More Case Study

Members of the jury were shown pictures of decompising heads, hands and other remains. A witness said that the skulls were cut from both front and behind and they had been forced apart when the cuts almost joined. There was also some gunshot wounds on some victems but they couldn't be linked to any of the guns found on the property. They found out that a 22-caliber revolver with a dildo attached over the barrel had got DNA on from a victem and possibly Pickton.

The Jury for the trial took nine days to decide the verdict: Guilty! He was guilty on six counts of second-degree murder. The jury looked at all the evidence which was: five of the sixty-one items found linked to a missing woman and possibly Pickton, an eyewitness account who saw him in a room with a saw and a woman's body hung.

He was sentanced to life in prison with a possible parole after 10 years.

Case Study

For my case study I have chosen Robert Pickton. He was a serial killer convicted of second degree murders of six women. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Forensics analysed a saw which allegdly was used to bisect three skulls and cut through human bones. One of the victem's jawbone, as well as several ribs, two heel bones and several vertebrae that had been collected had cut marks on it. Ten of the saw's 45 blades came into evidence, only because they could not be eliminated as the blades that had caused the cuts in the bones. The expert was certain a saw had produced them but could not definitely identify what kind.

A forensic entomologist, Dr. Gail Anderson, also testified that the remains of two more victems had been exposed to the elements for several weeks to several months before being stashed in the freezer where they were found. Insects apparently went into the buckets when the remains were picked up for storage, and their type and stage of development helped to scientifically establish a timeframe.

There will be more about robert pickton and how it was solved later on.

Microscopes

Microscopes are used to see objects which are too small to see with the naked eye.Microscopes can be separeted into three classes: optical theory microscopes, electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes.

Optical microscopes use refractive lenses of glass, plastic or quartz to focus light into the eye or another light detector.

Chromatography

Chromatography is where you place a small dot of solution onto a piece of chromatography paper. The paper is put into a jar containing a small amount of solvent. As the solvent rises through the paper it meets the dot of solution where it travels upwards with the solvent. When it has finished it might look like the picture above.

There is other types of chromatography like: column chromatography, planar chromatography and thin layer chromatography.

DNA fingerprinting

DNA fingerprinting is a technique used by forensic scientists to indentify individuals on the basis of their respective DNA profiles. Although most human DNA sequences are common in humans, DNA fingerprinting makes use of highly variable repeat sequences, called variable number tandem repaets (VNTR).

It was first used in 1985 by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the University of Leicester and is now the basis of several national DNA databases

Blood types

blood types are a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of the re blood cells. Forensics use a system called the ABO system which measures antigens.

At a crime scene where there has been blood spilled - either the victim or the assailant - a serologist will take blood samples in order to identify whose blood it is.

More info about fingerprints

Fingerprints are used as a type of identification and there are many types of fingerprints.

There is the Latent print, Patent print and the plastic print.

Fingerprints have served all governments world wide during the past 100 years to provide accurate identifacation of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many of human and automated computer comparisons.

Oli's Science Homework

This is my Blog about forensic science!!!!!!

Week one is all about fingerprints

fingerprints are impressions of the friction ridges of the finger. A friction ridge is a raised part of the epidermis on the palm or the fingers and toes.

Hope the picture works.

The FBI manages a fingerprint identifacation system and database called IAFIS, which holds fingerprints of over fifty-one million criminal record subjects.