Post Mortem Examinations Yielded Investigators

On the 21st of June, 1981, Wayne Williams was taken into custody, on the 27th of February, 1982, The court found Williams guilty of the murders of both Cater along with another man, 21-year-old, Jimmy Ray Payne. Matching fibers, which was enough physical evidence, to convict Williams of double murder. Williams had an alibi that had a weak story, plus the failure of multiple polygraph tests. Investigators believed that Williams was connected with the child murders based on DNA sequencing with hairs from the bodies of the victims which matched hair from Williams at a .98 percent surety(Bio, 2017). The 2 percent of doubt was sufficient enough in the ceasing of any further convictions. Thirty years later, just to test the consistency of DNA, during the trial, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI, because there were some dog hairs located on the bodies of some of the missing boys. With the use of a microscope, some of the hairs on the body of 11-year-old Patrick Baltazar was found belonging to Williams, but the evidence was not concrete enough. Two hairs that were human was located inside of the boy’s shirt. The judge made the decision of having the hairs sent over to Quantico, Virginia to the DNA laboratory to undergo testing. Wayne denied not

When Wayne Williams was trialed for the death of two victims, DNA testing was not a reliable source in courtrooms as evident (Polk, 2015). A conviction could have been rendered without the fiber evidence in this case. The prosecution had a strong case in providing the evidence from the DNA of the hair obtained from the crime scene. On February 13, 1981, when Patrick Baltazar's body was found dumped down a wooded slope behind an office park (Polk, 2015). A forensic scientist discovered two human scalp hairs inside Baltazar's shirt. The DNA sample was tested under a microscope by both the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Polk, 2015). The hair sample was consistent with Wayne William's DNA. This placed William at the scene of the crime. The

Hair Connection: Officers found hair clenched in the victim's hand, that was sent to a lab in Texas to be tested. The DNA showed that the hair belonged to Frank wright who was listed as a suspect, because an outside witness had seen Wright and Anagnos fighting in the bar earlier that day.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the development of DNA analysis technology has revolutionised the field of forensic science within the criminal justice system. As the refinement of procedures and technology continues, even minute samples of biological material (including blood, saliva, semen and skin cells) are able to be analysed and used to link or acquit perpetrators of crimes. (Whitney, R n.d.)

This is an attempt to unravel the tangle by an objective and empirical examination of information from crime scene and post mortem examination of the victims. Pre-digested information such as speculative newspaper reports, and statements from witnesses other than those called in a professional capacity have been avoided since theirs is largely subjective testimony that confounds more than it informs.

The fiber and hair evidence collected from the bodies of the murder victims resulted in the conviction of Wayne Williams in 1982 (CNN, 2010). Investigations located green carpet fibers that displayed a specific pattern, red carpet fibers, yellow fibers, dog hair, as well as human hair on the different bodies from 1979 until 1981. This collection of evidence was compared to the carpet fibers from the home where Wayne Williams lived as well as the vehicle he drove. A sample of hair was also taken from his dog and compared to those found on the bodies. A yellow blanket was found under the bed of Wayne Williams, a sample of those fibers was also taken.

Technology in the late 60’s was insufficient to collect DNA samples from suspects, however, in 1998 Riverside Police collected skin samples from their only remaining suspect in the case. The results of these tests have not been released to the public.

How the hair of fiber made a connection for the case: Leanne Tiernan was found dead by a man that was walking his dog. She had a black plastic bag over her head, held in place with a dog collar, with a scarf and cable tie around her neck, and cable ties holding her wrists together.The scarf tied around Leanne Tiernan’s neck had a few hairs caught in the knot. Forensic scientists found a strand of pink carpet fibre on her clothes, with specific patterns of dye. Police found strands around a nail that matched the fibre on her jumper leading to the police arresting John Taylor.

Leanne Tiernan, aged 16 years old from Bramley, Leeds, disappeared on 26th November 2000 after a shopping trip in her home town. Her body was found in August 2001 in Lindley Woods, West Yorkshire by a dog walker. Familial DNA testing and animal DNA testing helped with developments of the case and towards the arrest of John Taylor. Leanne’s body was found by a dog walker in Lindsey Woods, West Yorkshire roughly 10 miles from her home. Her body was found wrapped in plastic bags with her hands tied up with plastic cable ties.

Forensics is probably one of the most interesting careers there is just for the fact that it involves exploring someone internally. It involves getting to know someone not emotionally but physically and internally. Finding so many things from the past like if they were smokers, drinkers, if they ever did drugs, if they were sick… anything. I find this career very interesting and getting to research about it is just very nice because knowing the most important things of a forensic autopsy technician and what their job is like on a daily basis interests me.

Early the next morning of December 8th, the lifeless body of Debbie Carter was found strangled in her small apartment. The murder of Debbie Carter flipped this small, rural, bible-belt, town on its head. People were outraged, overwhelmed, and stunned that such a thing could happen in this town to a young, beautiful girl whom everyone had known. This gruesome act put enormous pressure on local law enforcement to find the atrocious criminal. Finger prints, hair, and blood spatter was carefully collected from the scene.

The CSI Forensics Scientist Gil Grissom determines the manner of death by using a simulation dummy (Zuiker 2000). Later, he positively identifies a specific shard of glass obtained from the dead body to a champagne bottle in the hotel room (Zuiker 2000). Lastly, Grissom also questions and interrogates the criminal suspects at the end of the case (Zuiker 2000). In real life, the manner of death can only be determined by the forensics pathology (Jacques 2015). The specific type glass can be positively identified by Glass and tool marks expert using laboratory test such as Glass Refractive Index Measurement (Rudell 2016). Only a detective or investigator of that case can interrogate a suspect (Brown and Daveport 2012). The TV show wrongly describes

From the data set we were given I think the unusual episode was some sort of tragic accident or attack involving an acute population of people. An example could be a portion of town being bombed in a war, or it could also be some sort of accident like an explosion. My reasoning for this is that, first, more men than women died. Of the total male population of men exposed, 857, 688 died. In times of tragic incidents, men are more likely to die because they are tasked with fighting off invaders, or securing the safety of women and children first.

In the case of Wayne Williams, the fiber evidence was key in obtaining the conviction for the murders (Imwinkelried, 1983). The fiber evidence most assuredly led to the jury’s final decision of guilty, without this evidence a case could not have been formed to display the guilt of Wayne Williams without the shadow of a doubt. In addition to the fiber evidence, the prosecution presented hair evidence that displayed a 98% chance of belonging to Wayne Williams as well as his German Shepherd, Sheba (Deadman, 1984). This evidence alone would not have proven the guilt of Wayne Williams. The prosecution also presented witness testimony linking Wayne Williams to some of the victims despite his own testimony relaying he had no contact with them.

After a traumatic death, the most common request to aid in determining the cause of death is a forensic autopsy; which is at the request of a family member or a prosecutor. Forensic autopsy includes: dissection of the anatomical body, toxicology, histology, DNA analysis, microbiology, biochemistry, evidence collection, photography, and dentistry (O’Donnell & Woodford, 2008). Certain religion beliefs will not allow a medical examiner to perform an invasive autopsy, in such cases, post mortem radiography is an alternative method in determining cause of death. Post mortem radiography includes post mortem computed tomography (PMCT) and post mortem magnetic reasoning imaging (PMMR). PMCT and PMMR display cross sectional images of the body that