Cutting crime: the analysis of the "uniqueness" of saw marks on bone.

Int J Legal Med

Forensic Pathology Unit, University of Leicester, Robert Kilpatrick Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE2 7LX, UK.

Published: September 2007

Witness marks produced on bone by the use of saws have traditionally been examined using stereomicroscopy. The marks are typically found on the kerf wall or floor and give important information about the implement that made them. This paper describes a new approach to the analysis of witness marks left on kerf walls and floors from crimes involving dismemberment. Previously, two types of marks have been identified: deep furrows formed during the pull stroke and fine striations formed on the push stroke. These types of striation allow the class of saw to be identified, but not an individual saw. With the advent of environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), insulating materials can now be examined without the need for conductive coatings to be applied. This allows materials to be examined at higher magnifications than those available with stereomicroscopy. Here we report on a new, third type of striation that is visible at higher magnifications on ESEM images. These striations are formed from the imperfections on the cutting teeth of saws and give real possibilities of uniquely identifying whether or not a particular saw was used to cause the mark. In blind trials conducted on sawing of nylon 6.6, different individual saws could be successfully identified even if different people used the saw. We discuss ways in which these results can be extended to bone and how this may assist in the investigation of the act of dismemberment.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-006-0120-zDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

witness marks
8
striations formed
8
materials examined
8
higher magnifications
8
marks
5
cutting crime
4
crime analysis
4
analysis "uniqueness"
4
"uniqueness" marks
4
marks bone
4

Similar Publications

Isles of autonomy: the rise of intelligent technologies.

Ergonomics

January 2025

Department of Psychology, and Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.

A critical metaphor for the development, implementation and penetration of autonomous machine systems into the world of human work is presented. Most especially, the ' concept is articulated which argues that the expropriation of human pre-eminence will be marked by a series of threshold events, some of which are, even now becoming evident. In particular, it indicates that there will be a watershed event in which differing and distinct expressions of applied autonomous systems will spontaneously coalesce to produce an emergent, general artificial intelligence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The dawn and twilight of Old Irish scholarship.

Lang Hist

October 2024

Department of Early Irish, Maynooth University, Ireland.

Even though the publication of Johann Kaspar Zeuss's monumental (Zeuss 1853) marks the beginning of the modern, scientific study of the Old Irish language, short excerpts of the most important textual witnesses of Old Irish, the so-called Old Irish glosses, preserved in 8th-9th-century manuscripts on the European Continent, had appeared in print since the early 18th century. This article gives an overview of these early publications from the 18th and early 19th century by Johann Georg von Eckhart, Domenico Vallarsi, Lodovico Antonio Muratori, and Vittorio Amedeo Peyron, and assesses their role as early trailblazers in the study of Old Irish.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Recent years have witnessed the remarkable progress of deep learning within the realm of scientific disciplines, yielding a wealth of promising outcomes. A prominent challenge within this domain has been the task of predicting enzyme function, a complex problem that has seen the development of numerous computational methods, particularly those rooted in deep learning techniques. However, the majority of these methods have primarily focused on either amino acid sequence data or protein structure data, neglecting the potential synergy of combining both modalities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dog bites or knife wounds? A case report of atypical neck injuries.

Forensic Sci Med Pathol

November 2024

Institute of Legal medicine, CHRU TOURS, Trousseau Hospital, Avenue de la république, 37170, Chambray-lès-Tours, France.

Article Synopsis
  • A 24-year-old woman suffered fatal injuries from a dog attack, resulting in 21 deep neck wounds and damage to vital structures such as carotid arteries and the larynx.
  • Initial forensic findings suggested homicide due to the nature of the injuries, leading to the arrest of a witness.
  • A second expert review concluded that the injuries were consistent with dog bites rather than homicide, attributing the cause of death to cerebral anoxia from vascular damage and asphyxia related to the injuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!