April was a nice month. It is always good to go with colleagues to have a drink, and discuss new developments and of course much more as can be seen in the photograph. This month I had to do several cases, and do some investigation with a reconstructio...
The effective documentation (and subsequent visual presentation) of wounds relies on the skills of the individual photographing those wounds, and the quality of illustrations prepared from those images. There have been huge advances in the field of for...
It is important for the crime scene investigator or forensic photographer to understand the appearance of different wound types, their significance and the implications for the technical aspects surrounding the lighting and composition, for effective d...
There are few (but gradually increasing) books dedicated to Forensic Photography. Redsicker is sometimes regarded as the "standard" text, but in my view it was dissapointing and poorly illustrated - particularly as quality of imaging is key to effectiv...
Welcome to this new blog dedicated to all aspects of Forensic Imaging. Although Forensic Science is well catered for on the web, Forensic Imaging is not so well represented. This blog will aim to promote discussion and interest in this diverse and exci...
Abstract Our laboratory received hair samples of three children after alleged exposure to Feminax tablets, which contain scopolamine
as an ingredient; it was regarded as an offense by the police because a woman had repeatedly beaten her children and forced
each of them to take four to ten Feminax tablets per day. Neither blood nor urine samples of the children had been obtained
at the time of the alleged offense. Thus, hair strands were obtained from the children as specimens in acquiring evidence
of the offense. We conducted segmental hair analysis of scopolamine using ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-tandem
mass spectrometry (MS-MS), which is highly sensitive and specific, and enabled the measurements of scopolamine at subpicogram-permilligram
levels present in the hair segments. By our UPLC-MS-MS analysis, it was found that the concentrations in the hair segments
ranged from 0.3 to 1.1 pg/mg and that exposure to scopolamine had continued for at least several months prior to the hair
sampling for all children. Because of our scientific evidence, the mother pleaded guilty to the offense against her children
despite her denial at the outset of the investigation.
Content TypeJournal Article
JournalForensic ToxicologyOnline ISSN 1860-8973Print ISSN 1860-8965 (Source: Forensic Toxicology)
Information from the media regarding the tragic shootings in Blacksburg seems to be flooding our senses. This is especially the case with academics and college students as exemplified by the buzz that has reverberated around the University of Florida campus. Many Universities around the nation have dedicated webpages and held candle light vigils in honor [...]
In 2003, research sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics began to uncover an overall picture of what kinds of demands our publicly funded crime labs are facing. The Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories has since retained its research grant to produce a second report due out in the next few months.
The [...]
I dont know if the average person ever thinks about the issue of removing a body from a scene. Most everyone has seen a body rolled away on the news or on a crime drama by people specially “trained” to perform that task. Needless to say, there is no actual formal training. [...]
