BEFORE INVESTIGATION!

First responders are the first to enter a crime scene

- Their primary concern is to ensure that the victims and all people at the
scene are safe
First responders include…
- Police Department
- Arrest any suspects - Keeping them separated
- Assist victims
- Secure the area to prevent any further change
- Begin a Crime scene security log: Tracking anyone that enters or
leaves the scene
- Fire Department
- Ambulance and First aid responders
After everything is secure and everyone is safe
investigations can begin
 Seven Steps of Crime-Scene
Investigation
1. Securing the scene: Done by first responders
- Preservation of evidence and crime scene security log
2. Separating the witnesses
- Ensure they can’t talk to one another - avoid accounts being shared & collusion
3. Scanning the Scene
- Give an overall picture of the scene by identifying primary and secondary scenes
4. Investigating the scene: Done by crime scene examiners
- Taking photos/ documentation - either with or without measurements
5. Sketching the Scene
6. Searching for Evidence
7. Securing and Collecting Evidence
 What to do in
an
investigation
1. Perform a preliminary scene survey/ walk-through
2. Mental reconstruction of what occured
3. Noting any important…
- CONDITIONAL evidence
- Points of entry/exit
- Initial observation: 4 w’s and HOW
4. Creating access for people who may be working in
the scene
5. Notify superior officers or agencies if necessary
 LOCARD’S
EXCHANGE
PRINCIPLE
Created after he profiled a woman’s attacker with trace evidence under her fingernails.

When a person comes into contact with another person, a

cross-transfer of physical evidence can occur.
- When people make contact, a physical transfer of material happens, creating trace
evidence
- Examples: Hair (pet/human), fingerprints, soil tracked into house, drop of
blood, used tissue (facial cells), paint chips, broken glass, clothing fibres

Intensity, duration, and nature of materials in contact

determine the “extent” of a transfer.
- How much transfer in fist fights vs. light brushes?
CLASSIFYING
EVIDENCE
- Direct: first hand observations
(eyewitness accounts,
dashboard/bodycam footage,
confessions)
- In court requires a testimony
- Circumstantial/indirect: implies a
fact/provides links but cannot prove it,
seen by only suspect and victim (IS
TRACE EVIDENCE)
 CIRCUMSTANTIA
L EVIDENCE

Biological Physical
- Organic traces, reduces suspects to a very small - Tangible, non biological evidence, reduces
group or single individual → more persuasive in suspects to a smaller group (with the exception
court of fingerprints)
- ExamplesHair, plant parts, natural fibres, body - Examples: a weapon, finger/footprints, tire
fluids impressions, tool marks
 Additional
Classifications

Class Evidence Individual Evidence

- Narrows an identity to a group of - Narrows an identity to a single
persons/things person/thing through a unique combination
- Example: ABO blood type: narrows to one of characteristics
type, excludes others - Example: Fingerprint
 Collection and
Preservation
- One person job 1. Evidence is packaged into a primary
- Some evidence is given priority container (plastic/paper) and then a
- E.g. body fluids/arson remains will secondary (collection bag)
dry up 2. Sealed shut with tamper resistant tape
- Use airtight containers 3. Collectors initials are put on the tape
- Biological evidence in breathable 4. Evidence log attached: Case #, item
containers to prevent mold inventory #, description, name of
contamination/DNA degeneration suspect and victim, date/time,
- After air drying it is put in a paper signatures of witnesses present during
bindle (druggist’s fold) collection
Control samples are often collected from the victim/suspects for cross-referencing.
 Chain of Custody
Could be a lab technician. The same process moves
Open the evidence in a place across subsequent
besides the sealed edge. receivers.
Next Repeat
Receiver

Initial Seal Repackage Final Use

Following previous Receiver repackages it Court, investigations, etc.
procedure, first person from the opening they’ve
packages and seals created.
evidence.
 03of
Use
Evidence
Reasons for investigation
Reasons for the Investigation
of Evidence
OBJECTIVE: To recognize, preserve/collect
and interpret ALL physical evidence at the
scene

GOAL: Reconstruct the events that generated

the evidence
- Difficulty in recognizing whether the
evidence is useful or not
Reasons for the Investigation
of Evidence
Used to help prove/disprove the statements
of witnesses
- Also to identify any suspects linked to
the crime
Helps to form links between people, scene
and objects
- Leads the investigation

Corpus Delicti: “Body of the Crime”

