First Documented case involving Forensic Science

I'm a total forensics geek wanna be. If it's been available in my day as a college degree, I might be in a different profession. I love to solve puzzles, and forensics gives us the tools to solve puzzles.

Before CSI, NCIS, and Criminal Minds, someone had to have the thought about how evidence could lead to the truth. I was curious about how the science of forensics came to be. This is what I found.

Once upon a time in 1235 the story of Sung Tzu appears. It contained the first recorded documentation of forensic use to solve crimes. One case noted occurred during the Song Dynasty in China. A man was murdered and the local officials were looking for his killer. They determined he'd been killed by a sickle by experimenting with different weapons on animals.
They asked everyone in town to produce their sickles for examination. Though it was clean, one sickle was still attracting flies due to the scent of blood. They had their killer. Perhaps scared by the evidence before him, the man confessed.

Sung Tzu continued to record his findings in a book called Hsi Yuan Chi Lu (The Washing Away of Wrongs).

Advances continued starting as early as the 1600s.

Major advances include:

1880- Henry Faulds and William James Herschel published a study on fingerprints. This study was used to push for using fingerprints as evidence.

1895-A study by Eduard Piotrowski on blood stains leads to the science of blood spatter analysis

1901-Karl Landsteiner discovers that human blood falls into 1 of 4 groups: A, B, O, AB

1904-Locard's famous principle is born:  "Every contact leaves a trace."

1912-Victor Balthazard discovers that gun barrels have a unique property to them. Therefore, no two guns will leave the same markings on a bullet.

1974-Gunshot residue can now be detected on a suspect

1984-DNA techniques are developed by Sir Alec Jeffreys

I find this all so fascinating, if you have other major advances in mind, post them in the comments.

Forensic Entomology

Forensic Entomology is the study of insects found in and/ around a dead body. Think of Grissom on CSI: Las Vegas. He loved his bugs and used them to solve crimes.

• Necrophagous are the insects that are found on corpses.

• Insects can disturb and affect the crime scene. They can walk through blood and leave tracks. They can ingest blood, and then leave deposits elsewhere.

• Insects found on a body may point to a specific location based on the natural habitat of the insect and the material they eat.

• You can determine time of death based on insect activity and life cycle stage

• Forensic entomology can be used in helping to solve criminal, civil, food contamination, and abuse cases.

• The use of forensic entomology was started in the 14th century in China

• In the novel, Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, the rare moths were one of the ways the FBI was able to find the serial killer

• Child killer, Kevin Neal, was convicted using forensic entomology

• Dr. Neal Haskell is one of the most renowned forensic entomologists and has participated in hundreds of trials.

• If you are a forensic entomologist, you can join NAFEA (North American Forensic Entomology Association.


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Resources:

http://www.forensic-entomology.com/

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/kevin_neal/13.html

http://www.saintjoe.edu/academics/biology/haskell.html

http://www.nafea.net/