> Researchers torch cars to track evidence
Researchers torch cars to track evidence
Contact:
Gail Anderson, 604.506.3441 (cell); gail_anderson@sfu.ca
Stacey McCann, 778.688.6597
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
Gail Anderson, 604.506.3441 (cell); gail_anderson@sfu.ca
Stacey McCann, 778.688.6597
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
August 23, 2007
Torching a car with a homicide victim in the trunk should dash hopes of solving the crime so a murderer might think. But SFU criminologist Gail Anderson is gaining more evidence that not everything goes up in flames.
Anderson and criminology graduate student Stacey McCann put a match to the test to see how insects on bodies burned in car trunks might help reveal the actual time of death.
The researchers set fire to three compact cars with trunks containing pig carcasses (obtained from a local butcher shop). The carcasses had already decomposed in the cars for several weeks so that researchers could see what effect confinement in a vehicle had on insect colonization.
After the fire, little was left of the carcasses in the first two cars. “But there was still enough insect evidence from what we can see so far to be able to say that there was a body in there and enough insect evidence left behind to still estimate elapsed time since death,” says Anderson.
The carcass in the third car was badly charred but intact, due to a partition between the trunk and the back seat.
The fires were carried out by the Justice Institute of B.C.’s fire and safety division.
Anderson says cars are sometimes torched after murderers get ansy about better disposal of the body. “They think with the fire the body will vanish, but that’s not the case,” she says.
Anderson has previously studied pig carcasses burned in a house fire and has carried out several studies on carcasses in a variety of scenarios that mimic human homicides.
She is continuing research that involves submerging carcasses in the ocean to see the effects of marine creatures. That research, underway in connection with the University of Victoria’s VENUS project, carries on with her next drop in mid-September.
Anderson's previous research has typically shown that despite attempts by criminals to hide evidence, insects always have a story to tell.
Digital photos available from PAMR, 778.782.3210; video available from Gail Anderson (taken by Anderson)
Anderson and criminology graduate student Stacey McCann put a match to the test to see how insects on bodies burned in car trunks might help reveal the actual time of death.
The researchers set fire to three compact cars with trunks containing pig carcasses (obtained from a local butcher shop). The carcasses had already decomposed in the cars for several weeks so that researchers could see what effect confinement in a vehicle had on insect colonization.
After the fire, little was left of the carcasses in the first two cars. “But there was still enough insect evidence from what we can see so far to be able to say that there was a body in there and enough insect evidence left behind to still estimate elapsed time since death,” says Anderson.
The carcass in the third car was badly charred but intact, due to a partition between the trunk and the back seat.
The fires were carried out by the Justice Institute of B.C.’s fire and safety division.
Anderson says cars are sometimes torched after murderers get ansy about better disposal of the body. “They think with the fire the body will vanish, but that’s not the case,” she says.
Anderson has previously studied pig carcasses burned in a house fire and has carried out several studies on carcasses in a variety of scenarios that mimic human homicides.
She is continuing research that involves submerging carcasses in the ocean to see the effects of marine creatures. That research, underway in connection with the University of Victoria’s VENUS project, carries on with her next drop in mid-September.
Anderson's previous research has typically shown that despite attempts by criminals to hide evidence, insects always have a story to tell.
Digital photos available from PAMR, 778.782.3210; video available from Gail Anderson (taken by Anderson)