Bloodstain Flashcards
What is bloodstain?
Examination of the shapes, locations, and distribution of patterns of bloodstains, in order to provide an interpretation of the activities that produced them
What sciences foes blood stain utilize
Utilizes biology, physics, and mathematics- SCIENTIFIC METHOD
how is bloodstain accomplished?
Direct scene observation
Careful study of scene photos
***Has to be in color
***Has to have a measurement scale
How do we think about evidence at a crime scene?
Locard’s exchange principle holds that teh perpetrator of a crime will bring something into the crime scene and leave it with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence
“Every contact leaves a trace”
1895 Dr. Edward Piotrowski
Earliest known significant study of bloodstain interpretation that has been documented and preserved
“Concerning origin, shape, direction, and distribution of the bloodstains following head wounds caused by blows”
Used color plates illustrated by his friend
Rabbit picture
1939- Dr. Victor Balthazard
French
Studied bloodstain trajectories and patterns
Presented a paper at the 22nd Congress of Forensic Medicine, Research on Blood Spatter
Recognized the trigonometric relationship between the length and width of a bloodstain
1950- Dr. Paul Kirk
Wrote Crime Investigation
University of California at Berkeley
1955- Testified in State of Ohio v. Samuel Sheppard
First case where bloodstain evidence used
Marilyn Sheppard was murdered in bed in July of ‘54
Established relative position of attacker and the victim at the time of the beating
Recognized drying times, voids
Was right about case
established relative
1971 Herbert Leon MacDonell
- Made the 40 hour cours that trained most analysts
Researched and experimented to recreate and duplicate bloodstain patterns observed at crime scenes
First major BPA publication, flight characteristics and stain patterns of human blood
Most older analysts learned from him
Magnet brush also designed by him
