D.P. Lyle, MD, is the award-winning author of many nonfiction books and works of fiction. He is the co-host of Crime and Science Radio, and has worked as a forensics consultant with the writers of popular television shows such as> Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Monk, Judging Amy, House, and Pretty Little Liars. Find him online at [...]

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Cracking Open the Case 5

Chapter 1: Understanding the World of Forensic Science 7

Defining Forensics: The Science of Catching Criminals 8

Integrating science into the practice of law 8

Drawing from other sciences 9

Getting the Big Picture: Forensic Science in Action 9

Starting out small: Basic forensic services 10

Looking at physical forensic science 11

Delving into biological forensic science 11

Investigating the Crime Lab 12

Creating the first crime lab 12

Identifying common procedures 13

Peeking Inside the Criminalist's Toolbox 15

The Cornerstone of Forensic Science: Locard's Exchange Principle 15

Looking at Locard's principle in action 16

Reading the trace evidence 17

Determining who did what where 17

Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Forensics Team 19

Gathering the Evidence: The Criminalist at Work 20

From Analyzing Blood to Identifying Bugs: Forensic Science Specialists 22

Forensic Investigation's Head Honcho: The Medical Examiner 24

Looking at two forensic systems 24

Checking out the duties of a coroner or medical examiner 25

Following the medical examiner in action 26

Dealing with the Dead: The Coroner's Technician 27

Testifying as an Expert 28

Understanding the court system 28

Getting to the heart of the "truth" 30

Understanding the role of expert testimony 30

Chapter 3: Collecting and Protecting the Evidence 33

Assessing the Scene of the Crime 33

Distinguishing between primary and secondary crime scenes 34

Arriving at a crime scene 34

Preserving and processing the scene 35

Documenting the procedure 36

Reconstructing the crime scene 37

Recognizing a staged crime scene 39

Classifying the Evidence 39

Determining whether evidence is direct or circumstantial 40

Discerning physical from biological evidence 40

Understanding reconstructive evidence 41

Identifying associative evidence 41

Differentiating class and individual evidence 41

Analyzing the evidence 43

Locating the Evidence 43

Obtaining a search warrant 44

Searching without a warrant 45

Collecting and Preserving the Evidence 46

Searching the area 46

Gathering the evidence 47

Packaging the evidence 48

Collecting control samples 48

Protecting the chain of custody 49

Locating a Missing Corpse 50

Chapter 4: Delving into the Criminal Mind 53

Defining the Role of the Forensic Psychiatric Professional 53

Differentiating forensic from clinical psychiatry 54

How the mind matters in forensics 55

Assessing the Brain 55

Getting started with a medical history and physical exam 56

Digging into the psyche 57

Asking the right questions 58

Employing dubious techniques 58

Dealing with Deception 59

Recognizing lying perps 59

Debunking the eyewitness 60

Dealing with false confessions 61

Assessing Competence and Sanity 62

Determining a defendant's competence 63

Defining insanity, loosely 63

Tracking Serial Offenders 64

Classifying the multiple murderer 65

Making the monsters 65

Profiling the Perpetrator 68

Assessing the perpetrator's psyche 70

Taking trophies and souvenirs 72

Distinguishing MO from signature 72

Profiling the victim: Victimology 74

Drawing boundaries: The killer's domain 75

Linking Criminals and Crime Scenes 76

Part 2: Analyzing the Evidence 77

Chapter 5: Fingerprints: Your Personal Signature 79

Getting a Grip on Fingerprints 79

Measuring bodies: A precursor to fingerprinting 80

Using ridge patterns 83

Making Matching Easier: Classifying Prints 84

Grouping by arches, loops, and whorls 84

Developing the Henry System 86

Speeding up identification: AFIS 86

Locating Those Sneaky Prints 88

Seeking latent prints 89

Powdering the print 89

Using chemistry to expose prints 90

Cleaning up the print: Digital techniques 91

Chapter 6: Painting A Gruesome Picture: Bloodstain Analysis 93

Understanding Blood's Character 94

Thicker than water 94

Looking into blood clotting 95

Oozing, gushing, and dripping 95

