Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works

Course No. 1190

Professor Elizabeth A. Murray, Ph.D.
Mount St. Joseph University

Crime is as old as human society. So is the use of evidence, witnesses, and reason to solve
crimes. The desire to identify lawbreakers and bring them to justice is so great that it has
inspired countless stories, novels, plays, movies, and television series. But how accurate are the
fictional portrayals of crime investigations? What happens behind the scenes when forensic
scientists crack a case? The actual details are far more than a lesson in how detective dramas
often get it wrong. Knowing how real forensic investigators approach real cases will help you
• serve as a better juror in a criminal trial or civil lawsuit;
• be a more effective witness if you ever see a crime take place or are a victim of one;
• sharpen your analysis of the endless array of crime reports that fill the news;
• think more critically in assessing the value of different types of evidence;
• learn about a wide range of technical fields that all come to bear in the investigation of
crime.

What's more, an introduction to the principles of forensic science and a look at some case
studies will give you a new appreciation for law enforcement, which in recent decades has seen
a revolution in its ability to determine who committed a crime, how it was done, and often, why.
Taught by veteran forensic scientist and Professor Elizabeth A. Murray of the College of Mount
St. Joseph, Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works takes you from the crime scene
to the lab to the courtroom in 36 riveting half-hour lectures that reveal the personality and
passions of an investigative mind.
Forensic Science from the Inside
One of the nation's foremost experts in forensic anthropology, Professor Murray has
participated in hundreds of investigations, involving homicides, missing persons, and mass
disasters. In Trails of Evidence, she draws on this extensive experience to show how forensic
science works from the inside with discussions of cases such as these:
 • American Eagle Flight 4184: After a commuter plane went down in rural Indiana in
1994, Professor Murray was called to assist with identification of the victims, a daunting
task that sheds light on how authorities mobilize to deal with the catastrophic loss of life.
• The cold case of a missing teen: Four decades after police gave up trying to identify a
young woman found dead in a cornfield, Professor Murray examined the evidence and
reached new conclusions that helped give a name to a teenager who met a tragic fate.
• The forgetful killer: A murder suspect agreed to take police to the spot where he
buried one of his victims nearly two years earlier—except he couldn't find it. Given only a
rough idea of where to search, Professor Murray used a few simple principles to locate
the grave.

You also learn about landmark forensic cases that are classics in the history of crime solving,
including these:
• Lindbergh kidnapping: The abduction and killing of Charles Lindbergh's infant son left
a host of puzzling clues, including a homemade ladder. When a suspect was arrested, tool
marks and other distinguishing features on the ladder were crucial in establishing his
guilt.
• First use of DNA fingerprinting:The death of two teenage girls in central England in
the 1980s led investigators to a strong suspect. However, a newly developed DNA
technology developed at a local university exonerated an innocent man and led to the
real killer.
• Ted Bundy: This notorious serial killer perfected a modus operandi that allowed him to
escape police for years. A master at hiding his tracks, he was finally convicted based
largely on testimony by a forensic odontologist, who matched bite marks on a victim to
Bundy's teeth.
Learn to Read the Evidence
Unlike what's shown on TV, forensic scientists do not chase down leads and question suspects.
Instead, they leave the legwork to the police and use the tools of science—chemistry, biology,
physics, and psychology—to uncover the story that carefully collected and analyzed evidence
has to tell.
But first they have to know what to look for at a crime scene. Professor Murray begins the
course by introducing Locard's exchange principle. Proposed a century ago by the French
forensic scientist Edmond Locard, this important idea holds that no one can commit a crime
without leaving something behind or altering the surroundings, however imperceptibly.
Armed with the assumption that clues are scattered everywhere, forensic investigators learn
how to approach and evaluate an unfamiliar setting. For example, Professor Murray recounts
how a police officer told her how to tell the difference between a ransacked house and a messy
housekeeper just by looking in the kitchen sink.
In the first section of the course, you explore protocols for investigating a scene, and you probe
some classic types of evidence:
• Fingerprints: Learn the finer points of this venerable tool of identification, including
how a common household product, Super Glue, is used to uncover latent prints.
• Shoeprints:Footprints are more commonly left behind at crime scenes than fingerprints.
Criminals can't avoid walking on a surface, even when they're careful not to touch
anything with their hands.
• Fibers:Microscopic fibers transferred to or from a crime scene have incriminated many
criminals, including Wayne Williams, convicted of the Atlanta child murders in 1982.
 • Blood: TV dramas get it wrong when they show dramatic blood spatters revealed by
high-tech chemistry or lighting. What real forensic scientists see is a smear, made by a
perpetrator's attempt to clean up evidence.
• Handwriting:Signs of hesitation, such as jerky starts and stops, can indicate that
someone was trying to duplicate another person's handwriting by looking at a copy of it.

