So What Did Margie Say About...CSI Fallen Angels

The repeat CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Fallen Angels" airing on 3/27/13 was packed full of great forensic evidence.

 

It began with the shooting victim in the graveyard. Two cartridge casings that were located were considered not related due to their condition.  This occurs when a scene happens in an 'active' area where shootings or drug activities or excessive parties take place.  There is a tremendous amount of trash that must be "weeded out" from potential evidence that is relevant to the current event being investigated.  Usually the rule of thumb is to collect it even if there is a doubt but there are some scenes where it is sadly obvious that cartridge casings or syringes or used condoms have been there for quite some time.

 

They spoke of the lack of stippling in reference to the gunshot wound to the Reverend.  When a gun is fired the striking of the primer creates a small explosion which causes the gunpowder in the cartridge to ignite and send the bullet spiraling through the barrel of the weapon.  The unburned powder creates a pattern when it hits an object or a body.  When none is present this is an indication that the muzzle to target distance is such that the particulates fall away and don't hit the object or the body.  This gives a minimum distance that a weapon could be when fired.

 

The Medical Examiner utilized an Alternate Light Source to scan the body to search for potential evidence.  Some things absorb the light while others reflect certain wavelengths of light.  These reactions indicate a location to swab or collect potential evidence.

 

The fingerprint processing of the batteries in the flashlight is right on target.  Even when the item itself is wiped clean or contaminated with blood or dirt, there is a good chance that the protected batteries inside the item may provide at least a partial print.

 

There were several trace pieces of evidence but I will skip to my all time favorite form of evidence to help in an investigation: the BLOODSTAIN PATTERN!  The impact spatter on the top surface of the tennis shoes established that the wearer of the shoes was close to a blood source (the victim's head) when a forcible event (the shooting) occurred.  Blood spatter sizes are a clue to the force behind the forcible event.  The smaller the stains then the more force behind the event.

 

Great episode - worth the repeat.

So What Did Margie Say About...Bones, the Blood from the Stones

I knowingly smiled at the 3/25/13 episode of Bones titled "The Blood From the Stones.

 

It is truly amazing what the presence of a camera will do and how different people's reaction to being filmed will range.

 

I don't know if it is inherent personality traits or upbringing or life experiences or a combination of all of these.

 

But just like the characters in tonight's episode, there are so many faces before the prying lens.

 

Some people are totally unassuming and just ignore the camera like it isn't even there.  Others are totally star struck and stare directly at the camera like it has hypnotic capabilities.  There are those that fancy themselves born stars and parade around in a peacock prance preening to show the world their abilities.  Some are comedians, some are hostile, some are neutral, and others are cold and avoid the eye of the lens.

 

Regardless of the reaction, I have always wondered what truth there is in the final outcome.  I guess that is the beauty of editing.  As it turns out, hours of footage usually turns into mere minutes of background with either subtitles or someone else narrating.  Gotta love Hollywood!!

So What Did Margie Say About...CSI Dead of the Class

The blood evidence in the 3/20/13 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode titled "Dead of the Class" served as a road map for their investigation.

 

The bloody soap bubbles led the Assistant Medical Examiner to the victim.  I wonder though why when these soapy bubbles popped upon landing on miscellaneous surfaces that there wasn't more spatter associated with this 'popping' action.   I also find it difficult to believe that the technicians would swab and sample every stain created by these bloody bubbles.  If it is relatively certain that it is a single source of blood was contributing to these stains, then a sample from the soap container and a 'representative' sample of the many bubble stains throughout the scene should be sufficient.  The cost and time that it would take to collect and analyze all of the stains would be counter productive.

 

The partial hand print or transfer pattern on the back of the shirt causes me to wonder why someone so obsessed with their looks would not tend to a simply tend to a wound on the palm of their hand rather than letting it bleed to the point that it flows down to cover two fingers and a majority of the palm.

 

The condition of the blood on the knife found in the dumpster alerted the technicians that something was out of the ordinary.  This helped to tie together the use of liquid Nitrogen later in the story line.

 

Blood is not only a great source for DNA analysis and bloodstain pattern analysis but the small investigative leads that it can supply are also important.

