Blurred pictures from the crime scene: the growing case for a function of Chlamydiales in plastid endosymbiosis.

A number of recent papers have brought suggestive evidence for an active role of Chlamydiales in the establishment of the plastid. Chlamydiales define a very ancient group of obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens that multiply in vesicles within eukaryotic phagotrophic host cells such as animals, amoebae or other protists, possibly including the hypothetical phagotroph that internalized the cyanobacterial ancestor of the plastid over a billion years ago. We briefly survey the case for an active role of these ancient pathogens in plastid endosymbiosis. We argue that a good understanding of the Chlamydiales infection cycle and diversity may help to shed light on the process of metabolic integration of the evolving plastid.

Accident or homicide - virtual crime scene reconstruction using 3D methods

The analysis and reconstruction of forensically relevant events, such as traffic accidents, criminal assaults and homicides are based on external and internal morphological findings of the injured or deceased person. For this approach high-tech methods are gaining increasing importance in forensic investigations. The non-contact optical 3D digitising system GOM ATOS is applied as a suitable tool for whole body surface and wound documentation and analysis in order to identify injury-causing instruments and to reconstruct the course of event. In addition to the surface documentation, cross-sectional imaging methods deliver medical internal findings of the body. These 3D data are fused into a whole body model of the deceased. Additional to the findings of the bodies, the injury inflicting instruments and incident scene is documented in 3D. The 3D data of the incident scene, generated by 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry, is also included into the reconstruction. Two cases illustrate the methods. In the fist case a man was shot in his bedroom and the main question was, if the offender shot the man intentionally or accidentally, as he declared. In the second case a woman was hit by a car, driving backwards into a garage. It was unclear if the driver drove backwards once or twice, which would indicate that he willingly injured and killed the woman. With this work, we demonstrate how 3D documentation, data merging and animation enable to answer reconstructive questions regarding the dynamic development of patterned injuries, and how this leads to a real data based reconstruction of the course of event.

The effects of substance use on offender crime scene behavior

Substance use has an effect on an individual's propensity to commit acquisitive crime with recent studies showing substance users more likely to leave forensic material at a crime scene. An examination of acquisitive crime solved in Northamptonshire, U.K., during 2006 enabled 70 crime scene behavior characteristics to be analyzed for substance and nonsubstance use offenders. Logistical regression analyses have identified statistically significant crime scene behavior predictors that were found to be either present at or absent from the crime scene when the offender was a substance user. Most significant predictors present were indicative of a lack of preparation by the offender, irrational behavior, and a desire to steal high value, easily disposed of, property. Most significant predictors absent from the crime scene were indicative of more planning, preparation, and execution by the offender. Consideration is given to how this crime scene behavior might be used by police investigators to identify offenders.

Optimising collection of footprint evidence from crime scenes and suspects

Analysis of either footprints or footwear impressions which have been recovered from a crime scene is a well known and well accepted part of forensic investigation. When this evidence is obtained by investigating officers, comparative analysis to a suspect’s evidence may be undertaken. This can be done either by the detectives or in some cases, podiatrists with experience in forensic analysis. Frequently asked questions of a podiatrist include; “What additional information should be collected from a suspect (for the purposes of comparison), and how should it be collected?” This paper explores the answers to these and related questions based on 20 years of practical experience in the field of crime scene analysis as it relates to podiatry and forensics. Elements of normal and abnormal foot function are explored and used to explain the high degree of variability in wear patterns produced by the interaction of the foot and footwear. Based on this understanding the potential for identifying unique features of the user and correlating this to footwear evidence becomes apparent. Standard protocols adopted by podiatrists allow for more precise, reliable, and valid results to be obtained from their analysis. Complex data sets are now being obtained by investigating officers and, in collaboration with the podiatrist; higher quality conclusions are being achieved. This presentation details the results of investigations which have used standard protocols to collect and analyse footwear and suspects of recent major crimes.

