Amber Nisbet, ENG 401, Prof. Roorda, 5/3/06
Forensic Science. It’s a hard field to get into. Trust me, I’ve been there. I contacted seven different people in hopes that I would find an interview and possible observation opportunity in one of them. I was wrong. Five of the seven scientists didn’t even respond; the other two referred me to someone else because they were too busy. By this point, I’m frustrated and decide to do a little research on forensic science before contacting someone else. I was amazed to discover that forensic science, forensic pathology, and forensic psychology were all distinct fields – very different from one another. And each of these separate fields contains subfields. I discovered that almost every type of science from archeology to etymology can have the word “forensic” in front of them. After researching, I was beginning to think that the field of forensic science was too complicated for me to understand, until I realized that although there are different types of forensics work, all are alike because all relate to the law.
The Forensic Science Society defines forensic science as the application of science to the law. Forensic scientists may be involved in both criminal and civil cases. In criminal cases, they are often involved in the search and examination of physical traces that may be helpful in establishing a connection between a person suspected of committing a crime and the actual crime scene. These physical traces are often blood, textile fibers from clothing, hairs, bodily fluids, tire marks, and building materials such as glass, paint and flammable substances. Forensic specialists often perform autopsies in order to determine a person’s cause of death – deaths from suicides, homicides, accidents, suspicious deaths, deaths of small children and infants, sudden deaths and many more. In civil cases, forensic science is most commonly used to determine paternity.1
To get a better understanding of some of the duties and jobs of forensic scientists, we will examine a hypothetical crime scene. Understanding what it takes to help solve a crime will further your understanding of forensics. Let’s say it’s 1 am. Police officers are swarming the crime scene like bees around a hive. The house where the bodies of two males were found is completely roped off. The entire house is considered a crime scene as it looks like something out of a horror movie ¾ broken objects, overturned furniture, and blood everywhere. The police have no suspects thus far and no clues as to what happened to the two victims. But hope is not lost. They are awaiting the arrival of the police department’s forensic scientist in hopes that he will be able to uncover evidence from the crime scene that they missed. The scientist soon arrives at the scene and immediately begins looking for evidence. He is able to find a handwritten notes beside the bodies, a footprint on the carpet, and a set of fingerprints on the front door. He hopes that this evidence will help him to locate the killer.
Back at the medical examiner’s office, the forensic scientist must first determine what caused the death of the two males by performing an autopsy. This area of forensic science is called forensic pathology. Forensic Pathologists usually perform the actual autopsies. During an autopsy, they can determine the cause of death and the estimated time of death. They can also establish whether it was a homicide or suicide and suggest possible weapons used. In court cases, forensic pathologists must present their findings in a four-stage report. These are “contributing causes of death” such as preexisting medical conditions, the “mechanism of death” that explains how they died, the “immediate cause of death” which suggests what caused them to die, and the “manner of death.” The “manner of death” illustrates whether it was an accident, a homicide, suicide or a natural death.
He determines that the two men were shot to death and he is able to uncover two bullets from the bodies. Let’s say the police have five suspects and each own a different gun. The forensic scientist would be able to determine whether the bullets found in the bodies match any of the guns that belong to the five suspects. This process is called firearm identification and consists of matching a bullet used in a crime back to the gun it was fired from. Rifiling is what happens when the both the bullet and cartridge are marked after the gun is fired. This marks the bullet in a way that links to the weapon that fired it. After a gun is fired, the bullet is given microscopic scratches while it travels down the barrel. These scratches can be linked back to specific firearms. To identify the firearm, the forensic scientist matches the microscopic scratches found on the bullet to those of the gun that fired it. This is done by firing a bullet through the weapon in question and then comparing the bullet shot in the lab and the bullet found at the crime scene under a microscope. If the scratches can be lined up identically, then it’s a positive match.2 Figure 1 will help to explain how the bullets are compared.
Figure 1
Picture taken from the Forensic Science Webpages at http://home.earthlink.net/~thekeither/Forensic/forsone.htm
The forensic scientist can possibly help locate the killer by examining the footprint found on the carpet. Let’s say the footprint was in blood, which rules out the possibility that it belonged to one of the two victims. He may be able to establish what type of shoe made the footprint and the size by examining what is called imprint evidence. As mentioned above, forensic scientists often examine evidence left by tire marks and building materials. Imprint evidence consists of two different types – three-dimensional impressions and two-dimensional impressions. Three-dimensional impressions are found when an object leaves its imprint in something soft. An example of this is leaving a footprint in mud. Two-dimensional impressions occur after “an object transfers an image to a surface or an object comes into contact with a surface that is coated and removes some of that coating,” and can occur after leaving a footprint on a surface after stepping into wet paint. Tire mark impressions are types of imprint evidence as many factors can be learned by studying them. For example, a single set of tire marks can help determine the type of car, what direction is was traveling and the direction it was facing.2
The next piece of evidence to analyze is the note found beside the bodies. This handwriting on this note can be compared to handwriting samples taken from the five suspects in a process called handwriting analysis. It is used to identify a person based upon a handwriting sample that is related to a crime. Because it’s thought that it’s impossible for two people to write the same thing in the same exact way, examining characteristics found in a handwriting sample connected with a crime to the handwriting of a known person will show whether the samples came from the same person. These characteristics are “letter formations, connecting strokes between the letters, upstrokes, retraces, down strokes, spacing, baseline, curves, size, distortions, hesitations and a number of other characteristics of handwriting.” 2 Figure 2 shows what characteristics forensic scientists look for in handwriting samples.
