NCJ Number
220228
Journal
Journal of Forensic Identification Volume: 57 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2007 Pages: 681-687
Date Published
September 2007
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a water environment on fingerprint development and DNA typing.
Abstract
A water environment adversely affects the detectability of latent fingerprints. The increase of water temperature results in further reduction of fingerprint development success. Ferromagnetic powder and cyanoacrylate fuming, when compared with aluminum powder, are more effective in developing fingerprints on objects recovered from water. Water-submerged fingerprints in this study failed to yield measurable amounts of DNA. Various factors, such as surface, moisture, application mode, time intervals, and environmental conditions after the print has been deposited, influence fingerprint quality. It is common to recover evidence that has been submerged in water. Currently, low-copy number DNA typing is increasingly used, particularly in cases where fingerprint development has been unsuccessful. The objective of this study was to assess the identification methods (fingerprint development and DNA typing) on touched objects recovered from water. Fingerprints deposited on glass slides were examined. The experiments were conducted with four different types of water at two temperature conditions. Fingerprint methods included aluminum powder, ferromagnetic powder, and cyanoacrylate fuming. Table, figure, references