Staged homicides: An examination of common features of faked burglaries, suicides, accidents and car accidents

A staged crime scene involves deliberate alteration of evidence by the offender to simulate events that did not occur for the purpose of misleading authorities (Geberth, 2006; Turvey, 2000). This study examined 115 staged homicides from the USA to determine common elements; victim and perpetrator characteristics; and specific features of different types of staged scenes. General characteristics include: multiple victims and offenders; a previous relationship be- tween parties involved; and victims discovered in their own home, often by the offender. Staged scenes were separated by type with staged burglaries, suicides, accidents, and car accidents examined in more detail. Each type of scene displays differently with separate indicators and common features. Features of staged burglaries were: no points of entry/exit staged; non-valuables taken; scene ransacking; offender self- injury; and offenders bringing weapons to the scene. Features of staged suicides included: weapon arrangement and simulating self-injury to the victim; rearranging the body; and removing valuables. Examples of elements of staged accidents were arranging the implement/weapon and re- positioning the deceased; while staged car accidents involved: transporting the body to the vehicle and arranging both; mutilation after death; attempts to secure an alibi; and clean up at the primary crime scene. The results suggest few staging behaviors are used, despite the credibility they may have offered the façade. This is the first peer-reviewed, published study to examine the specific features of these scenes, and is the largest sample studied to date.

Analysis of the procedures used to evaluate suicide crime scenes in Brazil: A statistical approach to interpret reports

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Serial killer: il database mondiale

Lo studio dei serial killer, quanto mai complesso e poliedrico, è reso difficoltoso, in parte, anche dall’attuale progresso, che ha portato questi soggetti devianti ad evolversi notevolmente sia in termini di astuzia (staging) che di mobilità. Tutto ciò dimostra che negli omicidi seriali, nonostante l'importante lavoro da parte di alcuni studiosi che sono riusciti a proporre contributi teorici di notevole importanza, è particolarmente frequente la c.d. “cecità di collegamento” fra omicidi perpetrati dalla medesima persona, ma in parti diverse nel mondo. È, quindi, indispensabile la costruzione di una banca dati mondiale che consenta a tutte le forze di polizia di avere sempre a disposizione informazioni raccolte sulla scena del crimine relativamente ad omicidi particolarmente aberranti e privi di un particolare movente. Sarà quindi compito del profiler, con strumenti di supporto creati ad hoc e tecnologicamente avanzati, reperire sulla scena del crimine queste informazioni attraverso una metodologia chiara e condivisa, che saranno, grazie alla banca dati, messe a disposizione di tutte le forze di polizia. The complex and multisided study of serial killers is partly made difficult by the current level of progress that has led these deviant people to evolve in relation to the aspects of shrewdness (concerning the staging) and mobility. Despite the important work of some scholars who proposed important theories, all this shows that, concerning serial murders, it is still particularly frequent not to pay attention to links among homicides committed by the same person but in different parts of the world. It is therefore crucial to develop a worldwide database that allows all police forces to access information collected on crime scenes of murders which are particularly absurd and committed without any apparent reason. It will then be up to the profiler, through ad hoc and technologically advanced tools, to collect this information on the crime scene that would be made available to all police forces thanks to the worldwide database.

Primeira intervenção da GNR no local do crime

Este trabalho aborda a questão dos atos preparatórios no local do crime, isto é, as medidas cautelares e de polícia que o primeiro interveniente policial que chega ao local deve aplicar. As diligências efetuadas pelo primeiro militar que assume uma ocorrência e que, normalmente, não é especialista na área da Investigação Criminal ou forense, revelam-se de elevada importância para o sucesso da investigação pois repercutem-se ao longo de toda a investigação. Essa abordagem caracteriza-se por não visar uma intervenção investigatória e inspetiva, mas sim de prevenção e proteção do local. O objetivo geral do trabalho consiste numa contribuição para uma exploração mais determinada do local onde foi cometido um crime, através do melhor desempenho possível do primeiro interveniente policial. Os objetivos específicos passam por definir os procedimentos a tomar pelo primeiro interveniente (tendo em conta a sua especialidade, materiais e particularidades da fase da investigação) e definir o que é, para ele, um crime de cenário, identificando as possíveis repercussões de uma má gestão do local do crime para o sucesso da investigação. Utilizamos o método comparativo, estudando os diferentes Manuais de procedimentos (nacionais e internacionais). O quadro de referência é o materialismo histórico pois enfatizamos a dimensão histórica dos processos sociais, a legislação vigente e os problemas atuais para interpretar o nosso estudo. Este trabalho assume contornos exploratório-explicativos. Seguimos um método dedutivo, pois pretende-se chegar a um caso particular da lei geral, ou seja, aos procedimentos específicos do primeiro interveniente policial entre toda a gestão do local do crime. Os resultados mais significativos são a justificação da importância do local do crime para a Investigação Criminal e da complexidade que pode advir para o trabalho do primeiro interveniente. É possível concluir um conjunto padrão de ações que devem ser tomadas (guia prático) e como se pode melhorar a intervenção através de formação e cooperação entre os elementos.