Figure 2
Picture taken from the Forensic Science Webpages at http://home.earthlink.net/~thekeither/Forensic/forsone.htm
Let’s not forget the set of fingerprints found on the front door of the house. Although these prints could belong to one of the two victims, they could also belong to the killer. Fingerprint examination is a vital part of many criminal investigations as the fingerprints found on crime scenes can be traced back to an actual person. Determining a person’s identity by examining fingerprints is possible because every person in the world is believed to have a set of unique fingerprints. Fingerprints are ridges and furrows on the skin surface. These ridges and furrows can be separated into three types: loops, arches, and whorls. All three types have minute points that differentiate a person’s identity due to their formation prior to birth. These points can be detected at a ridge ending. Due to unique points, scientists can use two different processes to remove a fingerprint from a surface: fuming, which uses a combination of iodine and superglue, and dusting. These methods of retrieval are capable of working due to the dermal papillae, which is that part beneath the skin that prevents fingerprints from disappearing. 3 Figure 3 shows the three basic patterns and Figure 4 shows different variations of these main patterns.
Figure 3
Picture taken from the Forensic Science Webpages at http://home.earthlink.net/~thekeither/Forensic/forsone.htm
Figure 4
If the physical evidence in this case wasn’t helping to identify the killer, the forensic scientist can use profiling in order to come up with new suspects. Profiling is performed by a forensic psychologist that studies all aspects of a crime and the crime scene in order to come up with a detailed profile of the suspect. Although forensic profiling does not produce an actual name, forensic psychologists are able to come up with a description of the suspect’s personality and various other factors that could help police. These other factors can be sex, age, marital status, job profession, and behavioral disorders, the type of people he associates with and even the type of car he drives.
Hopefully this information gives more insight into the field of forensic science. In order to have a better grasp on these concepts myself, I decided to resume my search for a scientist to interview and observe. During a visit to our class, Dr. Greg Davis gave me the name of a resident at UK Hospital that had some experience and interest in forensics. Dr. Sam Simmons soon became just the person I was looking for and I quickly jumped on the chance to interview him. Although Dr. Simmons is not certified in the field of forensics, he is working towards his goal of being a forensic pathologist. Throughout his life, he was always interested in forensics and his interest peaked after reading Patricia Cornwell novels. During medical school, he thought he was going to practice family medicine, but this all changed after his forensic rotation. He’s currently a resident training in pathology at UK Hospital. He was required to complete four years of residency after medical school, but in order to become a forensic pathologist, he must spend additional years focusing on these specialties.
Spending a year as a resident of forensic pathology at the State Medical Examiner’s office in Frankfort has been the highlight of his medical career. His current rotation in the pathology department is a little different from his pathology experience in Frankfort. Although he performs autopsies on a daily basis, they differ from forensic autopsies. In his current rotation, he performs hospital autopsies on any patient who dies in the hospital. Usually, family members or doctors request an autopsy if the person died because of an unknown reason. For example, if a man is in the hospital after foot surgery, but suddenly passes away, doctors would request an autopsy to determine his cause of death. These autopsies are an in-depth, gross (meaning entire body) examination of the general appearance of organs and other body parts. After the organs are weighed, the pathologist takes tissue samples from the organs so that the samples can be made into slides. Finally, they look at the sample under a microscope in order to check for abnormalities. Forensic autopsies differ in that there is usually a crime involved; they can also be performed if the victim dies in the hospital. Kentucky has a medical examiner and coroner system. If the coroner thinks that the cause of death is suspicious, they will refer the case to the medical examiner. Forensic autopsies aren’t as in depth as hospital autopsies because the cause of death is usually pretty clear. This enables the doctor to only evaluate a specific thing.
