MODULE FORENSIC CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY

CHAPTER 4: BLOOD STAIN PATTERN ANALYSIS

Objectives:
a) Recognize the significance of blood stain pattern analysis in crime
scene investigation
b) Identify the different classification of blood stains.

❖ Blood stain pattern analysis – focuses on the analysis of the size, shape, and
distribution of blood stain resulting from blood shed events as a means of determining the
types of activities and mechanisms that produce them.

o BPA is a discipline that uses the fields of biology,

physics, and mathematics. Reconstructing blood shed
events coupled with DNA, postmortem and laboratory
findings is helpful where the manner of death is
questioned and the issue of homicide, suicide, accident,
or natural death must be resolved in both criminal and civil
cases. (e.g. when arterials spurt patter is occurred, the
autopsy report should indicate a cut or breached
artery in the victim.)

OBJECTIVES OF BLOOD STAIN

PATTERN ANALYSIS

❖ Relative to the to the reconstruction of the crime scene, BPA may provide information to
the investigator in many areas:
a) Areas of convergence and origin of blood stain
b) Type and direction of impact that produce blood stain or spatters
c) Mechanisms by which spatter patterns were produced.
d) Assistance with the understanding of how blood stains were deposited ono
items of evidence.
e) Possible position of the victim, assailant or objects at the scene during
bloodshed
f) Possible movement and direction of victim, assailant or objects at the scene
after bloodshed
g) Support or contradiction of statements given by the accused and/or witness
h) Additional criteria for estimation of postmortem interval

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i) Correlation with other laboratory and pathology findings relevant to the

investigation.

❖ The goal of reconstruction of the crime scene

using BPA is to assist the overall forensic
investigation with the ultimate questions that must
be addressed, which include but are not limited to
the following:
1. What event(s) occurred?
2. Where did the event(s) occurred?
3. When and what sequence did they
occur?
4. Who was there during each event?
5. Who was not there during each
event?
6. What did not occur?

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
BLOOD STAIN PATTERN ANALYSIS

Dr. Edward Piotrowski - published the first study of BPA

regarding “Origin, shape, direction and distribution of blood stain
1895 following head wounds caused by blows”

Dr. Paul Jeserich – documented study of blood stain patterns of

his examined homicide scenes during the first decade of 20th
1900 century

Dr. Victor Baltazard – conducted original research and

experimentation with blood stain trajectories and patterns
presented in 22nd Congress of Forensic Medicine entitled
1939 “Research on Blood Spatter”

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Dr. Paul Kirk (Father of Criminalistics in the US) - prepared and

affidavit regarding his findings based on blood stain evidence to
the court of common pleas in the case of State of Ohio vs. Samuel
Sheppard. A significant milestone in the recognition of blood stain
evidence by the legal system. He established the relative position
of the attacker and victim at the time of the administration of the
1955 beating.

Herbert Leon Mc Donell – published a book entitled “Flight

Characteristics and Stain Pattern of Human Blood” through
assistance of Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)
conducted research and experiments to recreate and duplicate
1971 blood stain pattern at the scene.

In 1973, he conducted the first formal blood stain training

course

In 1982, he published blood stain pattern interpretation

1983 Formation of IABPA – composed of first advanced class for BPA

of Mc Donell.

PROPERTIES OF LIQUID BLOOD

▪ Viscosity – the resistance of any liquid to flow.

▪ Surface tension – the elastic-like property of the blood
surface tends to contract to resist penetration and separation.
▪ Specific Gravity – the density of blood as compared to the
density of water.

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CLASSIFICATION OF BLOOD STAIN

❖ Blood stain and patterns are useful for interpreting and reconstruction of events occurred
during bleeding.

o Three (3) Major Category of Blood Stain Spatter

1. Passive Blood Stains – are drops created or formed by the force of gravity
acting alone with no significant external force or impact.

o Types of Passive Blood Stains

DROP o Drops – created by force of gravity alone. Standard
drop size 50 ul (0.05 ml)
o Drip – free falling drops dripping into wet blood
DRIP producing large irregular central stain (peripheral
spatter) and small round and oval satellite stains.
o Pool or Flow Pattern – blood flows horizontally or
vertically due to the influence of gravity or movement
POOL CLOTS of the object producing pull of blood.
o Clots – formed when blood clots.