You also hear what goes into investigating a scene that has been nearly obliterated, whether by
arson, bombing, or structural collapse. And you learn how the aftermath of an auto accident
may hold all the clues needed to determine the sequence of events and who was probably at
fault.
In the second part of Trails of Evidence, you focus on Professor Murray's specialty—analysis
of human remains—discovering how the time of death is estimated, whether the body is
discovered hours or years after the fatal event. She explains the difference between a coroner
and a medical examiner. And using some powerful case histories, she describes the roles of
various forensic scientists in establishing the cause and manner of death and how unknown
persons are identified.
Professor Murray also delves into the psychology behind law enforcement, explaining that
effective interrogation strategies are seldom as confrontational as depicted on TV. You will also
hear about forensic profiling, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and the criminal mind.
Then she takes you into the courtroom to see how evidence is presented to the final arbiters of
its value: the judge and jury.

Science in Pursuit of Justice

Winner of the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award,
among other distinguished honors, Professor Murray brings to teaching the same gifts for clear,
incisive, and creative thought that have made her so effective in the investigation of
questionable deaths and unidentified persons.
In Trails of Evidence, she examines her subject from all angles, covering the principles and
real-life practices of the diverse professions that come together in forensic science. And she
offers several do-it-yourself projects that she uses with her students—from a simple exercise to
test your observational skills to an experiment with blood spatter patterns that employs real-
looking fake blood that you can make in the kitchen.
Not surprisingly, Professor Murray shares some of the classic qualities of her fictionalized
counterparts. She is frank, meticulous, unflappable, and adept at diffusing the more shocking
aspects of her work with humor. But she is also the real thing. She has witnessed firsthand the
tragedy of innumerable crimes. What keeps her going is the quest to use the tools of forensic
science to see that justice is done.
36 lectures | Average 30 minutes each
1. Using Science—Crime Scene to Courtroom
Professor Murray opens the course by discussing her participation in a multifaceted
homicide case that illustrates the many factors that go into a forensic investigation.
Learn how the scientific method is rigorously applied in the field, and survey the topics
you will cover in the course.
2. Crime Scenes and Forensic Evidence
Locard’s exchange principle holds that every contact leaves a trace. Starting with this
rule, discover how a forensic scientist approaches a crime scene. Professor Murray
suggests an experiment you can perform to understand the difficulty of finding evidence
in an unfamiliar setting.
3. Fingerprint Science—Hands-Down ID
 Explore the science of fingerprint analysis, which has been a tool of forensic investigators
since the late 1800s. Learn the different coding systems for classifying fingerprints, the
techniques for recovering prints where they appear absent, and the innovation of
computerized matching.
4. Telltale Marks—Tools, Guns, and Ammunition
Many people know that a gun leaves telltale marks on the bullets it fires. But firearms
evidence is only part of a much broader field called toolmark analysis. Examine the ways
forensic scientists match a tool to the impressions it leaves on a surface it contacts.
5. Good Impressions—Shoes, Tires, and Skin
Continue your study of the crime scene by looking at the importance of forensic
photography and the marks made by shoes, tires, and textiles. Professor Murray
describes a case in which crucial clothing impressions on a body showed a death was
accidental.
6. Forensics of Fibers, Paint, and Glass
Turn to examples of trace evidence that can clinch a case in court—as long as samples
are properly handled and analyzed. Fibers, paint, and glass fragments sometimes have a
vivid story to tell about their origin and the events that left them on a victim or at a crime
scene.
7. Traces of Hair and Fur
Hair is one of the most commonly analyzed forms of trace evidence and may contain DNA
that can pin down its source. Discover that the difficulty of DNA testing makes hair more
often used to rule out suspects, since hair has distinctive characteristics that are easily
observable.
8. Soil, Protist, Plant, and Animal Traces
Enter the field of wildlife forensics, which involves not just attacks by animals on people
but the many ways that evidence from nature is used to solve crimes. Soils, wood, pollen,
and animal traces can all connect a person or object to a crime scene.
9. Serology—Blood and Other Body Fluids
What does an investigator do when a murder scene has been scrubbed spotlessly clean
by the perpetrator? TV dramas often get the facts wrong. Survey the arsenal of tests for
body fluids that can uncover a hidden crime.
10.The Forensic Analysis of DNA
Learn how DNA profiling became the gold standard in both victim and perpetrator
identification, even though humans have more than 99% of their DNA in common.
Professor Murray discusses the landmark case in the United Kingdom that was the first
to use DNA to convict a killer.
11.Forensic Toxicology of Drugs and Poisons
Enter the toxicology lab to learn how drugs and poisonous substances are detected, even
in minute quantities. Trace the path of drugs through the bloodstream and understand
their effects. Then see how forensic scientists use sophisticated tests to identify
chemicals in a victim’s body.
12.The Forensics of Substance Abuse
In one recent year, drug overdoses accounted for 26,000 deaths in the United States.
Focus on the forensics of this serious social problem. How are drugs of abuse classified?
How do they affect the body? And which regulated substances are more commonly
analyzed in the forensic chemistry lab, since they’re the most frequently encountered on
the street?
13.Handwriting and Forgery Analysis
Examine the field of questioned documents, which involves both handwriting analysis and
the more scientifically conclusive procedures of materials examination. Learn the tip-offs
that someone is trying to duplicate the handwriting of another, and explore the ways that
some famous fakes were unmasked.
14.Computer Forensics and Digital Evidence
 Learn how forensic investigators extract evidence from computers, cell phones, and
other electronic devices. Discover the importance of slack space on a hard drive, and
review how GPS tracking solved one murder that ultimately led officials to link that killer
to another murder over a decade earlier.
15.Structure Failure—Forensic Engineering
Whenever a bridge, building, or other structure fails, forensic engineers are called in to
