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A fatal case of potassium gold cyanide poisoning
A 77‐year‐old professional gold craftsman ingested a white powder used in goldsmithing, mistaking the powder for a health supplement. He detected a strange taste and immediately fell sick, reported the incident to 911, and was taken to the emergency room. He died approximately 8....
Detection of low‐level fentanyl concentrations in mixtures of cocaine, MDMA,...
Surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was utilized to measure low‐level fentanyl concentrations mixed in common cutting agents, cocaine, 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, and caffeine. Mixtures were prepared with a fentanyl concentration range of 0–3...
Air DNA forensics: Novel air collection method investigations for human DNA identification
Modern techniques can generate highly discriminatory DNA profiles from minuscule biological samples, providing valuable information in criminal investigations and court proceedings. However, trace and touch DNA samples, due to their nature, often have lower success rates than oth...
No practice effect on the classification accuracy of the response time concealed...
The Response Time Concealed Information Test can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant item (probe, e.g., a murder weapon) among other, irrelevant items (controls), based on slower responses to the probe compared to the controls. A previous study (Lukács, 2022, JARMAC) analy...
Antibiotic beads found with a skeletal example of complications from a hip replacement
During maceration, a string of beads was found near the surgically modified right os coxa and femur of the remains of a 55‐year‐old woman donated to the Forensic Investigation Research Station at Colorado Mesa University. The remains were initially used in the study of decomposit...
Evaluation of interferents in sampling materials for analysis of post‐explosion residues ...
Chemical analysis aimed at identifying post‐explosion residues is critical for investigating crimes or accidents involving explosives, establishing it as a vital area of forensic chemistry. In general, only trace amounts remain in samples analyzed for this purpose, making the pre...
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GAMEPLANS: A template for robust digital evidence strategy development
Law enforcement officers should now expect to encounter forms of digital evidence at most of their inquiries, and as a result ensure they are prepared to effectively deal with it. This should involve the production of a digital evidence strategy (DES) which describes those action...
Beyond binary: Analyzing closed‐source data to compare specific roles and behaviors within...
Increasingly, studies compare risk and protective factors for involvement in violent and nonviolent terrorist behaviors. This exploratory study investigates whether this distinction is sufficient, or whether it should be disaggregated further into more granular terrorist roles an...
The use of dietary isotopes as a preliminary step in the death investigation of...
In British Columbia, Canada, unidentified skeletal human remains are often recovered by law enforcement or civilians and there is a question if they are modern and of medicolegal significance, or historical or archaeological. We used relatively fast and inexpensive carbon and nit...
Mercy killing of a 72‐year‐old woman through heroin intoxication
Active euthanasia is legally permissible in only eight jurisdictions worldwide and may only be administered by qualified personnel following specific selection criteria. Mercy killing refers to the deliberate termination of the life of an individual suffering from a terminal chro...
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Acid attacks on pin‐tumbler locks
Recently, an unusual method of home burglary has emerged in several European countries. Nitric acid is used to attack the tumbler lock of the front door. The aim of this study is to gain insights into the technical functioning of this method and to evaluate the advantages and dis...
Letter to the editor—The transition point from zero‐order to first order in blood alcohol...
Soft tissue scavenging patterns of mice on human remains
Rodent scavenging of human remains is repeatedly documented in literature. However, most of this documentation is based on single‐case examples. While this information is valuable, it does not provide an in‐depth understanding of scavenger behavior in a single environment. Mouse ...