Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The War between the FBI and Apple Just Heated up Again
Hamilton, Matt, and Christopher Gifford. "The War between the FBI and Apple Just Heated up Again." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
This Article is talking about the government’s most recent beef with encryption. The US government has been bugging Apple for years now to include a backdoor in the encryption used on their devices. After the San Bernardino Shooting, the police were completely incapable of getting into the phones of the shooters. This is due to the strong encryption that Apple has just recently implemented in their devices. Apple refused to unlock the phones for the government, even though they shouldn’t be able to access them anyways due to the fact that the key is not stored with Apple. The government has attempted to convince Apple to make a tool to crack such encryption, and Apple has declined out of fear of such a tool being abused by foreign governments and even the US government itself.
This Issue sort of bothers me because I believe that people are entitled to privacy, even if this sort of issue arises every now and again. As some people may know, encryption is only as strong as its password, I would be willing to bet that these two didn’t choose something incredibly secure. In addition to this, the NSA has computing capabilities fast enough to crack most encryption algorithms in a trivial amount of time. I believe that if the government really wanted to, they could unlock these phones. I think that their motive for not doing so is that they can use this to push legislation to force manufacturers to stop implementing strong encryption, as well as gain the right to legally compel someone to give up their encryption keys if forced to in court. This Is important because it shows that technology has advanced to the point that our privacy can be protected, yet it can yield issues such as interference with criminal investigations.
I thought that although this article was informative, I thought that it could have included a little bit more on the technical details of the investigation. I also thought that the article was a
little brief, and could have elaborated more in certain areas. Nonetheless, It gave the reader a general overview of the issue that is written in plain english.
Monday, February 22, 2016
DNA Links Suspected Serial Killer to N.J. Teen's 1965 Murder
The article, “DNA Links Suspected Serial Killer to N.J. Teen’s 1965 Murder” by Seth Augenstein, tells of yet another cold case in which new technology of today has confirmed the suspect of a rape and murder that occurred decades ago. The body of Mary Agnes Klinsky--an eighteen-year-old--was found along the Garden State Parkway on September 16th, 1969, naked, beaten, and raped. It was discovered that her cause of death was by multiple skull fractures due to blunt-force trauma. Klinsky had been quickly identified because of the ring that she wore with her initials, “MAK.” Today’s technology that has the ability to “amplify DNA samples,” which had been found on the pieces of evidence, was critical in solving this cold case. During the year of the murder, potential suspects and witnesses had been questioned, but no arrests were conducted. With twenty-first century technology, the profile of Robert Zarinsky, titled as “perhaps the most infamous suspected serial killer in New Jersey history,” was quickly connected to the Klinsky case.
What had gained Zarinsky this title of being “one of [New Jersey’s] most notorious serial killers” were his brutal murders of teenaged girls. He was convicted to serve a life sentence for the murder of Rosemary Calandriello in 1975, who was from the Atlantic Highlands and was killed in 1969. Although Zarinsky died in South Woods State Prison in 2008 at the age of sixty-eight, he was indicted for the murder of Jane Durrua, a thirteen-year-old girl, in 1968. Not only this, but he was also a suspect in a series of unsolved murders, in which teenage girls between the ages of fourteen and seventeen suffered severe beatings to their faces, causing their deaths from 1969 to 1974. This pattern was also seen in Klinsky’s murder.
Authorities, on the Klinsky case, had “never [been] entirely sure until the latest DNA results.” The convictions of perpetrators for crimes that had committed decades prior that have been appearing in the news lately are due to the rapid advancement of forensic technology. Today, detectives and forensic scientists have the capability to reopen cold cases or unsolved crimes that contain DNA evidence and rightfully sentence the criminals that had previously escaped justice. Now--in the case of the murder of Mary Agnes Klinsky--more than five decades later, the Klinsky family has been “provided closure” in “know[ing] who killed their sister” back in the fall of ‘65.
The author of this article, Seth Augenstein, did an excellent job in pulling in readers and keeping the interest high throughout the entire article. It is amazing that technology nowadays can aid in resurrecting cold cases that required more advanced techniques than what its particular time period could offer. However, the overall article lacked a focus on the DNA discovery that ultimately led to the closure of the Klinsky case, although it was the main point in the title. Augenstein did mention that the “technology for amplifying DNA samples” that had led to Zarinsky’s profile had not been clarified; the circumstances were the same for any questions about which evidence the DNA samples had originated from. Also, the article had been hard to follow while first reading it. It jumped from the discovery of Klinsky’s body to the background of Zarinsky, which is important to understand his pattern of his murders, but there were also some quotes by New Jersey’s officials that seemed slightly out of place. As a reader, based on the title, there was the expectation to be more written about the DNA evidence, and perhaps more about the forensic technology of the 1960s compared to today’s. Also, it would have helped to have more information about the original search for the criminal of the case back when it had been committed. Otherwise, the general message of this article stresses the rapid advancement in today’s technological world that can greatly aid in solving previously cold cases.
