Law enforcement study blood stain patterns to aid future crime scene investigations

By Cheryl Rodewig, THE BAYONETJuly 2, 2009

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1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Special Agent Jennifer Harris, Fort Benning Criminal Investigation Command, looks at the pattern made by flinging lamb's blood on the wall. The law enforcement agents studied direction, distance, weapon type and other aspects affecting blood spatter... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING GA - Soldiers with the Criminal Investigation Command and local law enforcement from Georgia and Alabama studied blood spatter patterns this week in Infantry Hall.

MAJ Brian Heverly, operations officer for the post CID Battalion, said the class provided needed professional development, especially since Fort Benning's forensic science specialist PCSed recently.

"It directly impacts their ability to solve crimes and that's what they're here for," Heverly said. "A lot of times when you have a crime scene, time is of the essence, so this is another tool in their kit to help them steer the course of the investigation."

The 40-hour course focused on directionality, drying times and patterns made with blood. For the course, students worked with lamb's blood, so the consistency would be the same as what they would encounter during a crime scene investigation.

Special Agent Jennifer Harris, Fort Benning CID Battalion, said she was glad she had the opportunity to take the class.

"It'll definitely make me a better investigator," she said. "When I walked into the last scene that was bloody, all I could do was photograph because I couldn't interpret what the blood was telling me. This will help me interpret it a lot more.

"Ultimately, you want to find out the truth of what happened at a crime scene. Without any witnesses' testimonies, you can walk in and you should be able to at least get an idea of what happened. That's why I think this class is important."

Analyzing blood patterns isn't difficult, said Rex Plant, instructor for the course. It's just a matter of knowing basic rules of physics and trigonometry and applying them to the pattern made by the blood.

"It can tell you so much ... where people were standing, how many times they were hit in the area, how long the blood has been there, estimated angles of impact," he said.

The students also learned how to identify the weapon used and discover if the scene was cleaned with a chemical agent. They spattered blood with different weapons, studied transferred patterns and used different surfaces, from paper to grass.

The training was more in-depth than any Thomas Pell, crime scene investigator for the Phenix City Police Department, has had before.

"It's been helpful," Pell said. "I've learned a lot about reading the direction, the angles, velocity. ... A lot of training we go to is not as hands-on. It's going to make it easier for (us) to understand a crime scene."

"The hands-on is 10 times better," said Special Agent Horace Jackson, post CID Battalion. "You're seeing what could possibly occur if someone did use a knife, an ice pick, a gun. ... You can actually see the differences in here because we take it through the different scenarios."

Jackson said he had been with CID for nearly 15 years but had never completed this type of training.

"I've learned quite a bit over the last couple days since we've been here - wish I'd had it earlier," he said. "I've worked in a lot of death investigations over the years, but this enhances your actual perception of crime scenes. It's kind of like going back in time and seeing what may have occurred at the crime scene. It helps you understand better."