Analyzing Bloodstain Patterns 96

Finding clues in passive bloodstains 96

Analyzing projected blood spatters 98

Classifying projected spatters 100

Latching on to transfer patterns 103

Reconstructing the crime scene from bloodstains 105

Putting It All Together: A Hypothetical Case 106

Chapter 7: Leaving Impressive Impressions: Shoes, Tires, and Tools 109

Stepping Out: Shoeprints as Evidence 110

Characterizing and using shoeprints 111

Matching sole to soul - so to speak 111

Collecting shoe impressions 113

Making the match 115

Tracking Down Tires 116

Analyzing tire-track evidence 117

Obtaining tire impressions 119

Prying Clues from Tool Marks 120

Characterizing and using tool marks 120

Capturing tool impressions 121

Finding Facts in Fabrics 123

Chapter 8: Burning Down the House: Is It Arson? 125

Striking the Match: Looking into Fire-Starters 126

Determining Where and How the Fire Started 127

Using other people's eyes and ears 128

Locating the point of origin 128

Figuring out how it happened 129

Igniting the blaze 130

Heating Things Up: Accelerants 131

Collecting samples at the scene 131

Taking it to the lab 132

Digging deeper into iffy samples 133

Drawing conclusions from testing 135

Investigating Homicidal Fires 135

Location, location, location 135

Poisoned by air 136

Evaluating Explosive Situations 137

Defining explosives 137

Investigating a bombing scene 138

Part 3: Examining the Body 139

Chapter 9: Determining the Cause and Manner of Death: Forensic Autopsies 141

Defining Death and Declaring It as Such 141

Searching for a definitive method 142

Determining the causes and mechanisms of death 143

Uncovering the four manners of death 144

Shadowing the Forensic Pathologist 145

Discovering what makes an autopsy forensic 146

Deciding who gets autopsied 146

Performing an Autopsy 148

Identifying the body 148

Conducting an external examination 148

Dissecting the body 152

Sniffing out clues in chemicals: Toxicology 155

Filing the Official Autopsy Report 155

Chapter 10: Identifying Unknown Victims 157

Identifying the Body 158

Sifting through the artifacts 159

Examining scars, birthmarks, and tattoos 160

Finding evidence of wounds or disease 160

Fingerprinting the dead 162

Checking out the choppers 162

Using DNA To Make the ID 164

Dem Bones, Dem Bones: Working with Skeletons 164

Determining whether bones are human 165

Determining age 165

Estimating stature 166

Determining sex 167

Determining race 168

Seeking individual characteristics 169

Estimating time since death 170

Handling burned bones 171

Determining cause and manner of death 171

Reconstructing Faces 173

Comparing Photographs 174

Chapter 11: Estimating the Time of Death 177

Defining Time of Death 178

Examining the Body to Estimate Time of Death 178

Measuring body temperature 178

Stiffening up: Rigor mortis 179

Getting the blues: Lividity 181

Determining the rate of decay 182

Dealing with other possibilities 186

Breaking the surface: When sinkers become floaters 186

Gazing into the eyes 187

Gathering Other Clues 187

Discovering what was on the menu 187

Getting buggy 188

Checking other scene markers 189

Chapter 12: Ouch! That Hurts: Traumatic Injuries and Deaths 191

Unleashing the Power of Guns and Gun Evidence 192

Tracking those tricky bullets 192

Studying entry and exit wounds 192

Analyzing shotgun patterns 194

Slicing, Dicing, and Stabbing 195

Taking the Hit: Blunt-Force Trauma 197

Scraping and abrading 197

Bruising and battering 198

Breaking bones 200

Getting toothy: Bite marks 202

Moaning and groaning: My aching head 204

A Shocking Situation: Electrocution 207

Wreaking havoc: Electricity's path through your body 207

Assessing the damage 208

The R Word: Dealing with Rape 209

Conducting a rape exam 210

Dealing with fatal assaults 212

Chapter 13: Gasping for Air: Asphyxia 213

Understanding Asphyxia 213

Gasping for Oxygen: Suffocation 214

Suffocating environments 214

Smothering 215

Choking sensations 215

Applying pressure: Mechanical asphyxia 216

Suffocating gases 216

Grasping Strangulation 217

Finding common threads in strangulations 218

Hands on: Manual strangulation 218

Applying a ligature 220

Hangings 221

Inhaling Deadly Air: Toxic Gases 223

That sneaky carbon monoxide 223

Deadly cyanide 224

Getting down...