Crime Scenes: Clues from nature

Magni, P. (2016) Crime Scenes: Clues from nature. In: RSWA Monthly Talks, 21 November 2016, Royal Society of Western Australia, Perth.

Abstract

Investigators have the job to reconstruct the events of a crime and identify its cause. Despite movies showing a different and of course exciting perspective, it is not as easy a job as portrayed. The reason is because investigators have to confront the uniqueness of each crime scenario, a combination of the particular aspects of the place where the crime occurs, environmental conditions and organisms involved. The crime scene is not a closed system and the presence and activity of plants, animals and microorganisms can modify the crime scene by adding and erasing information. However, information left by nature – if correctly interpreted and contextualized – can also provide useful clues for the investigation process because they can characterize the time, the manner and the people involved in these events.

A number of real cases will be presented in which insects, crustaceans, molluscs, microorganisms and plants were witnesses to a crime and were used as key evidence in the success of the investigation

Item Type:	Conference Item
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/65605

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