Citation

Fitzpatrick R, Raven M, Self P. Episodes J. Int. Geosci. 2017; 40(2): 148-156.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, International Union of Geological Sciences, Publisher Geological Society of Korea)

DOI

10.18814/epiiugs/2017/v40i2/017017

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Through five diverse cases involving an attempt of murder, cold murder in 1988, two contemporary murder investigations in the past 10 years and sexual assault, this paper will demonstrate how combined pedological, mineralogical and chemical investigations, have been critical in developing reliable soil information, from landscape to microscopic scales, to help in forensic investigations, which were used as evidence in Australian State Supreme courts. A wide range of natural soil types (sandy coastal beaches, grey clayey wetlands, black muddy alluvium in river-beds, brown clayey and loamy soils in wooded areas) and human- made soil types (comprising brick and road gravel fragments) across Australia were used in these forensic investigations to associate materials taken from questioned items, such as shoes, clothing, shovels or vehicles, with a specific control location or the crime scene. To illustrate the power of soil analysis in criminal investigations it is beneficial to share successful case examples to demonstrate the potential value of this somewhat underutilized forensic tool. Here we will discuss how pedological and soil mineralogy expertise, especially in using soil maps and X-ray diffraction (XRD), has been used as a contributory part of each...

Language: en