"DNA Links Suspected Serial Killer to N.J. Teen's 1965 Murder." Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d.
Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2016/02/dna-links-suspected-serial-killer-nj-teens-1965-murder>.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
"Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical Evidence."
"Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical Evidence." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7
Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
This article called “Portable NIST Kit Can Recover Traces of Chemical Evidence” from the National Institute of Standards and Technology is about a NIST chemist called Tom Bruno, who invented a new way for investigators to quickly collect traces of chemical evidence. This kit is small and easily accessible. The “technique” used to allow this new invention to work is called PLOT-cryoadsorption, which is short for Porous Layer Open Tubular Cryogenic Adsorption. It works by identifying compounds that do not easily evaporate. This technique can recover vapors from a substance or sample. Something that makes this invention so useful is that while the vapors/chemical evidence is being recovered, the portable kit also includes portable gas chromatography and mass spectrometry machines which can analyze the substance on the spot. This helps save time and brings in reliable results (so far when it was tested by Tom Bruno). The kit is built to be safe as well. It runs on compressed air rather than electricity.
This article is significant in the field of forensics because it is about a new invention that could improve the way investigators recover chemical evidence. The kit provides an easy and quick way to recover and analyze evidence, which something that would normally take at hours/days. However, there is a drawback that was mentioned in the article: this new invention is not as sensitive as the machines in labs. The inventor Tom Bruno is already working on ways to fix this problem. When improved, the NIST kit will definitely change the way forensic investigators recover chemical evidence for the better.
This article was well written and gave lots of detail as to how this machine works (and even provides a picture). I think it would be helpful to see more contrasts and similarities between this new machine vs the ones at the lab. The article mainly focuses on the way it worked. I feel as if the article could also add in the number of tests that this invention tested positive in (since the article only mentioned 3 substances which were the chemical compound coumarin, the explosive TNT, and diesel fuel). Obviously, three is not enough to fully determine how well this machine actually works. It would enhance the article to mention specifics like that and to mention whether this invention has been used in a real criminal case yet.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
MH17 Flight Shot Down By Surface-to-air Missile in Ukraine, Say Investigators
Current Event: Carlie Hoffer
Feb 8, 2016
This article is about the Malaysian Airline Flight 17 which was shot down over Ukraine about a year ago. Through forensic analysis it was concluded that the flight was deliberately brought down by “surface-to-air” missiles. A missile struck the front of the plane killing all three people in the cockpit instantly. The plane then crashed within 90 seconds and killed close to 300 people on board. Although the wreckage was dispersed over 50 kilometers, forensic detectives were able to find most of the remains and then reconstruct what happened to the aircraft. The weapons system was determined through fragments of wreckage and the crew member’s bodies. Through this forensic analysis, detectives were able to determine that the explosion was not due to weapons on board the aircraft. Forensic scientists were also able to recover cellphones on board which showed that there were no texts or videos taken during the flights fall to the ground, indicating that passengers were unaware of the attack.
At the time of the crash, conflict between Russia and Ukraine was increasing rapidly suggesting that perhaps there should have been more flight regulations for commercial aircrafts when traveling in this airspace. In addition, the harm of innocent civilians as the result of failing to identify whether or not the aircraft was linked to the military is now a concern to humanity. Forensic analysis was able to successfully trace the missile to its source, eliminating the anonymous nature of the strike. Also, forensic evidence was able to conclude that all passengers were unaware that the attack was going to happen due to the evidence found from the cellphones on board. This may bring some comfort to victims families that they had no idea of the events that happened.
This article was thorough in its forensic analysis and was able to clearly state and evaluate the events that occurred. It provided sufficient detail about the reconstruction of the scene and what evidence they were able to draw from doing so. However, it would have been good for more context to be provided regarding the situation between Russia and the Ukraine and why there have been such tense relations between the two nations. Overall, the article did an adequate job at stating the importance of the crash of Flight 17 and how forensics were used to determine what had occurred.
