Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works - Elizabeth A. Murray Audiobook

Written by Elizabeth A. Murray
Read by Elizabeth A. Murray
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works – Dr Elizabeth A. Murray

36 lectures,30 minutes each
Crime is as old as human society. So is the use of evidence, witnesses, and reason to solve crimes. The desire to identify lawbreakers and bring them to justice is so great that it has inspired countless stories, novels, plays, movies, and television series. But how accurate are the fictional portrayals of crime investigations? What happens behind the scenes when forensic scientists crack a case? The actual details are far more than a lesson in how detective dramas often get it wrong.

Forensic Science from the Inside
One of the nation’s foremost experts in forensic anthropology, Professor Murray has participated in hundreds of investigations, involving homicides, missing persons, and mass disasters. In Trails of Evidence, she draws on this extensive experience to show how forensic science works from the inside with discussions of cases such as these:

American Eagle Flight 4184: After a commuter plane went down in rural Indiana in 1994, Professor Murray was called to assist with identification of the victims, a daunting task that sheds light on how authorities mobilize to deal with the catastrophic loss of life.

The cold case of a missing teen: Four decades after police gave up trying to identify a young woman found dead in a cornfield, Professor Murray examined the evidence and reached new conclusions that helped give a name to a teenager who met a tragic fate.

Lindbergh kidnapping: The abduction and killing of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son left a host of puzzling clues, including a homemade ladder. When a suspect was arrested, tool marks and other distinguishing features on the ladder were crucial in establishing his guilt.

First use of DNA fingerprinting:The death of two teenage girls in central England in the 1980s led investigators to a strong suspect. However, a newly developed DNA technology developed at a local university exonerated an innocent man and led to the real killer.

Ted Bundy: This notorious serial killer perfected a modus operandi that allowed him to escape police for years. A master at hiding his tracks, he was finally convicted based largely on testimony by a forensic odontologist, who matched bite marks on a victim to Bundy’s teeth.
Read the Evidence

Unlike what’s shown on TV, forensic scientists do not chase down leads and question suspects. Instead, they leave the legwork to the police and use the tools of science—chemistry, biology, physics, and psychology—to uncover the story that carefully collected and analyzed evidence has to tell.

In the first section you explore protocols for investigating a scene, and you probe some classic types of evidence:

Fingerprints: Learn the finer points of this venerable tool of identification, including how a common household product, Super Glue, is used to uncover latent prints.

Shoeprints:Footprints are more commonly left behind at crime scenes than fingerprints. Criminals can’t avoid walking on a surface, even when they’re careful not to touch anything with their hands.

Fibers:Microscopic fibers transferred to or from a crime scene have incriminated many criminals, including Wayne Williams, convicted of the Atlanta child murders in 1982.

Blood: TV dramas get it wrong when they show dramatic blood spatters revealed by high-tech chemistry or lighting. What real forensic scientists see is a smear, made by a perpetrator’s attempt to clean up evidence.
Handwriting:Signs of hesitation, such as jerky starts and stops, can indicate that someone was trying to duplicate another person’s handwriting by looking at a copy of it.

In the second part of Trails of Evidence, you focus on Professor Murray’s specialty—analysis of human remains—discovering how the time of death is estimated, whether the body is discovered hours or years after the fatal event. She explains the difference between a coroner and a medical examiner. And using some powerful case histories, she describes the roles of various forensic scientists in establishing the cause and manner of death and how unknown persons are identified.

Professor Murray also delves into the psychology behind law enforcement, explaining that effective interrogation strategies are seldom as confrontational as depicted on TV. You will also hear about forensic profiling, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and the criminal mind. Then she takes you into the courtroom to see how evidence is presented to the final arbiters of its value: the judge and jury.

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