion
The presented case involves solving a case after an individual discovered 5 skeletons in a grave and a body that was partially decomposing. The case requires a forensic biology expert to be able to determine the evidence that was gathered. The forensic person should be responsible for the prevention of contamination in the scene, the transportation process, and the lab. They will also be responsible for identification of the remains at the crime scene and DNA analysis of the evidence. Some of the tests that can be used are STR markers and serology for DNA analysis and facial reconstruction. Proper gathering of evidence should lead to the right conviction.
References
Butler, J. M. (2015). The future of forensic DNA analysis. Philosophical transactions of the royal society B: biological sciences , 370 (1674), 20140252.
Dumache, R., Ciocan, V., Muresan, C., & Enache, A. (2016). Molecular DNA Analysis in Forensic Identification. Clinical laboratory , 62 (1-2), 245-248.
Gupta, S., Gupta, V., Vij, H., Vij, R., & Tyagi, N. (2015). Forensic facial reconstruction: The final frontier. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR , 9 (9), ZE26.
Hanzlick, R. (2016). Death investigation: systems and procedures . CRC Press.
Kaur, S., Lamba, M., & Saini, V. (2019). Identification of a Severely Decomposed Body by Dental DNA STR Analysis: A Case Report. Arab Journal of Forensic Sciences & Forensic Medicine (AJFSFM) , 1 (8), 1072-1079.
Langley, N. R., Jantz, L. M., Ousley, S. D., Jantz, R. L., & Milner, G. (2016). Data collection procedures for forensic skeletal material 2.0. University of Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University .