Augenstein, Seth. "MH17 Flight Shot Down By Surface-to-air Missile in Ukraine, Say Investigators." Forensic Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Your Relative’s DNA Could Turn You Into a Suspect
Ian Baxter
1/8/16
Forensics
Current Event 13
Review
The article that I read for this assignment discussed the negative effects of familial DNA searches, and how they can impact one’s life. While many newspapers cover the success stories of familial DNA searches, it is very rare to see any coverage on any sort of failure regarding familial DNA searches; however, failure regarding familial DNA searches is much more common than most people think. This article opened with the story of Michael Usry, the man who was wrongly accused of committing the 1996 murder of Angie Dodge many years before. The man who they had incarcerated for this crime was discovered to not actually be the murder after DNA testing, and Michael Usry was forced into a car and forced to take a mouth swab so his DNA could be tested. As it turned out, he was wrongly accused of committing the crime and essentially had his life put on hold for 33 days while his DNA was tested and compared to the DNA found at the crime scene. The point of the article is to mention the extreme risks that familial DNA testing pose, and how they can actually ruin someone’s life. Michael Usry is just a minor example of this testing, but it is not uncommon for people to have to put their lives on hold for such situations.
This article is very significant because it stresses the risks of a very common practice in forensic science today – familial DNA testing. It is important for articles to be written and information to ultimately be spread about the dangers of such practices, and it is important that it is understood that such common practices have downside, and ultimately, it is important to actually know the downsides of such practices.
I thought that the article overall was very well written, and that the author did an excellent job at balancing storytelling and stressing the important issue at hand. Rather than just cite examples of when familial DNA testing has resulted badly, he focused on specific examples, and then discussed how this system ultimately breaks down and affects peoples’ lives.
Works Cited
Koerner, Brendan I. "Your Relative’s DNA Could Turn You Into a Suspect."Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
Monday, February 8, 2016
"No Downside Seen in Submitting All Rape Kits for Testing." Appeal-Democrat. N.p., 30 Jan. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
This article discussed how law enforcement leaders may consider changing policies for rape-kit testing in sexual assault investigations. Rape-kits is the evidence collected from the bodies of the rape victims. With the victim’s consent, a sexual assault response team collects hair, blood and urine samples, and DNA swabs. These kits are then submitted as evidence to investigation agencies, but many kits do not even make it to the labs for analysis.
This is because victims already go through a lot, both physically and emotionally, and oftentimes, investigators feel that it is not necessary if, for example, a case has already been made-- like if the suspect confesses-- or if the case has been terminated for some reason. However, even if the rape-kits are not needed to solve particular cases, the article discusses why it is better to test all rape-kits instead of leaving them on lab shelves untested. One argument includes that not testing rape-kits can give victims even more of a reason to think that they are not being taken seriously or that they are doubted. This is already something that victims believe and it contributes to the reason that so little rape cases are reported. Another reason that they believe all rape-kits should be tested is that the data will go into a larger database and potentially shed light onto other cases. This good effect people on a much greater scale than you would initially suspect.
I think that this article made some very good points and I liked the fact that the author recognized untested rape-kits as something that could look like bias in the scale of importance in sexual assault. I think the article did a good job of giving an overview of the topic and also the author clearly expressed his opinion. However, the article was heavily biased and did not express too much of an opposition, which is something that I wish had been different.
After Exhumation, Strange Bacteria a Clue in Mysterious Death of Pablo Neruda
Augenstein, Seth. "After Exhumation, Strange Bacteria a Clue in Mysterious Death of Pablo Neruda." Forensic Magazine. N.p., 02 Feb. 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.
I read the article, “After Exhumation, Strange Bacteria a Clue in Mysterious Death of Pablo Neruda,” by Seth Augenstein, which followed a potential forty-year-old crime case of a Chilean poet. Pablo Neruda mysteriously died in a hospital days after an oppressive regime came to power in his country. His death in 1973 was originally thought to be attributed to advanced prostate cancer but Neruda had not been known to be mortally sick. In 2013, Neruda’s remains were exhumed and tested for poison, and didn’t reveal any but did reveal a strange bacteria.
At the time, Neruda was a Communist sympathiser, and when his chauffeur was questioned about his death, he said he believed he was killed by agents of Pinochet. His remains were exhumed because of his chauffeur's suspicions of a potential stomach poisoning. A new testing in January 2015 found three bacterias within Neruda’s bones. Two of the bacterias can be explained from him prostate cancer but the third which was staphylococcus bacteria did not fit his disease. In November, the Chilean government announced that Neruda’s death could have been an assassination. This week it was announced that there will be a final test to determine the bacteria and trace the strain.
