Forensic Science International: Reports最新文献

In Korea, most drivers equip their vehicles with a black box camera, used to estimate the speed of the vehicle in case of traffic accidents such as car-to-car collisions, single-car accidents, and car-to-pedestrian accidents. Traditionally, speed estimation using the camera video has been done by using the distance between the road lane, surrounding structures, etc.

However, when the following vehicle collides with a stationary leading vehicle or barrier, and no road lanes or structures are visible around the driving path in the black box camera video of the following vehicle, the speed of the following vehicle could be just estimated according the deformations on the collided vehicles or objects.

Therefore, in this study, when a vehicle collision occurs, a virtual parallel line is drawn between the leading vehicle and the following vehicle in the black box camera image of the following vehicle and analyzed geometrically to estimate the distance and the speed of the following vehicle.

After the vehicle collision experiment, the speed was estimated using the method proposed in this study using the captured black box video. As a result, it was confirmed that the accuracy was high when the collision speed was low. So The method proposed in this study is expected to be used to estimate collision speed in the cases of low impact speed in the rear end collisions.

To solve complex forensic cases, medico-legal issues such as cause of death, manner of death, weapon used, postmortem interval, and volitional activity must be resolved. An otherwise healthy 43-year-old male was found dead in a pool of blood 500 m from his home. On inspection, six penetrating lacerations were found on the left side of the chest. Police began an inquiry because they suspected firearm injuries. A dual-pointed weapon inflicted these paired penetrating injuries. The same weapon stabbed the victim three times. The injuries resembled rifle entry wounds, yet there were no exit wounds or bullets inside the corpse. In the field of forensic pathology, there exist numerous cases when antemortem penetrating wounds and post-mortem defects exhibit similarities to firearm injuries, leading to potential confusion among the parties involved in the investigation. In order to effectively manage complex cases, a thorough comprehension of various injury types and the weapons responsible for causing them is essential. Therefore, appropriate training and close supervision are required to enhance the quality and credibility of these investigations as a whole.

The cold case search for clandestine graves can be challenging due to the length of time elapsed since the crime and the search environment changing itself. This paper reports on a cold case search for “Christine”, a young girl who was reported missing in the mid-1970s in the East Midlands, UK. Once a search sub-area was determined by case reports and new intelligence in rural woodland, a police ground search proved unsuccessful. A multi-phased geoforensic search investigation, using remote sensing and UAV drones, metal detector, EM and dGPS surveys, was subsequently undertaken, with collected data processed and analysed. Results showed 36 discrete dGPS-surveyed metal detector and 3 EM priority targets to be identified which were all intrusively investigated but nothing case-relevant was found. Study implications suggest careful multi-phase remote and geoforensic investigations can give confidence in cold case no-body searches, saving police operational time and costs in such cold case investigations.

Records of communication often play an important role in many criminal inquiries giving insight into existing and alleged relationships. The forensic analysis of digital devices can provide such information, however in some cases, screen captured records may be all that is available. In these instances, it is necessary to evaluate the authenticity of this information given the availability of free to use communication record mockup services that can be used to create realistic looking, but fictitious communication records. This work seeks to ascertain whether freely available communication record mockup services pose a threat to law enforcement officers in terms of not being able to distinguish a communication record mockup from a genuine communication record screen capture. An evaluation of communication record mockup services for creating WhatsApp, iMessage and Twitter mockups are identified and their ability to create realistic communication record mockups is evaluated. The results of these tests are provided and discussed, and 41 communication record mockups are supplied forming one of the first datasets to support those conducting communication record authenticity checks.

A 61-year-old man was found dead on the terrace in front of his house. The body showed external signs of advanced (Grade 4) putrefaction. Routine post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) was conducted prior to the forensic autopsy showing a radiological alteration index (RAI) of 100. Due to a suspicious hyperdense brain lesion seen in PMCT, additional post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (PMMR) of the head was performed for research purpose. Compared to PMCT, the lesion appeared considerably more detailed in PMMR with a slightly hyperintense and focal hypointense signal in T2w images and an isointense and focal hyperintense signal in T1w images. Autoptic assessment of the brain lesion was considerably complicated due to softening and partial liquefaction of the brain. Considering post-mortem imaging and autopsy results, the lesion was determined as an acute brain hemorrhage. Case findings indicate that PMMR may be superior to autopsy in terms of diagnosis and localization of cerebral hemorrhage in putrefied brains.

