Witness Lab

This lab was used to see how good of witnesses we would make, by testing our memory. We had to cut faces from a magazine in our groups. Then we cut apart each facial feature (eyes, nose, lips, etc) and recreated new faces. We then showed the new faces to our neighbor and they had to try to remember it. We would then mix up all of the features, and the person who tried to remember the faces had to recreate the image from memory. Because there were not many facial features to choose one, it was fairly easy to recreate the faces. Everyone in our group got the faces right, the first time. I suppose that means we would be good witnesses.

This is what my face I made looked like:

Footprint Lab

In this lab we took a tub of dirt and stepped in it, leaving footprints. We then analyzed each footprint, and took information down such as the weather, the moisture in the soil, the time, the wind, and the appearance of the footprint.
  
We first prepared the soil to be stepped in.


This is one of my group members feet. We measured the length, the depth, the depth and examined the texture at the bottom. We noticed in our group the boy was the only one with noticeable treads. We also noticed that in our footprints the toe part faded up and wasnt as deep, making the shoe seem shorter then it was.
Each of our feet were different, but we felt that using footprints as main identifiers would be hard to do because of how easily they get messed up, and how many of our shoes didnt have any distinguishing features.

Create a Profile Lab

We thought the hair sample was from an African American women, and the second one was cat hair. We also matched  the smear to a lipstick, furthering the evidence that it was a women. The fingerprints could not help us, because we didnt have anything to match them to, as with the handwriting. Although we did end up identifying the handwriting as Mr. Kellys, because of the loopy letters, and the way the i's were dotted to the side.

In class, each group was given five different clues to be analyzed to recreate a crime scene, using a microscope and magnifying glass. This is a small scale of the crime scene we did later in class.
We first analyzed the clues, which were fingerprints, a hair sample, a second hair sample, a note that read "you will never find her" and a possible bloodstain/lip print.

Poison Lab

What is poison?
Poisons are substances that cause a disturbance to organisms, most frequently through chemical reactions. Poisons are typically harmful, and cause damage or death to an organism.
Poisoning can result from many things, bites, plants, allergens, overdose of medicine, iodine, lead, food poisoning, etc.
Symptoms of poisoning include: dilated pupils, drooling, bleeding from orifices, change in skin color, increase in breathing and heart rate, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, and headaches.

In our lab in school, we tested multiple unknown samples to see if they contained poison. We had different reagents and instructions, telling us what happens if they are a poison and how they would react.

Station One: Metals
1. Lead - Because it turned blood red when mixed with KSCN
2. Iron - Because it turned neon yellow when mixed with Potassium Iodide
3. Negative


Station Two: Sugars
All three were negative, none turned purple.


Station Three: Ammonia (pH greater then 7, strong odor and PHTH is purple/pink)
1. Postive odor, positive pH of 11, PHTH is purple/pink
2. Negative odor, positive pH of 8.5, PHTH is not purple/pink
3. Negative odor, positive pH of 8.5, PHTH is not purple/pink


















Station Four: Aspirin (pH less than 7, BTB is yellow)
1. Positive pH of 5, BTB is not yellow
2. Positive pH of 6, BTB is not yellow
3. Positive pH of 2, BTB is yellow


Station Five: Cyanide (red with FE+3)
1. Does not turn red
2. Does not turn red
3. Did turn red


Station Six: Iodine (Blue with Starch)
1. Does not turn blue
2. Does not turn blue
3. Did turn blue





**Pictures from Erika Brigantti

Drug Lab

Dissolving Drugs

Testing Drugs

In this lab, we tested for three different drugs: cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD. We tested unknown solutions to see if they were any of these drugs. We tested six possibilities where the cocaine reagent turned it blue, and LSD turned it yellow. Mr. Kelly couldnt obtain false meth, so we only tested two things. The second and fourth testers were cocaine, and the sixth was LSD. We assumed that the rest were meth through process of elimination. Before the tests could be completed, we had to dissolve the drugs in water. This is a image of this process. We also used pH to find what drugs were what.

This shows the reaction in the fourth lab. (Photo from Reina Terada). Here the cocaine reagent turned blue, proving it was cocaine. The LSD reagent turned red, instead of yellow so it was negative. We also knew it was negative because of the pH of 8.

Crime Scene Investigation
Scene 2 (Nightclub)

Materials:

1.      Clues (Exhibit 1-11)

2.      Magnifying Glass

3.      Carbon Powder

4.      Microscope

5.      Poison Testers

6.      Drug Testers

Procedure:

1.       Analyze the exhibits, and test them as necessary. 

2.       Match the suspects with each exhibit

3.       Put together the clues to create a story detailing what happened at the crime scene using all of the exhibits.

This are ten different suspects that they could possibly be, and we eliminated all of them except for Ginger Snap and Candi Stores through blood types. We used each exhibit to find the correct suspects and the meaning behind the clues.

Exh. 1:             Picture of a Redhead Women with slit in throat, blood on throat, laying on a car

Exh. 2:             Blood Sample is O-, possible suspects Ginger Snap or Candi Stores

Exh. 3A:          Fingerprint with Tented Arch Pattern, Matches with Candi Stores

Exh. 4/5:          Mixed Drink with possible poison, pH of 8

                        No poison found, no drugs found

                        Dark Red Lipstick (Matches with Candi Stores)

Exh. 6:             Piece of Cotton found on Ginger Snap and identified to be from Bunny Outfit owned by Candi Stores

Exh. 7:             Note in Ginger Snaps Handwriting “Please Help Me”

Exh. 7A:          Note in Candi Stores Handwriting "I Needed the Money"

Exh. 8:             Piece of Black Wool, Matches Ginger Snaps Shirt, found on Candi Stores Shirt

Exh. 9:             Gold Necklace found in Ginger Snaps dead hand, identified to be from Candi Stores

