Blood Spatter Analysis Overview
As I'm sure you know, blood is almost always very present at a crime scene, especially that of a violent crime. The average adult human body has about 10 pints of blood, so it's quite hard to avoid. But the quantity of blood as well as location and spatter type can give us a good bit of information on the crime, and that's what I'm here to talk about today.
Blood spatter analysis (also known as BSA) refers to the patterns, size and distribution of blood drops, stains or splatter caused by the impact of blood with an object or surface when it's flung, sprayed or projected, such as by striking someone with a weapon or during a car accident. The patterns and characteristics of blood spatter help analysts re-create the events of a crime or accident and provide further insight into the circumstances of the incident. Analysts examine the size, shape, distribution, and location of the bloodstains to determine what did or did not happen. It is one of the most effective methods of reconstructing crime scenes available to forensic analysts.
Blood spatter analysis has several applications in various fields, such as crime scene investigation, accident reconstruction, forensic pathology, and even biological research. It uses biology (behavior of blood), physics (cohesion, capillary action, and velocity), and mathematics (geometry, distance, and angle) to assist investigators in answering questions such as:
Where did the blood come from?
From what direction was the victim wounded?
How were the victim(s) and perpetrator(s) positioned?
What caused the wounds?
What movements were made after the bloodshed?
How many potential perpetrators were present?
Does the bloodstain evidence support or refute witness statements?
There are seven main categories of blood spatter: Impact spatter, passive bloodstain, projected bloodstains, cast-off bloodstains, arterial gush or spurt bloodstains, wipe bloodstain patterns, and transfer bloodstains.
There's also high, medium, and low velocity blood spatter. The velocity refers to the speed at which blood leaves the source.
A high velocity spatter is a spatter pattern with a blood impact speed of 100 feet per second or greater, originating from something like a gunshot wound. High velocity spatter usually creates small blood droplets sized 1 millimeter or less, often creating a sort of blood misting pattern.
Medium velocity spatter is a spatter with an impact speed of roughly 25 feet per second. This is often the result of blunt force trauma made with a weapon and can create cast-off patterns.
Low velocity is usually in the form of pools or dripping blood, like that of a nosebleed dripping onto the floor, with an average speed of 5 feet per second or less.
Here are examples of the aforementioned spatters:
Impact Spatter
Impact spatter is the most common bloodstain pattern type in a crime scene. It is attained when an object hits the blood source and is often circular and not elongated. There are two types of impact spatter, back spatter and forward spatter. Back spatter is blood spatter that has been flung back onto the attacker or object creating the impact, and forward spatter is prohected outward and away from the source, usually exiting directly from the wound and onto nearby surfaces.
Passive Bloodstain
Passive bloodstains are low velocity blood drops, flows, and pools, typically resulting from gravity acting on an injured body. For example, these can occur from blood dripping off a stab wound.
Projectile Bloodstains
Projectile bloodstains are high velocity spatters caused by something such as arterial spurting, expirated spray, or spatter cast off an object.
Cast off bloodstains
Cast-off patterns are created when the object that is used in the attack is swung, and the blood on the object is flung onto a nearby surface. These often occur in cases of blunt force trauma, where the object used is swung by the assailant. Analysts can tell the direction of the impacting object by the shape of the spatter as tails point in the direction of motion.
Arterial Spurt
Arterial spray refers to the spurt of blood released when a major artery is severed. The blood is propelled out of the breached blood vessel by the pumping of the heart and often forms an arcing pattern consisting of large, individual stains, with a new pattern created for each time the heart pumps.
Transfer Bloodstains
Transfer stains result from objects coming into contact with existing bloodstains and leaving wipes, swipes, or pattern transfers behind such as a bloody shoe print or a smear from a body being dragged.
The shape of the bloodstain pattern will depend greatly on the force used to propel the blood as well as the surface it lands on. Forward spatter from a gunshot wound will typically form smaller droplets spread over a wide area, while impact spatter from a bat would form larger drops and be more concentrated in the areas directly adjacent to the action.
Crime scene technicians use many different tools and methods to recreate the crime scene. To help reconstruct events, analysts use the direction and angle of the drops to determine points of convergence. (the starting point of the bloodshed)
First, the investigators must carefully examine the crime scene and locate any blood drops, stains, or splatter and collect them for further analysis.
Second, the samples are then examined in the laboratory under different light conditions and analyzed for their size, shape, speed of travel, and other characteristics. Pictures are taken from many angles, as well as alongside a ruler for perspective.
Third, experts can use various methodologies and techniques to determine the origin and direction of the blood spatter. This can include using 3D models, computer simulation, and other methods such as using strings to estimate the trajectory of the blood drops.
Blood samples are taken with Q-tips and stored in test tubes until they can be tested for a positive match to the victim, perpetrator(s), or other source.
For dried blood, a razor is often used to scrape the blood off onto a piece of paper, envelope, or other appropriate packaging.
Visual examination requires expertise and experience in the field to interpret blood stains and patterns accurately. Experimental trials involve recreating a crime scene and analyzing the results. Forensic test results can be conclusive and objective, such as DNA analysis.
In cases where the blood has been cleaned away, it can often still be found with the use of Luminol, which is not corrosive and can be applied on all types of surfaces. It can be used to detect the presence of the very small amounts of blood or bloodstains, diluted even up to 10,000 times.
The solution of luminol and the oxidant is sprayed on the area to be examined, and the iron in blood catalyses the luminescence. A test with luminol for the presence of blood was still effective eight years after deposition of blood in soil. The older the blood stain, the brighter and longer lasting the glow.
There are some cases where luminol can not detect blood, as cleaners containing “active oxygen” (such as Oxyclean, etc) will stop all means of forsensic chemical detection of human blood.
Blood spatter analysis has been admissible in court for more than 150 years, although it has recently been called into question for its validity. In the past, blood stain evidence has been misinterpreted, leading to the incarceration of an innocent, such as in the Julie Rea case. Even so, it still remains a large part of forensic investigations. Evidence should always be interpreted with great care, and with dependable spatter analysts, it continues to be a helpful tool for investigators.
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