Blood Evidence

• Class evidence for blood would include blood type. If you can determine the DNA you would
have individual evidence.

• Blood stain patterns are considered circumstantial evidence in a court room. Experts could
argue many points including direction of travel, height of the perpetrator, position of the victim,
left/right hand, whether the body was moved, etc.

Blood Spatter Evidence

A field of forensic investigation which deals with the physical properties of blood and the
patterns produced under different conditions as a result of various forces being applied to the blood.
Blood, as a fluid, follows the laws of physics.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis:

is the examination of the shapes, locations, and distribution of patterns of bloodstains, in

order to provide an interpretation of the physical events that gave rise to their origin.

The following Information may be obtained from a

proper Bloodstain Pattern Analysis:

1. Distance from the blood source to the target

2. Direction of travel and impact angles

3. Nature of the force used to cause the bloodshed

4. The object used to cause the bloodshed

5. Sequencing of multiple bloodshed events

6.Interpretation of contact or transfer patterns

Properties of Blood

• Why does a drop of blood have a curved surface

when it lands on a flat surface instead of
spreading out flat?

• Why doesn’t it separate in the air before it hits

the ground?

Gravity, cohesion, adhesion, surface tension

Properties of Blood

• Gravity: pulls it to ground

– Droplet becomes longer than wide

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 • Cohesion: blood mixture is attracted to similar blood mixtures and sticks together, not
separates, as it falls

– Causes droplet to stay together

• Adhesion: attractive forces of two different objects

– starts as teardrop because of adhesion

• Surface Tension: the elastic like property of the surface of the liquid that makes it tend to
contract, caused by the forces of attraction between the molecules of the liquid.

– Formation of a sphere

SPATTER VS TRANSFER:

The simplest type of blood spatter analysis is determining spatters from transfers.

Spatters are created when blood is acted upon by force, and travels through the air before landing on a
target surface.

Transfers occur when a blood source comes in direct contact with a target surface area.

6 CLASSIFICATIONS OF BLOOD PATTERNS

1. Passive Fall - Blood falling directly to floor at 90-degree angle will

produce circular drops, with secondary satellites being more produced
if surface hits is textured

Blood Droplets
• Flat surface – edge of blood
• drop appears smooth and circular
o Glass, marble
• Porous surface – edge of drop of blood may form small spikes
(extensions) or satellites
o Spikes – attached to make droplet
o Satellites – not attached to main droplet

Effect of Surface:

 Smooth surface = smooth sphere Rough/porous surface may cause some splatter

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2. Arterial spurts or gushes – typically found on walls or
ceilings caused by pumping action of the heart

3. Smears – left by bleeding victim depositing blood as he or she touches or brushes against a wall
or furniture

– transfers

4. Trails – can be left by bleeding victim depositing blood as he or

she moves from one location to another.

– Can be round, smeared, appear as spurts

5. Pools – form around victim who is bleeding heavily and remains

in one place.

– If victim is moved to another location, there may be

droplets or smearing connecting the first location with a
second

6. Splashes – shaped like exclamation points.

– Shape and position of spatter

pattern can help locate the position
of the victim at the time of the
attack

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Spatter Patterns and Type of Wound

• High Velocity Impact (100 ft/sec) – fine-mist spatter

pattern

• Size of Droplets – less than 1 mm

– Ex. Gunshot wound

• toward the gun that fired the shot. This is

known as "back spatter"
If the bullet exits its target, a larger
amount of high force impact spatter may
be directed in the same direction as the
bullet. This is known as "forward spatter".

• The closer to the target that the gun is fired...the

great the spatter.

HIGH FORCE (VELOCITY) IMPACT SPATTER:

Medium-Velocity Impact (25 ft/sec)

– Size – 1-4 mm

– Ex. – beating, stabbing

MEDIUM FORCE (VELOCITY) IMPACT SPATTER: OR PROJECTED

SPATTER

Angle of Impact:
The steeper the impact, the more elliptical or elongated, the blood
drop

Direction:
The "tail" points to the direction of the blood drop

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Finding AOI SOLUTION:

AOI = SIN-1 W / L

AOI = SIN-1 2.6/5.9

AOI = SIN-1 (.44)

AOI = 26.2°

LENGTH = 5.9cm

WIDTH = 2.6cm

Do not measure the “tail”

• it is a secondary force or event.

Divide the smaller number by the larger number

Biological Evidence from Scenes:

• Fresh or wet blood should be collected on clean, sterile gauze and allowed to dry

Four sampling methods for dried blood:

• Swabbing – Stain is transferred to a swab which has been moistened with sterile water or saline.

• Cutting – For stains on objects that are difficult to submit to the lab. The cut portion should
include unstained areas around the bloodstain

• Scraping – a sharp instrument is used to scrape the stain off of a surface & onto clean paper

• Elution – using a small amount of saline or distilled water to dissolve the dried stain

• The most important consideration for preserving biological evidence from scenes is to
thoroughly dry the item before packaging and then store in a cool dry environment

Biological evidence must be packaged in paper containers that can breathe