A week after our initial interview, I visited the UK Surgical Pathology Department and observed Dr. Simmons and Dr. Lauren Chiles. Dr. Chiles wasn’t anything like I would have pictured. She was a tall, attractive blond in her late twenties – not someone you would expect to see cutting up bloody organs. Unlike Dr. Simmons, she intends on being a surgical pathologist because she will have less patient contact but still receive the satisfaction of helping people. Before I was able to enter the lab, a nurse explained that I would be seeing blood, organs and other body parts that could make me sick if I had a weak stomach. She showed me the room I was to go into if I felt nauseous or light headed. I was officially nervous at this point and I hadn’t even entered the lab yet. The actual lab wasn’t exactly what I had imagined. The room was cluttered with computers and high-tech machines that were making loud buzzing noises. Sitting on the counters were specimens (this is what they call body parts) in Ziploc-looking bags. What shocked me the most was that each counter was covered in blood and other bodily fluids that hadn’t been cleaned up from the previous procedure. Dr. Chiles told me that because they were always so busy, the mess often didn’t get cleaned up until the end of day. Figures 5-8 are pictures I took of the lab.
Figure 5
Figure 5 is a picture of the workstation where the pathologists dissect their specimens. You will notice tools hanging in the small area so that the pathologists can get to them easily. On the left you will see the microphone used to dictate information on the many cases they see daily.
Figure 6
Figures 6 and 7 show the main area of the lab. There are machines and various workstations all around the room. The lab itself was more cluttered than I imagined it would be and the picture helps to better illustrate this.
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 8 shows a separate room in the lab where the pathologists look at the slide under the microscope in order to diagnose the problem.
In surgical pathology, the doctors dissect organs, tissues, tumors and other body parts removed from patients during surgery. They assess the specimen and determine the problem with it. For example, if a patient’s kidney was removed because of kidney cancer, the pathology doctor would examine the kidney, confirm it was diseased, and send pieces of it off to be reviewed under a microscope. Few cases actually involve diagnosing a disease or problem, but instead confirming that the patient’s primary doctor was right about the diagnosis. This confirms that the surgery to remove the specimen was necessary. Dr. Chiles explained that although most patients don’t even know they exist because of limited patient contact, they play a vital role in their diagnosis and recovery. When evaluating a specimen, they measure all parts of it, look at its appearance, and remove many small samples to be made into slides for viewing under a microscope. This process is called “grossing the specimen.” The pathologist is constantly dictating his results and findings into a microphone. The pathologists must dictate the measurements of the specimen, its weight, the diagnosis, the exact locations they took samples from and how big the samples were. The slides are made by placing small sections of the specimen onto tiny containers called cassettes. The cassettes are then placed in formalin, a substance that preserves the specimens. They remain in the preservative until lab technicians called Histotechs cut and stain the specimens in order to make them into slides.
The first specimen I observed Dr. Chiles “grossing” was the colon of a small child who had Hirschsprung’s Disease, a disease of the intestines that causes them not to function properly. It’s caused by aganglionic tissue in the colon– tissue without nerve endings – and results in the inability of those with the disease to have a bowel movement. Because treatment sometimes requires the complete removal of the colon, a colostomy bag will have to be worn for life. After examining the colon, Dr. Chiles confirmed the diagnoses and began cutting the diseased part of the colon so that it could be sent to the lab.
Dr. Chiles’s next case was to cut open a tumor to determine what it was made of. She put on a clear shield that covered her entire face and began cutting the tennis ball size tumor with a saw. This was defiantly a sight to see! She looked as though she was trying to saw a piece of wood in half. What made it slightly disturbing was the fact that it was a tumor that had come out of someone’s body. The cutting of the tumor made a horrible noise, but after a few minutes, she was able to cut it in half. She then began cutting off small parts of the tumor to put on slides in order to determine what it was made of. Because she had to make sure the entire tumor could be studied, she had to make about fifty cassettes.
Joy warned me that I might be sick, and up until this point I was fine. This all changed during Dr. Chiles’s last case of the day. The next specimen was a leg from the knee down that had been amputated after the patient was in a motorcycle accident. The leg was covered in blood and broken in multiple areas. Looking at the leg made me begin to feel queasy, as it was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen. Right then and there I decided that the medical field was not for me. Luckily, Dr. Chiles did not have to take samples of this particular specimen. I don’t think I could have handled seeing her cutting off parts of it. Instead, she had to evaluate the damage to the leg and dictate into the microphone her opinion on whether or not the leg could have been saved. Her diagnosis was consistent with the operating doctor’s that the leg had received extensive damage from the accident that prevented it from being saved. Figure 9 is a picture of Dr. Chiles examining the amputated leg.
Figure 9
My experiences at the lab were both interesting and educational. I was able to experience things I never had before and these experiences in the pathology lab shed light on what forensic pathologists have to do. Dr. Davis had given me the opportunity to watch an autopsy and I am so thankful that I decided not to. If seeing an amputated leg made me sick, seeing an entire body being cut open and dissected would have probably made me pass out (not to mention the nightmares that would have haunted me for weeks). I’ve decided that although forensic science is extremely interesting, I definitely don’t have what it takes to be in this field.