Dr Jamie Pringle j.k.pringle@keele.ac.uk
Soilwater conductivity analysis to date and locate clandestine graves of homicide victims
Pringle, Jamie P.; Cassella, John P.; Jervis, John R.; Williams, Anna; Cross, Peter; Cassidy, Nigel J.
Authors
John P. Cassella
John R. Jervis
Anna Williams
Peter Cross
Nigel J. Cassidy
Abstract
In homicide investigations, it is critically important that postmortem interval and postburial interval (PBI) of buried victims are determined accurately. However, clandestine graves can be difficult to locate; and the detection rates for a variety of search methods (ranging from simple ground probing through to remote imaging and near-surface geophysics) can be very low. In this study, simulated graves of homicide victims were emplaced in three sites with contrasting soil types, bedrock, and depositional environments. The long-term monthly in situ monitoring of grave soil water revealed rapid increases in conductivity up to 2 years after burial, with the longest study evidencing declining values to background levels after 4.25 years. Results were corrected for site temperatures and rainfall to produce generic models of fluid conductivity as a function of time. The research suggests soilwater conductivity can give reliable PBI estimates for clandestine burials and therefore be used as a grave detection method.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jun 2, 2014 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 17, 2015 |
Publication Date | 2015-07 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 29, 2024 |
Journal | Journal of Forensic Sciences |
Print ISSN | 0022-1198 |
Publisher | Wiley |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 60 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 1052-1060 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12802 |
Keywords | forensic science, forensic geophysics, conductivity, clandestine burials, PMI, PBI |
Publisher URL | https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12802 |
Files
pringle_etal_JOFS-13-638.R1.pdf
(4.1 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Historic child homicide burial search in rural woodland
(2023)
Journal Article
Forced disappearance and missing people in Colombia
(2022)
Journal Article
A proposal for a White Paper on Geoethics in Forensic Geology
(2021)
Journal Article
Overview of Forensic Geophysics With Terrestrial Case Studies
(2017)
Presentation / Conference
Downloadable Citations
About Keele Repository
Administrator e-mail: research.openaccess@keele.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search