Cate Consandine

The interpretation of evidence dominates contemporary television crime shows. Inanimate objects and disparate facts are made to speak; technology and expert opinion wring out their stories. In examining these dead pieces of evidence, the investigators search for patterns, discovering living perpetrators and fugitives. Psychology comes in where the evidence is interpreted; the investigators try to think through perpetrators' minds and presumably perverse rationales. Objects are examined. Banal things become precious, put into bags, marked, date- and time-stamped, and stepped around carefully. After a crime, the objects involved are different. After a crime show, our gaze is different; everything is potentially incriminating, perverse. Bags without people don't make sense. Under this gaze, objects acquire a psychology. When we look at a crime scene, the evidence violates us. The work of Melbourne artist Cate Consandine is about objects and how they occupy the space that they occupy. In her practice as a sculptor and throughout her studies at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Sydney College of the Arts, and now Monash, her work has cultivated violent ambiguity. Consandine's work extends across a range of different media, particularly vidoe, objects and spaces. Like a crime show, it activates a particular type of inquisition from the viewer.

Characterisation of soils with the use of instrumental techniques : a multivariate forensic study

The value of soil evidence in the forensic discipline is well known. However, it would be advantageous if an in-situ method was available that could record responses from tyre or shoe impressions in ground soil at the crime scene. The development of optical fibres and emerging portable NIR instruments has unveiled a potential methodology which could permit such a proposal. The NIR spectral region contains rich chemical information in the form of overtone and combination bands of the fundamental infrared absorptions and low-energy electronic transitions. This region has in the past, been perceived as being too complex for interpretation and consequently was scarcely utilized. The application of NIR in the forensic discipline is virtually non-existent creating a vacancy for research in this area. NIR spectroscopy has great potential in the forensic discipline as it is simple, nondestructive and capable of rapidly providing information relating to chemical composition. The objective of this study is to investigate the ability of NIR spectroscopy combined with Chemometrics to discriminate between individual soils. A further objective is to apply the NIR process to a simulated forensic scenario where soil transfer occurs. NIR spectra were recorded from twenty-seven soils sampled from the Logan region in South-East Queensland, Australia. A series of three high quartz soils were mixed with three different kaolinites in varying ratios and NIR spectra collected. Spectra were also collected from six soils as the temperature of the soils was ramped from room temperature up to 6000C. Finally, a forensic scenario was simulated where the transferral of ground soil to shoe soles was investigated. Chemometrics methods such as the commonly known Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the less well known fuzzy clustering (FC) and ranking by means of multicriteria decision making (MCDM) methodology were employed to interpret the spectral results. All soils were characterised using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffractometry. Results were promising revealing NIR combined with Chemometrics is capable of discriminating between the various soils. Peak assignments were established by comparing the spectra of known minerals with the spectra collected from the soil samples. The temperature dependent NIR analysis confirmed the assignments of the absorptions due to adsorbed and molecular bound water. The relative intensities of the identified NIR absorptions reflected the quantitative XRD and ICP characterisation results. PCA and FC analysis of the raw soils in the initial NIR investigation revealed that the soils were primarily distinguished on the basis of their relative quartz and kaolinte contents, and to a lesser extent on the horizon from which they originated. Furthermore, PCA could distinguish between the three kaolinites used in the study, suggesting that the NIR spectral region was sensitive enough to contain information describing variation within kaolinite itself. The forensic scenario simulation PCA successfully discriminated between the ‘Backyard Soil’ and ‘Melcann® Sand’, as well as the two sampling methods employed. Further PCA exploration revealed that it was possible to distinguish between the various shoes used in the simulation. In addition, it was possible to establish association between specific sampling sites on the shoe with the corresponding site remaining in the impression. The forensic application revealed some limitations of the process relating to moisture content and homogeneity of the soil. These limitations can both be overcome by simple sampling practices and maintaining the original integrity of the soil. The results from the forensic scenario simulation proved that the concept shows great promise in the forensic discipline.