This article was not only scientifically relevant but also politically relevant. It follows a very interesting history of Chile’s government, how the President Salvador Allende, the leader who was overthrown by Pinochet and died just days before Neruda. This potential assassination is all very possible considering the politics at the time and Neruda’s connections with communism. This article is also relevant because something like this could happen in any country or government.
I really enjoyed this article, I think because it was not only scientifically interesting but also was interesting in respects to the potential story behind it. I would have liked to have known more about the bacteria found in Neruda and what tests investigators did specifically to the bacteria. I also would have wanted to know more about the chauffeur and ask him more questions as to why it took him so long to say something and what else does he know. I think that this article did a good job of explaining the politics of Chile as well, because if I was not informed with what was going on at the time then I would not have been able to understand this assassination as easily.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
DNA Helps Solve 20 year old Rape Case
Gianna DiMinno
Baton, Rouge. "DNA Helps Solve 20-year-old Rape Case." - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports. 12 KSLA News, 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 Feb. 2016 <http://www.ksla.com/story/31016498/dna-helps-solve-20-year-old-rape-case>
I read the article “DNA helps solve 20-year-old Rape Case.” by Baton Rouge Police. It was an article about two males that raped and choked a women in 1995. They were along S. Choctaw Dr and Baton Rouge Police said that a woman was walking down the street when a car with two men inside repeatedly passed by her and offered her a ride home. After saying “No” repeatedly, she finally accepted. The men had told her, “You don’t get any ride for free. Then she felt some sharp object across her neck.” According to the Baton Rouge Police. The suspects took her to a gravel road off of Mockingbird Lane where they raped, choked, and left the woman dead on the side of the road. The two men had never been caught because twenty years ago, there had been no technology like DNA testing, so the case went cold. But in 2004, when DNA testing became available, Baton Rouge police went back and re-tested old cases such as this one where the evidence had been well preserved. After they tested State police Lt. J.B. Slaton said, “It came up with two male profiles for DNA.” But at the time, CODIS was not allowing there to be multiple hits of DNA to be entered into the system until 2013 when the CODIS changed its software. This meant that the case had gone cold once more until November 2015. The BRPD got some new information that would change the case. The police had asked the crime lab to look at the evidence again, and a match came back for Leighton Hills and Allen Causey. But instead of going out to arrest these two men, the police had already found out that these men were already behind bars. Allen Causey, one of the rapists of the woman in 1995, had been in Ascension Parish Prison. He is currently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated from the 1995 case. Leighton Hills is locked up at Elayn Hunt Prison and serving time for three counts of attempted second degree murder and now he is currently charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape. Even though it took twenty years to find the rapists and kidnappers, but the case had finally came to a close thanks to the new DNA software that has been developed in the years.
The article had talked about how twenty years later DNA has made a change within a case. In the case, in 1955, CODIS had not been made, which made many cases go cold due to the lack of DNA evidence and technology. But as seen by BRPD, they took a cold case and solved it, even though the men were already in prison, but they were still able to keep those men behind bars for a very long time. There are many cold cases today, that are still unsolved, because it is due to the lack of evidence, or lack of technology that could be used to solve the case which is honestly really upsetting because a rapist could be walking the streets right now living a free life, while his or her victim is living every single day in fear of their rapist.
This article had many strengths but had a lot of weaknesses that I saw. One weakness in the article that I noticed was that it lacked a lot of information. It never talked about the reason why the two men were locked up prior to their rapist charge. They only described one of the arrest that was made prior to the new charge to one of the men but that was it. Another mistake that I noticed in the article was that they never fully explained if the victim was alive or dead because at the beginning they said the victim was left of the side of the road and left her “for dead”, but later on they said that this would give the victim peace at mind knowing her rapists were behind jail. So we can assume she is alive, but I wish the author had gotten into more detail than given. One strength I saw was that the author kept your attention throughout the entire article. They talked little about the case, but when they did, it was interesting and grabbed my attention. Another strength they did was point out the mistakes that the BRPD had made during this case which is the reason why it became a cold case and how technology had changed the end result of this case. I enjoyed reading this article because it had a happy ending, but I never fully understood how many cases go unsolved due to the lack of evidence or technology which is very upsetting because a lot of victims are probably living their lives in fear while their offenders are walking the streets as a free person.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Can Mites Be Used to Determine Post-Mortem Interval Months After a Death?
