So What Did Margie Say About...CSI: Risky Business Class

The 6/12/13 repeat CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode titled "Risky Business Class" gave me several issues to discuss.

 

First - any scientist worth their salt believes wholeheartedly in a recreation or reenactment when dealing with a scene reconstruction.  Usually one would use a scale model or the actual scene to assist in proving a theory or to assist in establishing a working scenario.  

I don't know of many agencies or organizations that have the money, time, materials, personnel, or room to construct a life size model - especially of an airplane.  What a luxury.  Where would you store it?  Could you bring it into a courtroom?

 

Second - in a fire with the intensity that was suggested by the plane crash, there is a real danger that ammunition would actually explode due to the conditions and the heat surrounding the weapon.  Perhaps they were suggesting that the fact that the gun was semi melted into a section of carpet would have protected it from the heat and the discharge of the ammunition.

 

Third - when the green paint chip retrieved from the airplane door seal was suspected to have come from a particular tool, it was shown to have been placed back on the tool itself to establish a match from a fracture match between the paint chip and the tool.  This practice is an absolute NO NO in forensics work.  You would never want a 'question' and a 'known' to come into contact.  That is a defense attorney's dream.  They can suggest that the evidence was compromised or contaminated by the physical contact.  The fact that these two items were originally one together could easily be shown by one-to-one photography and overlapping the photographs without losing the integrity of the evidence.  

 

I must admit that it was a refreshing spin to add genealogy in combination with DNA as a twist to solving the outcome of the investigation.  It is always a positive to keep an open mind to other potential assists when available.