determine what went wrong, which may show whether a crime was committed. Focus on
cases such as Boston’s deadly Great Molasses Flood in 1919 and the collapse of the
World Trade Center Twin Towers in 2001.
16.Forensic Analysis of Vehicle Accidents
Apply Newton’s laws of motion to automobile accidents, discovering what skid marks,
front-end damage, and other clues reveal about the cause of a collision. Close by
considering two other types of vehicle accidents: an airline crash in 1994 and the Space
Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
17.Fire Science and Explosion Forensics
Probe the ashes of a smoldering building to find the telltale traces that can point to
arson. Even the aftermath of a violent explosion leaves clues about what caused it. But
first, it’s important to understand the physics of fire and explosives—and the motives of
those who light the fuse.
18.Blood Evidence—Stains and Spatters
Even when a body is absent, blood leaves distinctive patterns that can tell investigators
the nature of an injury, the type of weapon that made it, and sometimes the degree of
culpability of the person who caused it. Review the role of blood evidence in the infamous
Sam Sheppard murder trial.
19.The Science of Death
Begin a series of lectures on death and its aftermath by studying the end stages of life.
Seldom as simple as portrayed on TV, death is a cascade of failures rather than a single
event. Explore some of the many routes to this inevitable end.
20.Death Investigation—Algor, Livor, and Rigor
How can an investigator inspect a body and estimate the time of death? Follow the steps
that the body’s systems take after life ends, including algor mortis, livor mortis, and rigor
mortis. Each of these processes can help signal when death occurred and also the likely
circumstances.
21.Autopsy—Cause and Manner of Death
Step into the morgue to understand why and how a forensic autopsy is performed. The
purpose is to determine the cause and manner of death, and often to identify the victim.
Much like exploratory surgery, no two autopsies are the same.
22.Decomposition—From Bugs to Bones
When bodies are in a state of advanced decomposition, forensic entomologists use
knowledge of insect life cycles to estimate the time since death. Discover that a research
center known informally as the Body Farm has turned this gruesome subject into a
science.
23.Forensic Anthropology—Skeleton Stories
Study the science behind skeletons, learning how investigators read the clues in bones
for signs of age, sex, ancestry, and trauma. Human skeletons vary widely, even in the
number of bones in an individual. The standard textbook figure—206—is only an average.
24.Forensics of Teeth and Bite Marks
Forensic odontologists are dentists trained to use their knowledge of teeth in two ways:
to identify unknown persons and to interpret bite mark evidence on victims. Learn how
dental patterns can be compelling evidence and led to the murder conviction of serial
killer Ted Bundy in 1979.
25.Police Sketches and Facial Reproductions
 From wanted posters in the Old West to today’s digital face reconstructions, forensic art
is an enduring tool of law enforcement. Explore the techniques artists use to create a
recognizable human likeness based on limited information, and learn about the careful
approaches these artists must take when interviewing witnesses.
26.Interview, Interrogation, Intelligence
Turn to a key component of police work that underlies all forensic investigations:
evidence provided by people. Learn the differences between interviewing, interrogating,
and gathering intelligence. Effective interrogation is a far less adversarial process than is
portrayed on TV.
27.Forensic Profiling—Who, How, and Why?
Explore one of the most controversial aspects of forensics: personality profiling. Profiling
can greatly narrow the field of potential suspects and aid in capturing criminals. Review
cases in which this technique proved spectacularly successful and also tragically
misguided.
28.Human Memory and Eyewitness Accounts
Eyewitness testimony carries enormous weight in court. But how reliable is it? Professor
Murray describes a “crime” that she stages in front of her students to test their reliability
as witnesses. Her experiences in the classroom match the unsettling findings of studies.
29.Criminal Minds—Psychology and Psychiatry
Dealing with human behavior is at the root of the legal system. Delve into forensic
psychology and forensic psychiatry by studying the disturbing case of serial killer Jeffrey
Dahmer. Then look at how the criminal justice system evaluates insanity pleas,
separating frauds from the genuinely mentally ill.
30.When Forensic Evidence Is on Trial
Forensic evidence must be collected, prepared, and analyzed with care, since it may wind
up in court. What happens when it does? Review the history of scientific evidence, its
changing acceptance by the courts, and efforts today to develop uniform standards in
forensics that apply throughout the country.
31.Forensic Scientists and Expert Testimony
Both sides in a legal dispute have the right to good science, and Professor Murray has
testified for both the prosecution and defense in different trials. Hear some of her
experiences, and examine the many career pathways to becoming a forensic expert.
32.Comparing Crimes and Crime Labs
Turn to the subject of crime itself, exploring the different categories of homicide, assault,
and property offenses. The disparity in technology around the world means that forensic
science practices vary. Close by looking at a typical high-tech crime lab and the types of
evidence that move through it.
33.Crimes—Nobody’s Supposed to Get Hurt
Get practical forensic experience by learning how to calculate when an individual is over
the alcohol limit for drunk driving. Then explore the role of forensics in cases of identity
theft, arson, and a famous kidnapping in which an astute victim laid the foundation for
snaring his captors.
34.Crimes—Killers of One, Killers of Many
Analyze four tragic cases that were solved with the help of forensic evidence: the killing
of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in England, the Jeffrey MacDonald triple-murder case, a
17-year string of hospital killings that appeared to be natural deaths, and the BTK (“Bind,
Torture, Kill”) murder spree in Wichita, Kansas.
35.Applications—Mass-Disaster Forensics
What is the experience of a forensic investigator in the aftermath of a mass disaster?
Professor Murray recounts her role in the analysis of the 1994 crash of American Eagle
Flight 4184. Learn how mass disasters are like monumental crime scenes, in which many
forensic techniques come into play.
36.Applications—Identification Matters
 One of the most emotionally satisfying aspects of Professor Murray’s work is identifying
deceased unknown persons, helping to bring answers to a victim’s family. Finish your
study of forensic science with examples of her work in this area, including a nearly 40-
year-old cold case that she helped solve.