Sophia Dibbini
Augenstein, Seth. "Can Mites Be Used to Determine Post-Mortem Interval Months After a Death?" Forensic Magazine. N.p., 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
I read the article “Can Mites Be Used to Determine Post-Mortem Interval Months After a Death?” by Seth Augenstein and learned about the study of forensic entomology. For many years, investigators have been using the consistency of insect growth on human remains to help them determine time of death. Flies are the most common type of bugs that are used because they leave eggs on and around the corpse. But mites that are present on the decomposing remains are usually an overlooked indicator of time of death. As of recently, investigations have been put forth to test to see if mites could be used to determine postmortem interval months, or even years, after a death. An unidentified researcher supports this idea and states, “Little attention has been paid to the utility of mites despite the fact that they may represent the first and/or final ecological seres (waves) association with carrion decomposition due to the success associated with blow fly biology in (time of death) estimation.” Mites are very small and hard to notice, which makes them harder to work with. In an investigation carried out by Meaghan Pimsler, three bodies were found in Harris County in February 2015, and investigators attempted to determine the time of death of all three bodies. Two of the bodies were found in a closed off room, while the other body was found with a window open. The scientists found mites on all three bodies, and they tracked the weather conditions and the temperature in the residences where the deceased were found. Entomologists found that the mite growth could be a parallel that would supplement the fly work, and make postmortem interval more accurate. Other insects have obviously come into play in this investigation, depending on the setting and location of the body. Mites had previously played a vital role in three important cases, but come back into play in this case. “The presence of mites on a resource may have important implication to the forensic entomologist, as the mites can arrive early in decomposition and potentially prey on eggs and larvae of primary colonizers,” concluded the team in the latest study. “The coevolution of mites and their insect hosts has led to a dual succession: as insect species replace each other temporally throughout decomposition, mite species associate with those insects also change over time.” This discovery has significantly changed the process of determining the time of death in forensic science.
The information presented in this article is definitely going to change the methods used in forensic entomology. First, the change to using mites to determine the time of death will affect investigators’ perception on mites and their importance. Also, the mites could be a valuable forensic resource, but major changes would need to be made. "If this is a tool we want to use, we'd want to establish a framework with controlled experiments," Pimsler said. Mites will significantly change forensic entomology because mites can be used to determine postmortem intervals months and even years after the death of a person. This can speed up the process of forensic investigations with more accurate results. Overall, this discovery will significantly change society and forensic science because of its accuracy and dependency.
I really enjoyed reading this article because it represents a significant improvement in forensic entomology. The article had many strengths, one which is the reference to a specific case that marked the change in forensics. The fact that the author referenced to and talked about the case held by Meaghan Pimsler strengthens the article and the information present. Also, it strengthened the article when the author talked about the previous process of using insects to determine the time of death, and showed that it could be better to use mites to determine this. One weakness of the article is the organization. The author skips around from topic to topic, not clearly specifying the change and relation between the topics. Another weakness is that the author does not give background information on the investigation before talking about it. He goes straight into talking about an investigation the reader has never heard of before and expects them to know what it is about. The article would have been better if it was better organized and clearly explained. Despite these weaknesses, I enjoyed the article overall and look forward to hearing about the use of mites in criminal investigations in the future.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Breakthrough technology uncovers fingerprints on ATM bills and receipts
University of Leicester. "Breakthrough technology uncovers fingerprints on ATM bills and
receipts." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 May 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140528204217.htm>.
Breakthrough technology uncovers fingerprints on ATM bills and receipts
There is new technology made by Dr John Bond OBE from the University of Leicester's Department of Chemistry which uses a specially tailored UV light source to visualise fingerprints that can not be seen on thermal paper like receipts and bank statements from ATMs. Usually the process of recovering fingerprints from thermal paper had many problems. The substance that is used in the chemical treatment can dye the whole paper black,making it impossible to recover fingerprints from the thermal paper.Dr Bond made a technique recovering fingerprints from thermal paper by applying heat. The system is called the Hot Print System (HPS). Dr. Bond said, “This has been developed into commercial equipment, manufactured in the UK and sold worldwide”. Yet the HPS can be used in some countries because the properties of thermal paper vary between countries specifically the US and China, so Dr. Bond made a new technique that can be used on all thermal paper. The new technique is noninvasive, can be carried out very quickly, and you don't need a lot of training to be able to use the technique. Dr. bond stated, “The HPS can then be used to develop the fingerprint to enable capture as a digital image and if development with the HPS is faint, the light source can be used to illuminate faint prints to enhance digital capture.”
posted for J. Flower
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