Citation

Muller D, Avissar YY, Kimchi S, Grafit A. Forensic Sci. Int. 2017; 280: 224-227.

Affiliation

Arson Investigation Laboratory, Division of Identification and Forensic Sciences (DIFS), Israel Police, National HQ, Haim Bar Lev Road, Jerusalem 91906, Israel. Electronic address: arnon.grafit@police.gov.il.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.10.017

PMID

29080522

Abstract

We report for the first time, the chemical identification of phosphorus on the remains of burned clothes taken from an injured woman. The woman was accidentally burned as a result of spontaneous combustion of a "stone" pebble-like material her daughter picked up innocently on a beach. The remains of the woman's clothes were analyzed by gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) after headspace adsorption using solid phase microextraction (SPME). The results of this test showed that the injuries were due to phosphorus, leading to the understanding that the "stone" was actually white phosphorus. This method can help both forensic investigators in a crime scene investigation and physicians that need this information in order to give the correct treatment to their patient.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Chemical burn; Fire debris analysis; Forensic sciences; GC–MS; SPME; White phosphorus