Forensics Questions

[a***@yahoo.com]

Recently I read "Skeleton Road" by Val McDermid. I enjoyed the novel, but I questioned some of the details. The police were trying to ID a skeleton. The found a hotel key card. Upon electronic examination, they claimed that they could detect a partial bank account number and thought that somehow a bankcard had been next to the keycard and the information had been transferred. Is this really possible?
Secondly they claimed by examining the bones (specifically ear bone, not dental work) that they could tell where the person had been born (and fairly specifically, if I recall correctly. I could see this perhaps if they had been born near an atomic test site or near Chernobyl, but it is not clear to me how they could do this otherwise.
The author mentions some forensic types in the acknowledgement; I would hope that she had done her reserch...

Comments?

[Francis A. Miniter]

Post by a***@yahoo.com
Recently I read "Skeleton Road" by Val McDermid. I enjoyed the novel, but I questioned some of the details. The police were trying to ID a skeleton. The found a hotel key card. Upon electronic examination, they claimed that they could detect a partial bank account number and thought that somehow a bankcard had been next to the keycard and the information had been transferred. Is this really possible?
Secondly they claimed by examining the bones (specifically ear bone, not dental work) that they could tell where the person had been born (and fairly specifically, if I recall correctly. I could see this perhaps if they had been born near an atomic test site or near Chernobyl, but it is not clear to me how they could do this otherwise.
The author mentions some forensic types in the acknowledgement; I would hope that she had done her reserch...
Comments?

As to your first query, I don't see how that could happen without
extreme heat burning the image onto the key card.

The second is the more interesting. There has been a substantial
advance in recent years in epigenetics and DNA methylization methods in
forensics. DNA and epigenetic information can narrow the likely origin
of a person, but only that.

Also, metals apparently bind to hair follicles in a way that makes
geographical analysis of the recent whereabouts of a person more
certain. I came across this:

"Many studies have been done by the researchers and revealed
about the level of trace elements in hair refected, the degree of
ecological concentration like soil, water, food and metabolism. Higher
concentrations of the elements in the environmental levels like soil,
food intake, water and metabolism leads the individual for strong innate
selection for tolerance of the elements. As ecological contaminants are
vital importance in forensic identifcation of cases where hair plays
key evidence in identifcation since last century.

"The concentration of these elements varies between each
geographical region which leads to diferent levels for accumulation
these elements in hairs. Animal hairs show signifcant variation
the concentration of these elements then humans due to their
extended exposure to soil contaminants through feeds. In the current
studies on forensic science, clinical and toxicological studies involve
elemental analysis of hair with special reference to the identifcation
geographical region from hair elemental analysis."

Elemental Composition of Hair and its Role in Forensic Identification
Dahiya MS* and Yadav SK
https://www.omicsonline.org/scientific-reports/2157-7145-SR-721.pdf


Francis A. Miniter

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by Francis A. Miniter
The second is the more interesting. There has been a substantial
advance in recent years in epigenetics and DNA methylization methods in
forensics. DNA and epigenetic information can narrow the likely origin
of a person, but only that.
Also, metals apparently bind to hair follicles in a way that makes
geographical analysis of the recent whereabouts of a person more
"Many studies have been done by the researchers and revealed
about the level of trace elements in hair refected, the degree of
ecological concentration like soil, water, food and metabolism. Higher
concentrations of the elements in the environmental levels like soil,
food intake, water and metabolism leads the individual for strong innate
selection for tolerance of the elements. As ecological contaminants are
vital importance in forensic identifcation of cases where hair plays
key evidence in identifcation since last century.
"The concentration of these elements varies between each
geographical region which leads to diferent levels for accumulation
these elements in hairs. Animal hairs show signifcant variation
the concentration of these elements then humans due to their
extended exposure to soil contaminants through feeds. In the current
studies on forensic science, clinical and toxicological studies involve
elemental analysis of hair with special reference to the identifcation
geographical region from hair elemental analysis."

Thanks, they didn't mention epigenetics (or even DNA analysis). I had suspected maybe trace elements might be involved, but that wasn't mentioned either.