About Your Professor

Elizabeth A. Murray, Ph.D.
Mount St. Joseph University
Dr. Elizabeth A. Murray is a forensic anthropologist and also Professor of Biology at Mount St.
Joseph University, where she teaches doctoral-level human gross anatomy and undergraduate-
level anatomy and physiology, as well as forensic science. She earned her bachelor's degree in
biology from Mount St. Joseph University and her master's degree in anthropology and Ph.D. in
Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Biology from the University of Cincinnati. Most of Professor
Murray's forensic casework has been in Ohio and Kentucky, where she has participated in
hundreds of investigations. She is one of fewer than 100 anthropologists certified as a
Diplomate by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Professor Murray has been
honored with the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership
Award, and she twice earned the Clifford Excellence in Teaching Award. She has served as an
instructor for numerous organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Armed
Forces Institute of Pathology, and the International Association of Coroners & Medical
Examiners. Her television appearances include National Geographic's Buried Secrets,
Discovery Health's Skeleton Stories, The New Detectives, and Forensic Files. Her book Death:
Corpses, Cadavers, and Other Grave Matters was named one of the top ten summer titles for
students by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her 2012 book, Forensic
Identification: Putting a Name and Face on Death, was recently selected as one of the
outstanding books of 2012 by the prestigious National Science Teacher's Association.