❖ Transfer Blood Stain – form of blood stain is created when a wet bloody
surface comes in contact with a secondary surface.
o Types of Transfer Pattern
CONTACT o Contact Bleeding – a recognizable mirror image of all
or a portion of the original surface may be observed in
the pattern as in the case of a bloody hand or footwear.
o Swipe or Smear – made from moving blooded object
swipe in an unstained surface producing characteristics
feathered edge indicating direction of movement.
SMEAR o Wipe – created when object moves through an existing
stain, removing or altering its appearance. (e.g. stamp,
feathered edge suggests direction)
WIPE o Smudge – formed by altering the original contact stain
to erase the mark.

❖ Projected Blood Stain – are blood projected forward by force greater than
the force of gravity. (The size, shape, and number of resulting stains will
depend, primarily, on the amount of force utilized to strike the blood source.)

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o Arterial spurt – blood stain pattern resulting from blood

exiting the body under pressure from a breached artery
ARTERIAL
SPURT producing large stains with downward flow on vertical
surfaces.
o Cast off – first blow causes bleeding, subsequent blows
contaminate weapon with blood. Blood is cast-off
tangentially to arc of upswing or backswing.
▪ Pattern & intensity depends on type of weapon,
amount of blood adhering to weapon, and length of
arc.
CAST OFF ▪ If weapon does not pick up more blood, spatter from
subsequent backswings becomes progressively
less. In practice weapon picks up more blood with
each successful blow.
o Impact spatter
▪ Low velocity (5ft/s, 1.5 m/s)
LOW • Blood source is subjected to low velocity
VELOCITY impact
• Spot diameter: mostly 4 – 8 mm some
smaller, some larger. (e.g. free-falling drops,
cast of from fist, shoe, weapon, dripping or
splashing and arterial spurting)
▪ Medium velocity (25 – 100 f/s, 7.5 – 30 m/s)
MEDIUM • Blood source subjected to MV impact
VELOCITY • Spot diameter: mostly 1 – 4 mm. (e.g.
baseball bat blows)

▪ High velocity (>100 f/s, 30 m/s)

• Blood source subjected to HV impact > 100
f/s, 30m/s
HIGH • Fine mist: spot size > 0.1 mm
VELOCITY
• Small mass limits spread to 1m
• Some larger droplets reach further
• Gunshot
o Back-spatter from entry wound
o Forward spatter from exit wound
• High speed machinery

o Gunshot back spatter – arises from entrance wound that passes b ack
towards weapon and shooter
✓ Seen only at close range of fire
✓ Seen on inside of barrel, exterior of weapon, hand, arm, chest
of shooter

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o Gunshot forward spatter –

arises from exit wound
✓ Passes forward in same
direction as shot. More copious
than back spatter. Can be seen
at any range of fire. Seen on
nearby surface, object, persons,
(especially on wall behind
victim).

❖ Characteristics of blood pattern

o Surface texture – the harder and less porous the surface, the less spatter
results.
o The direction of travel of blood striking an object may be discerned by the
stains shape. Pointed end of a blood stain always faces its direction of travel.
o Angle of impact can be determining by measuring the degree of circular
distortion of the stain
o Origin of blood spatter in a two-dimensional configuration can be
established by drawing straight lines through the long axis of several
individual blood stain. The intersection or point of convergence of the lines
represents the point from which the blood emanated.

❖ Tracing of Origin of Blood stain

o Point of convergence method

o Point of origin method
o In practice use of string and protractor at scene use of computer at
laboratory.

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References:
Sunico, Lorenzo A, Forensic Chemistry, NBI, Manila.
Saferstein, Richard D, Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science, 2001. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River New Jersey
Eckert,William, G, Introduction to Forensic Sciences, CRC Press, New York 1997
James, Stuart H, Kish, Paul E and Sutton, T. Paulette: Principles of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Theory and
Practice, CRC Press.

LINKS

TOPIC LINK FOR VIDEO

These Are the Three Main Categories of https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=123

Bloodstain Pattern &v=zjfdpenl1Rc&feature=emb_logo

How Surface Texture Affects Bloodstain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fqz4qWqaX0
Patterns

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