Her office is currently investigating the murder of Louisiana State University student Eugenie Boisfontaine — a cold-case recently reopened with the hope that new forensic technology can help the investigation. This effort is currently being documented in the Discovery Channel series Killing Fields.
Not all crime scenes have easy-to-interpret evidence or even any evidence at all, Morgan said. She told BuzzFeed Science that she thinks it's good that people know about all the hard work that goes into putting pieces of evidence together, but she also thinks that it can mislead the general public into thinking that there is always going to be that super-clear bit of evidence, fingerprint, or easy-to-profile DNA at any crime scene.
At the crime scenes, the forensics expert typically takes lots of photos, collects evidence, and documents everything that is going on. You have to go into a crime scene and look at it as a science problem, and not get swept up into the emotional aspect of it. One of Morgan's most memorable cases, for example, was a double homicide where they had to deal with their primary suspect reinserting himself into the scene multiple times to intentionally get his DNA there — that way he could have a documented non-murder-based reason for having his DNA at the crime scene.
She and her team were able to find a piece of clothing that had both the suspect's DNA as well as the DNA of both of the two victims. Accreditation is an ongoing organisational requirement and subject to regular review.
Forces are assessed against relevant standards by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service UKAS , the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess against agreed standards. The police service employs a number of forensic services to enable appropriate processing of a wide range of crime scenes. External services eg, Home Office pathologists, forensic service providers may also assist.
Further guidance relating to the support available to investigators in serious or major cases can be obtained from the National Crime Agency Major Crime Investigative Support. The specific circumstances that a crime scene investigator CSI encounters at a crime scene dictate the approach required. The forensic approach to a volume crime scene varies from that of a major crime scene.
The processes implemented, however, are mainly similar. In serious or major cases, a formal strategy for the forensic response is compiled by a forensic manager in consultation with, and agreed by, the senior investigating officer. The strategy includes:. Photography is used to illustrate the crime scene for anyone who has not attended or cannot attend the scene. Photographs taken at a crime scene should include general views, scaled imagery of identifying marks and contextual photographs showing the location of areas of interest, including:.
This image can be navigated on screen, and can help the viewer contextualise the scene. Videos may also be used. These tools can be valuable when briefing others and may also be used for evidential purposes. Community forums are available on the Forensics Community and the Imaging and Identification Community these links are available to authorised users who are logged on to the Knowledge Hub.
Some items recovered from a crime scene may be submitted to a force fingerprint enhancement laboratory FEL for processing to recover fingerprint evidence. FEL practitioners subject the items to a range of visual, physical and chemical processes to visualise and recover further fingerprint evidence.
When warranted by the investigation, FEL practitioners may attend crime scenes to carry out a limited range of processes. Their work includes documenting homicides, sexual assaults, robbery, arson, burglary, drug scenes, car crashes and suspicious deaths.
Scene of crime officers lift fingerprints from crime scenes and assess potential forensic items such as blood stained clothing or weapons. They lift, preserve and package evidence. The Electronic Crime Laboratory recovers evidence from electronic equipment such as computers and cell phones used to carry out crimes. It also provides forensic audio services. It is the sole provider of forensic science services to Police. From these laboratories, ESR provides Police with an on-call crime scene examination service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For more information visit the ESR website.
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