So What Did Margie Say About...Bones "The Doom in the Gloom"

 

 

 

The 3/18/13 episode of Bones titled "The Doom in the Gloom" begins basically with an incinerated body.

 

These definitely provide forensic challenges.  The identification can't rely on a visual exam obviously.  Facial features are indistinguishable, tattoos are gone, and height and weight may be difficult to determine. 

 

Burn bodies are found in what is called a pugilistic attitude.  A pugilist is a boxer and when the extreme heat evaporates fluid from the muscles, they draw up the legs and arms.  The upper body position result looks like a boxer in their stance with arms drawn up.

 

Sometimes the heat is so intense the brain basically boils and explodes which causes skull fractures and damage.  An extensive examination is necessary to determine if the damage is done from the outside in (blunt force trauma) or from the inside out (heat related damage).

 

Going back to an identification of the fire victim, what to do if visual characteristics are not available?  If the fire is too intense then it is highly likely that the fingers are absent or badly damaged.  Fingerprints therefore are not the option.

 

Nuclear DNA may not be an option either if the heat has damaged the tissues and muscles to such a degree that it has degraded.

 

Mitochondrial DNA may be the way to go as it is somewhat protected in the bone marrow or within the teeth. 

 

If the teeth are still intact then they will provide a good source for an identification.  Dental records for comparison are invaluable.

 

Medical records will provide a source for comparison in regards to prior surgeries which leave metal plates or screws in the body.  Sometimes these can be traced through serial numbers.  So can most breast implants but they don't hold up well in a fire.

 

Previous broken bones or some indications of a disease or injury may also help lead to an identification.

 

Along side the identification accomplishment, the other challenges of retrieving evidence of what caused the fire, where it began, what may have accelerated it, and what items can be salvaged are also areas that keep the investigators busy in their job.

So What Did Margie Say About....CSI

The repeat CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode titled "Pick and Roll" airing on 3/13/13 helped show the wide variety of bloodstain evidence available in the investigation.

 

Spatter on the walls in the shower and also on the basketball jersey were both classified as being created by some forcible event.  Blunt force trauma created the spatter on the shower walls when the victim was beaten on and about the head.  This spatter not only established that a beating had occurred but that the victim was low to the ground when it happened.  The spatter on the jersey established that the person wearing the garment was close to the source of blood when the force was applied to create the blood loss.  In this circumstance, it was a punch to the vascular facial area which created a bloody nose in conjunction to the spatter from the nose injury.

 

When viewing the first deceased victim's body, blood helped to determine some information about time lines and wounds.  Bruising, which is blood under the skin, showed outlines of the "weapon" utilized to create the bruise patterns.  Some of the bruising established the existence of older injuries which meant that they were not related to the immediate damage caused at the time of death.

 

Clotting within the nasal area also helped to indicate an injury that was not consistent with the current wounds suffered at the time of the blunt force trauma as the cause of death.

 

The impressions in blood on the shower floor and adjacent floor displayed what is known as diminishing repetitive transfer patterns.  This simply means that when the source of blood is not replenished (like from a free flowing injury) but is merely from stepping into or coming into contact with a pool of blood or a separate source of blood, then a repeat motion that causes the bloody object to come into contact with another surface will leave patterns that become less and less distinctive.  Oftentimes details in a pattern can be established which gives a likelihood of what the particular bloody object is that creates the diminishing pattern.  Such was the situation with the woman's shoe pattern and the bouncing basketball pattern.

 

Of course this episode contained elements of masochistic behavior, love, greed and sports but what's more compelling than the blood evidence??

So What Did Margie Say About...Bones

 The repeat episode of Bones titled "The Future in the Past" airing on 3/11/13 begins basically with an excavation.  What it didn't demonstrate was the time and effort that this takes.

    Booth did mention how a potential burial site is located.  The foliage and soil is different from the surrounding area due to the disturbance of the soil to dig the grave and the fertilization of the vegetation from the decomposition of what is buried there.

