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Electrical resistivity survey to search for a recent clandestine burial of a homicide victim, UK.

Pringle

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Abstract

This case report details an electrical resistivity survey to assist the search for a suspected 1-year-old clandestine burial of a murder victim in North Wales in the UK. Conventional search techniques (victim recovery dogs and probing) proved unsuccessful, and with a significant survey area and a high clay content soil precluding GPR as a geophysical search method, a resistivity survey was instead trialled. Ten resistivity grids were collected and site detrended with user-specified, contoured anomalies being generated. The resulting anomalies were compared to anomalies derived from similar-aged, simulated clandestine burial surveys. Seven anomalies with comparative sizes and amplitudes (±3O) of the simulated burials were identified within the search area and prioritised for further investigation. The shallowly buried victim was subsequently recovered outside the survey area.

Acceptance Date Apr 13, 2010
Publication Date Oct 10, 2010
Journal Forensic Science International
Print ISSN 0379-0738
Publisher Elsevier
Pages e1 - e7
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.04.023
Keywords burial, crime victims, electric impedance, female, forensic sciences, geographic information systems, geological phenomena, homicide, humans, soil, forensic geoscience, geophysics, resistivity, clandestine grave
Publisher URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073810001970

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