First hand crime scene examination can be crucial...
When we are requested to examine crime scene photographs, and comment upon the distribution of blood, and what this might indicate, we are quite limited and restricted in what we can say. It is not often we are instructed whilst the scene is still preserved, but it can be of great benefit for instructing solicitors to be quick off the mark and instruct us to go and look at the scene before vital evidence is lost.
It is always of great benefit to examine a crime scene first-hand, if this is possible, prior to it being cleaned up. It can be difficult to observe characteristics and fine detail of some bloodstaining in photographs. For example, the distribution and pattern of blood can be quite similar, whether it is impact spatter generated from striking a surface wet with blood, or whether the blood has been forcibly exhaled from injured and bleeding airways. It is crucial to examine the individual spots of blood in detail, as expirated blood sometimes has a “halo effect”, with dark ring around a lighter centre, caused by air bubbles in the droplets. The difference between a particular distributions being the result of impact spatter or expirated blood could be crucial in the interpretation of the events leading to it.
In one particular case, I was requested to interpret blood patterns at the scene of a murder. There were heavy pools of the blood on the floor and it had been assumed by all that the fatal injury had been sustained at the site of a large area of pooled blood, whilst both parties involved had been standing. An examination of the scene, in particular a sofa, indicated that the sofa cushion was also bloodstained, but that there was a slight void in this staining, indicating that one party had been seated on the sofa and was, in fact, being attacked by the other party, who became fatally injured. One small fine detail at the scene, which may not have been apparent in an examination from photographs, changed a murder charge to manslaughter!
For more details about how we can help you best help your clients in similar cases visit https://www.formedecon.com/crime-scene-investigation or for all our services see https://www.formedecon.com/forensic-services