Basic Forensic Science 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: insects

Insects are an extremely accurate indicator of post-mortem interval (the estimate of time since death). They can also help establish whether a body was killed in a different location from where it was found.

Answer: 1892 in Argentina

Many forensic science sources cite the 1902 case of Henry Jackson (Great Britain) as being the first case in which an individual was convicted of a crime based on fingerprint evidence. Jackson was a burglar who placed his hands in wet paint during a robbery, thus leaving behind his fingerprints.

However, a decade previously, Juan Vucetich, a police researcher in Argentina, used fingerprints to prove that Francesca Rojas murdered her two children by taking her thumb print and matching it to a bloody thumbprint left behind on a door.

When confronted with the evidence, the mother broke down and admitted killing her children because they stood in the way of her marriage to a young lover. She was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Answer: Hair continues to grow after you die.

Hair does not continue to grow after a person dies. Instead, the skin tends to retract which makes the hair protrude more.

Answer: analysis of the paper

The first three experts declared the diaries to be genuine using handwriting analysis. However, the German government scientists analysed the paper and found that it contained a chemical called "blankophor", a paper-whitening agent. Blankophor was not used in the manufacture of paper until 1954. Subsequent analysis of the ink established that the diaries were less than a year old.

The book-bindings also contained man-made fibres and chemicals which were not available at the time the diaries were allegedly written.

Answer: fingerprints

Dactyloscopy comes from the Greek words "daktylos" meaning "finger" and "skopein" meaning "to examine". Fingerprints are impressions made by the ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs which is unique for every human being, even identical twins.

These ridges do not change with growth or age. Superficial burns, cuts and scrapes do not affect fingerprints as the original pattern is maintained when the new skin grows. Only severe injury or surgery will alter fingerprints.

Answer: tattoo

The identification was made on the basis of a tattoo (two boxers squaring up to each other). It was also noted that the arm was Caucasian, very muscular and remarkably well-preserved. Smith's wife identified the arm as that of her husband and police later confirmed it by obtaining fingerprints. Forensic examination revealed that the arm had been severed with a knife, not bitten off by a shark.

The amputation had taken place a considerable time after death and there was a length of rope around the wrist.

Another criminal, Patrick Brady, soon became the chief suspect. Despite the forensic evidence, Brady's lawyers obtained a Supreme Court injunction to stop the inquest on the grounds that one arm did not prove that James Smith was actually dead.

When Brady came to trial, the jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to warrant a charge of murder.

Answer: Super-glue

In 1977, Fuseo Matsumur, a trace evidence examiner in Japan, noticed that his own fingerprints were developing on microscope slides while he was mounting hairs from a murder case. He told Masato Soba, a latent print examiner, about this and, as a result, Soba developed the technique of "Super-glue (cyanoacrylate) fuming" to develop latent prints.

Other substances used for exposing latent fingerprints include iodine, ninhydrin and silver nitrate.

Answer: marks used to identify the manufacturer and calibre of a bullet

Bunter marks are the marks produced by a bunter, or head-stamping, tool when the bullet is manufactured. This tool imprints the manufacturer's name and bullet's calibre on the cartridge casing. It is possible to match bunter marks and determine which bunter made them.

Answer: colour

Fibre analysis involves examination of a number of characteristics - colour, discolouration, cross-sectional shape, diameter, coarseness and composition (that is, whether the fibre is man-made or of animal, plant or mineral origin). All of these factors are important but colour is the most important. Colour is analysed using a microspectrophotometer to ascertain an exact match.

Answer: Walter Sickert (one of Britain's foremost Impressionist painters)

In her quest for DNA evidence, Patricia Cornwell and her team swabbed the correspondence of Walter Sickert, Ellen Cobden Sickert (his first wife), James McNeill Whistler (Sickert's art teacher) and Montague John Druitt (another suspect). They found a sequence of DNA on several of the "Jack the Ripper" letters which matched sequences found on Walter Sickert's correspondence.

While it may strongly suggest that Sickert wrote some of the letters, it does not prove he was Jack the Ripper. At most, it suggests he may have written hoax letters. According to Patricia Cornwell, this is the oldest DNA ever tested in a criminal investigation.