1.3: Crime Scene Examination and the First Forensic Laboratories

The systematic processing of the scene of a crime following scientific methodologies is a product of the 20^th century. Modern crime scene processing seeks to document the entirety of the scene, and adjacent areas, to preserve the evidence within the scene, to mitigate contamination, and to discover and collect evidence and observations that can later be used to identify the participants, reconstruct the series of events of the crime, conduct subsequent analysis of evidence collected from the scene, and for the presentation of factual evidence during courtroom procedures in a manner that is fair, objective, and unbiased. Crime scene processing as a scientific methodology did not just appear in the 20^th century but was an evolution of a combination of two things: historical investigative efforts and modern technology.

One could say that there have always been clever investigators, like Song Ci, who have utilized some form of scene or evidence analysis to draw a conclusion as to the identity and guilt of a suspect. Perhaps the earliest investigation involving footwear analysis and comparison occurred in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1786. A young girl by the name of Elizabeth Hughan was stabbed to death in a field. As the detectives were examining the body, one noted the impression of the outsole of a boot in the mud next to the body. The detective used a thin parchment to draw an outline of the impression, noting individual characteristics such as nicks in the heel, and noted the boot that made the impression was “Heavily nailed and patched.” The detectives then ordered all the men of the nearby village to bring their boots for inspection. A comparison was conducted, and a matching boot, belonging to Richard Robertson, was found, thus solving the case. This evidence was presented against Richard Robertson at trial.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): With permission from the collection of William Bodziak

Of course, today the footwear impression would be photographed using a digital camera and a casting of the impression would be made using dental die stone.

From the moment Joseph Nicéphore Niépce had the idea of capturing a photographic image of his estate in La Gras, France, in 1826, using a camera obscura, your author believes somewhere lived a detective who thought to himself, “I wonder if I can photograph a crime scene with that thing.” It, of course, would take another six decades before a plate camera was used to document the victims of the White Chapel murders in London, England. It would take another two decades before Alphonse Bertillon took the first photographs of the crime scene itself in Paris, France, in 1903, while documenting the murder scene of Madame Debeinche. The first hand-held camera was invented in 1912, making them more portable and convenient for crime scene photography. Today, full-frame and mirror-less digital cameras are the mainstay of every crime scene technician. Also today, every crime scene technician uses a camera to photographically document the crime scene with overall or scene-establishing photographs, medium-range or evidence establishing photographs, and close-up or evidentiary photographs.

In 1880, Dr. Henry Faulds, a Scottish physician and surgeon, is believed to be the first person to identify a patent greasy fingerprint on a bottle of medical alcohol, and then to match that print to a suspect. What Dr. Faulds did not do was to develop a latent fingerprint, although he did develop a method of recording exemplar fingerprints using printers’ ink. It would not be until the 1920s that granular powders were developed for dusting fingerprints that could not be detected by the human eye. Cyanoacrylate ester fuming (Super Glue) was not invented until the late 1970s. Today the crime scene technician has a vast array of development mediums that can be employed either at the crime scene or on recovered items of evidence in the laboratory.

Even the criminalistic laboratory is a product of one man in the 20th century; Edmond Locard, who created the first laboratory dedicated to the scientific examination of evidence from a crime scene in 1911, in Lyon, France. Locard attributed the creation of this laboratory to one influential fictional character, Sherlock Holmes.