The mastoid, bi-mastoid and occipital triangles at the base of the skull are known to be good indicators of sexual dimorphism. However, few studies assess age and sex in the subadult group. Therefore, the aim was to determine the age and sex of the human crania from a South African (KZN) Black population utilizing the triangles of the base of the skull of individuals between 0 and 18 years. The sample consisted of 64 computed tomography (CT) scans (32 male and 32 female) between 0 and 18 years of age. Three-dimensional reconstructed images and CT images were analysed using SLICER 3D. The following linear parameters were measured: the mastoidale - porion; porion - asterion; mastoidale - asterion; left mastoidale - opisthion; right mastoidale - opisthion; right mastoidale - left mastoidale; left asterion - lambda; right asterion - lambda; left asterion - right asterion. The study found that the mastoid, bi-mastoid and occipital triangles are good indicators for sexual dimorphism between the ages of 0–18 years. However, the mean values of the total area were higher in males than females. When comparing laterality, the right side of the mastoid triangle was more significant than the left (p-value=0.016), with the length of the mastoidale-porion being the only significant linear measurement. Results show that the linear measurement mastoidale-porion is highly correlated to age, with mean values of r = 0.87 and 0.88 for the left and right sides, respectively. Age is a confounding factor in sexual dimorphism. Additionally, the mastoid triangle is more accurate in age estimation.

In this study, the application of Raman spectroscopy for the examination of the quartz-recovered fine fraction of arid, sandy soils is presented for the first time. The aim was to explore whether the technique would allow for the initial screening of samples, with the goal to extend the technique to in-situ analysis of the coatings on the quartz grains. Despite investigation of a variety of experimental conditions and different approaches to data correction, Raman analysis of the quartz-recovered fine fraction of sandy soils showed high levels of fluorescence, which masked all potential characterisation data captured within the spectra.

We would like to present two cases of middle-aged men found dead outdoors, in relatively low temperatures, whose postmortem brain CT scan exhibited unusual findings. Both cases presented traumatic injuries, mainly cerebral (bleeds, contusions). The first case involved a 55-year-old man, found dead in front of his house, mostly covered by snow, with an ambient temperature reaching − 1.8 °C. Before the autopsy, a native (without contrast) postmortem CT scan was performed which revealed a linear delimitation between the anterior and posterior regions of the brain, along with hypodensity in the anterior region, compatible with an advanced state of decomposition. The second case involved a 77-year-old man, found dead on the bottom of a cliff where his car was found. Temperatures recorded then approached 9 °C. However, a technical glitch in the cooling cell during the storage of the corpse was reported. The subsequent postmortem CT scan performed before the autopsy showed a grossly circular zone of hypodensity across the periphery of the brain with a centro-peripheral and right-left gradient. Furthermore, macroscopic and microscopic examinations of the brain didn’t reveal any pathological findings concerning the density differences observed on imaging in both cases. These two cases seem to highlight the processes through which the cold might affect brain tissue and his appearance on imaging, which could consequently represent a potential pitfall in postmortem forensic investigations. We intend to encourage further studies on this topic, to allow correct interpretation of such CT scan findings in forensic cases, and to open the debate about the possible causes of this phenomenon.

A case of accidental fatal drowning after non-lethal strangulation by a cable is presented. Random circumstances, which are highlighted here, led to the fact that signs of strangulation and rape were either superimposed or left almost no traces. The autopsy did not reveal typical signs of drowning, strangulation or other violence and the cause of death initially remained unclear. Histological examinations showed an acute emphysema and marked blood congestion. Swabs were i.a. taken from the genital area and molecular genetic analyses of the contact persons were performed, which pointed to a craftsman. The crime was finally confessed by this craftsman. Obviously, the victim drowned unnoticed by the perpetrator when he tried to clean her from moleculargenetic traces.

With the increased use of digital devices, forensic document examiners (FDEs) encounter increasing number of dynamic or online signatures during their physical examinations. This shift expands the possibility of examinations and creates new challenges for FDEs. As such, FDEs require new examination skills using data science-based analyses with artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques. In recent years, automated signature verification has gained significant interest in biometric research and could be useful in forensic investigations. However, the use of complex black-box systems inconveniencing FDEs in explaining the rationale behind their final assessment, especially when dealing with limited signature samples and various types of forged signatures. Therefore, a new forensic method is needed to assist FDEs’ analysis. To tackle these challenges and incorporate lessons learned from biometrics into forensics, this study proposes a novel forensic online signature analysis method. The proposed method uses a single-template strategy based on recent scientific findings in biometrics while updating the strategy for forensic use. This strategy creates a mean-template set from known signature samples that serve as a writer’s signature master pattern. Consequently, FDEs can evaluate intra-writer and inter-item variations using the mean-template set and a questioned signature. Furthermore, to take advantage of recent digital devices, we focused on both on-surface and in-air trajectories of online signatures, which could improve the discriminative power because in-air trajectories are invisible for imposters. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method in a forensic scenario using a public forensic online signature dataset.