Exh. 10:           Fingerprint with Central Pocket Loop Pattern, Matches with Ginger Snap

Exh. 11:           Ulnar Loop Fingerprint, not identified with anyone from crime scene (Misc)

Story:

Candi Stores killed Ginger Snap for money, as evidenced by her note saying “I needed Money”. This note was written after she killed Ginger Snap, in her haste to escape to her friend. An eyewitness revealed the note also depicted where she escaped to, and told her friend where to find her, although the rest of the note could not be found. The murder happened after Candi Stores finished a show, dressed in a bunny costume. She then waited around the bar for her once friend Ginger Snap to get off of work, so she could try to convince her to give her the key to her safe. As she waited she drank her signature blue drink, and left her lipstick on the glass, showing that it was her that was the last one in the bar, besides Ginger Snap. When Ginger Snap went to close the bar she quickly wrote a note, hoping that someone would see it the next day at work, asking for help, as Candi made her motives known. Ginger didn’t realize that it would be her last day. As Ginger tried to sneak out the door, Candi confronted her. Ginger refused to hand over any money, and tried to run to her car. There they began to fight, Candi ripped some of her shirt, and Ginger ripped of Candi’s precious gold necklace (it was her Grandmas). This caused Candi to become infuriated, and she quickly pulled a knife from her bag and cut Gingers throat. Then she quickly wrote the note to her friend, and fled the scene. She has yet to be found. 

Handwriting Analysis

History
Handwriting analysis was first used as a way to show personality. This was over 2000 years ago, when Aristotle noticed a correlation between handwriting and personality, meanwhile the Chinese also observed this correlation.This study was not more thoroughly developed until 1622 when an Italian physician and professor of philosophy published a book on this.Graphology continued to be studied as interest expanded throughout the world in WWII. This furthered into using graphology for psychological analysis, and then the application of typological theories. 

Spacing

Twelve Characteristics of Handwriting

Line Quality

1. Line Quality - Are the lines flowy or shaky, and are the strokes are intense and short or light and free flowing?
2. Spacing of Words and Letters - Is the spacing consistent, are the letters and words close or far apart?
3. Ratio of the Relative Height, Width, and Size - Is the ratio of the sizes consistent, or different sizes?
4. Pen Lifts and Separations - Are there stops (lift of pen) between letters and words, or do they connect?
5. Connecting Strokes - Are there connecting lines between capital and lowercase letters, and are there connections between the letters?
6. Beginning and Ending Strokes - Are they straight or curled, long/short, and do they go up or down?
7. Unusual Letter Formation - Are there unusual letters (all capital e's, type of a's)
8. Shading or Pen Pressure - How is the pressure when writing (dark/light lines), pressure on upstroke or downstroke?
9. Slant - Left or right, up and down, and consistency?
10. Baseline Habits - Is the writing above, below, or centered on the line? Is it slanted across the line?
11. Flourishes and Embellishments - Are there any? (Hearts on i's, curls on letters)



Beginning and Ending Strokes

12. Diacritic Placement - The way t's are crossed, where letters are dotted (left, right, not at all)?

Slant

Indications of Forgery


Pen Lifts and Hesitation -  This is gaps and overlapping of the strokes, and random pen stops in the middle of writing.
Blunt Starts and Stops - When writing abruptly stops at the end of a word and doesnt flow out.
Tremor - This occurs when the pen moves so slowly that a smooth line isnt formed.
Speed and Pressure - This occurs again when the pen is moved slowly, but it has to do with the the fact that the thickness of the line stays the same because the pressure on it is constant and doesnt change.
Patching - When there are obvious fixed errors in the forging, and the signature is obviously different. 


Types of Forgery

Normal Hand Forgery - This is when there is no model, and no copying, and the writer just writes an individual's name.
Free Hand Forgery - This is when there is a model for the writing, the writer looks off someones true signature and copies it. These tend to have a slow drawn look, and the ratios of the letters will not be the same. Even when the forgery is detected, the person who committed the crime is almost never found.
Transmitted Light Tracing - This is when the real signature is put under the paper it is being traced onto, and held up to a light source and traced.
Carbon Intermediate Tracing -  This is when the object the signature is traced onto is too thick to use light to trace the writing. Carbon paper is placed on the object where it is to be traced, and then the signature is traced over this, leaving a carbon imprint. This can then be retraced.

Transferred Forgery

Pressure Indented Image Tracing- This is when pen is used to trace something with heavy pressure over a paper, leaving an imprint. This is then traced, similar to the carbon tracing. 
Transferred Forgery - This only works if the original signature is in pen. The forger will use ethylene glycol medium over the signature and use wax paper to lift the ink. The ink can then be put onto a different paper.
















Handwriting Lab
In this lab we forged each others handwriting. Georgia forged mine, and I did hers. It was harder then you would think to copy someones handwriting because of the different pressure they use, and the direction of their lines.Georgia did an alright job, and I think I did alright too!


Famous Forgery Case


The Howard Hughes Hoax
In 1970 two authors, Clifford Irving and Richard Suskind created a plan to forge an autobiography of a billionaire Hoaward Hughes. This billionaire was reclusive, and they figured he would never come out of hiding to denounce the book. Irving told the publishing company McGraw-Hill that Hughes had asked him to write the book for him and that he agreed to continuously talk to Irving. For proof of this correspondence, Irving forged letters that he claimed to be from the billionaire, convincing McGraw-Hill to give him $765,000 for the rights to publish the book. When the book was announced to the public, Hughes surprisingly contacted reporters telling them it was false. He refused to appear in public, but voice tests were done confirming it was him over the telephone. Irving eventually confessed to the crime, and spent 17 months in prison. He later wrote a book, called The Hoax about the scheme.