    What they did not show or talk about was the painstaking grid measurements; the constant documentation through photographs, notes, and sketches; the cautious digging inch by inch of the soil; and then the constant sifting of this soil to find the small traces left behind.  This could include teeth, hair, buttons, zippers, fingernails, tiny fragments of bones, jewelry - the possibilities are endless.

    Once something substantial like bone is located then the paint brushes come out and the tedious work truly begins.  Nothing like a trowel or a shovel can be used to potentially damage such fragile evidence.

    Also let's take into account the weather.  Is it extremely hot?  Or cold? Or raining heavily?  Or snowing?  How is the wind gusting?

    Let's talk logistics:  Do we have a tent available to protect the area?  Do we have a staging area to keep the equipment clean?  Do we have a clearing area to dump the sifted debris?

    Let's ask: Is the ground frozen?  Is it sandy?  Is it clay?  Is there a water level which may interfere with recovery?

    Let's ask: Is it a rural area that makes it difficult to get equipment in the area?  Is there a constant presence of news reporters?  Have the trees and bushes overgrown the area making it difficult?  

    Let's ask: What about manpower?  Do we have enough people to help carry buckets, and sift, and brush, and document?  How many hours will this take and is overtime in the budget?  Do we have the screens and tools readily available? 

    How nice it would be if things were as pristine and as simple as it was depicted in a few seconds of frame in tonight's episode.

So What Did Margie Say About...

 

A piece of crucial evidence in the 3/6/13 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode titled "Karma to Burn" was a plaster piece with segments of hair.  It made me think of how far evidence has come over the years.

 

    There are basically two types of evidence: individualistic and class.  The individualistic is obviously something that is unique and can bring significance to a piece of evidence and tie it to a source.  Class evidence places an item of evidence into a group, not as specific as individual.

 

    Hair used to be viewed first visually and then came the microscopic examination.  Some questions may have been asked and potentially answered by these inspections.  How long is it?  What color is it?  Had it been dyed?  Had it been forcibly removed?  Had it been cut?  Had it been damaged in any way?  What species is it (meaning was it animal or human)?  What part of the body did it originate from if it was human?

 

    Characteristics like the medulla were compared.  If you think of a hair like a lead pencil, the medulla is the lead center.  The cortex and cuticle are other characteristics that could be telling.  The cortex is the wooden part of the pencil which in the hair may contain the pigment.  The outer layer is the cuticle and looks like scales on a fish.

 

    Samples from at least four or five areas of the head hair were collected for comparison as there are variances to the hair samples from each person.  Some have course hairs, some have grey hairs, everyone has variances in the shades of their hair color, etc.

 

    However these observations were class characteristics.  Nothing as substantial as the data that you can get from the DNA analysis from the root from a hair. 

 

    But hairs which fall out naturally may not exhibit a root which would contain the cellular nucleus DNA material.  Even so, the days of the microscopic examination for hairs is long gone or almost gone for most crime laboratories.  It is thought to be too time consuming for such 'insignificant' information.

 

    Let's not tell that to the producers though.  The hairs were examined microscopically and found to be bovine.  This eventually became crucial information.  Hooray for the good old days, huh?

So What Did Margie Say About...

   I am not going to focus on forensics or anthropology in reference to the 3/4/13 Bones episode titled "The Survivor in the Soap".  I am not going to discuss the politics of civil war atrocities or the scourge of children soldiers.

    Rather I wish to take a moment and give acknowledgement to those professionals who give up their routine days and evenings.  Those who give up their dinner reservations and other appointments or commitments for the sake of their professions.  Those who give up birthday parties, recitals, holiday dinners, and all those other activities that create a 'normal' life.  

  I wish to thank those who are always waiting for the tone of a telephone ring knowing full well that their time and thoughts will be taken away from their routine.  Just like Cam gave up dinner with her love interest.  Duty called.

    And let's look at Bones.  Even while talking about vacation, her desire was to go to Paris to view catacombs and sewers.  She is never far away from her calling.  Even if some aren't as absorbed in their general professions there are cases that are constantly on ones' mind.  They burrow way down deep and never leave your thoughts, even while away from work.  The details and questions are always just below the surface.

    I wish to not only express thanks to those professionals but also to their families and friends who just smile and understand and wait.