Forensic Methods Used in Murder Investigations

Murder Case Study The author of this response has been asked to review a murder case that is described and detailed on the TruTV website. As far as analysis goes, the author has been asked to answer to five basic things. First, there will be an overview and summary of the case. Second, there will be a summary and review of how the investigators handled the crime scene. There were some secondary scenes and those will be covered as well.

A description of three different forensic technologies that were used will be covered. Finally, there will be a review of how and when Miranda rights were read and why the timing of that reading existed as it did. While many crimes are basic and formulaic in nature, there are some particular crimes and crime scenes that are quite disturbing, vexing and/or troubling. Analysis In regards to the two cases, they were similar but the linkage between the two was not made right away.

The first case was a man named Luis who had been strangled with an electrical cord right by the daybed in his living room. The other case was a man named Willie who was killed in his home as well. Seemingly unrelated and not correlated at first, both scenes were odd in that there was a coiled belt left at both scenes but neither belt was used as the murder weapon.

The death of Luis went cold and was solved only after Willie was murdered and his blood/DNA was tied to both scenes. There was not really a secondary scene when it came to Luis except for the attempt to track the items stolen from his house and such. If those items were pawned, that would be a new crime scene since the items were stolen and thus the person pawning the item would not be the owner.

When it comes to Willie, there was clearly secondary crime scenes as Willie was using the ATM card and that is actually how they tracked down Rose in the first place (TruTV, 2016). The strategies to solve the case were pretty clear. While it took a while, the belt being left in much the same way at both scenes turned out to be the signature of a serial killer, that being Rose (Ramsland, 2013). Prior to that, the groups of detectives went through the usual investigated routine.

They sought out footprints, blood and fingerprints so that they could perhaps tie someone to the scene. Unless it's a family member or someone known to the decedent, any suspected matched to the scene or the act of murder would have to explain why they were there. Three forensic technologies and tactics that were used as part of the investigation were fingerprint lifting and analysis, blood detection and DNA analysis of the same and that of the footprints left at the scene.

As for the timing of the Miranda rights, it was done upon arrest of Robert Rose, the man who was identified as a suspect in the second killing (of Willie) when a fingerprint on a bottle in Willie's residence was matched to Rose. Rose had also stolen Willie's ATM card and was caught on camera using it. They Mirandizing of the suspect was done upon him being tied to the scene and was thus under arrest.

Since he was not under arrest prior to that time, there was no duty to Mirandize him (Nolo, 2016; TruTV, 2016). Conclusion Serial killers are very hard to catch as they often kill for the thrill and fun of it. However, their tendency to use a signature makes them trackable because crime scenes, even if unrelated, can be linked together with a signature. This is especially true when there.