- The physical material in a crime scene - used to obtain substantial/fundamental facts
necessary to prove the commission of a crime
Modus Operandi: “Mode of Operating”
- A distinct pattern between multiple crime scenes linking them with one another
 04
Evidence Collecting
Different methods that are used to
investigate a crime scene
 Methods of Evidence
Collection
1. 2. 3.
Video Recording Note Taking Forensic Mapping

4. 5. 6.
Crime Scene Search Digital Imaging + Crime Scene Sketching
Photography
 Video Recording
This is a routine procedure that is always done.
- Provides virtual images of the scene
- Can be done with affordable equipment
- Today we have much quicker access to the videos

DO DON’T
- Record the video with a placard that - Edit or tamper with the video
includes the case number - Do not include members of the crime or
- Date and time + location and team/equipment
videographers name - NO narrating the video especially with
- Provide general orientation of the scene subjective information
- Record from the victimes POV
- Use smooth movements
 Note Taking
Effective notes serve as a written record
of all the crime scene activities
- taken as the activity is done in order
to keep them as up to point as
possible and ot not be tampered with
false memories
Includes the 4 W’s and the theory came
up with using mental reconstruction
Forensic
Mapping
Use of imaging technology to create a crime
scene map that can be rendered into a 3D
model
- Many mapping hardware softwares
include an electronic distance
determination, height and slope
measurements
Data of measurements and layout is
downloaded into a program to reconstruct the
data into a 3D map
 Crime Scene
Search
Done after scene documentation. Use:
- Additional lights to see small materials or
substance that are not easily visible to the
human eye
- DOCUMENTATION OF ALL ITEMS MUST BE
DONE BEFORE IT IS COLLECTED OR MOVED
Search Patterns
- Grid
- Link - Where one evidence leads you to another
- Inward or Outward Spiral
- Wheel/ ray
- Parallele
- Zone
 Digital Imaging
Done right after the video is taken
- Rule of thumb: too many is better than too few
Types of Photos
- Overall Photographs
- Mid-range photographs
- Close-up Photographs
Benefits
- Instant access to images
- No need for expensive equipment
- Gives accurate pictorial record of the crime
scene and physical evidence
 Crime Scene
Sketching
Final task during crime scene documentation
- Required extreme accuracy
- Proper perspective and measurements
- Perspectives
- Overhead, side-view, combination
- Measuring Methods
- Triangulation, Baseline, Polar Coordinates
- All objects are measured from two
immovable landmarks in the scene
Crime Scene Sketching
Different Types of
Sketches
Rough vs Finished What is Included in a
Sketch Documentation
- Title/caption
- Legend for abbreviations, symbols,
number or letters
- Compass
- Scale that was used
- Case number, offense type, victime name,
location, date + time
- Who sketched it and when
 05
Crime Scene
Defining
 Crime Scene
Classification
Location Crime Committed
1 Where was the crime scene
committed? Indoors, outdoors,
3 Eg, Homicide, robbery, sexual
assault
Condition of
in a secluded office etc…
Scene
2 Original Crime
Most crime scenes aren’t confined to one area.
Normally move to a second place
4 Based on the closeness to the original
state of the scene, is it ridden with new
evidence?
- Original Crime Scene
Size of the Scene
5
- First place is labeled as such
- Secondary Crime Scene Macroscopic vs Microscopic scene
- Any subsequently linked crime scenes - House vs Room
 06
Staged Crime
 Staged Crime
Scene
- Evidence does not match witness testimonies
- Arson (lighting evidence on fire)
- Staging murder to be suicide
- Burglary
- Initially treat all investigations as homicides. Consider:
- Do wounds match weapons?
- Can they be easily self-inflicted?
- Profile of victim
- Behaviour of victims/suspects before the event
- Corroborate statements with evidential facts
ACTIVITY
!
Instructions:
1. You will be given a case study and then taken to the “scene of
the crime”
2. There you will first do a preliminary walk through using the
search method of your choice.
3. Perform note taking and imaging of relevant evidence.
4. Try doing a mental reconstruction of the scene!

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 Case Study
Amy Gendy was found dead Friday after school at 3:20 in
her 2nd period classroom. No known suspects other than the
first person to contact authorities were identified thus far.
Sarah Harvard, a student who claimed to be retrieving her
textbook after school, was the one to find the body and
supposedly called 911 operators immediately while
comforting Gendy’s hysterical friend Mylissa Waterdown.