Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Lindsey Marini

FORENSICS STUDY GUIDE
Exam Material—Chapters 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; Lecture Slides

Entymology (5 questions)
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Definition: role of bugs in criminal investigation/application of the study of insects (and
their arthropod relatives that inhabit decomposing remains) to aid in legal issues
o Medicolegal: (criminal) examines insects that infest human remains
o Urban: (criminal/civil) examines insects that effect man/his environment
o Stored Product Insects: (criminal/civil) study insects infesting food/contamination
Uses of entymology:
o Why? First to arrive at scene; insects change with stages of decomposition
o Detection of abuse/neglect in vulnerable populations (ex: bees as child abuse,
elder neglect by caregiver in wounds)
o Motor vehicle investigation—bees stung driver
o Establishing time of death
DEATH INVESTIGATION
o Different types of insects at different stages of decomposition of the body—ID
these insects and development stages can give time of death
o 3 types of insects attracted to decomposing body:
§ Necrophagous: feeds on body, appears first, maggot-like, lay eggs in body,
most important (BLOWFLIES)
• Stages of blowfly: eggs, maggots (larvae), *pupa, adults
§ Predators/parasites: feeds on blowflies
§ Omnivorous: feeds on body and parasites
Key factors…
o Air temperature
o Microbacterial variation
o Water temperature
o Salinity
o Floating or not?
o Aquatic organisms
Stages of decomposition
o LAND (FBDPD: Fat Bob Devoured Pamela’s Donuts)
§ Fresh stage
§ Bloat
§ Decay
§ Post decay
§ Dry
o WATER (SEFFS: Sammy Even Foully Farts Sometimes)
§ Submerged fresh
§ Early float
§ Floating decay
§ Floating remains
§ Sunken remains

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Warm weather—FLIES (black soldier, greenbottle, screwworms, bluebottle)
Beetles—scavengers/predators
Collection of Insects:
o Bugs, pupae, eggs, larvae important
o Collect alive so they can be reared in lab (maggot motels) for PMI/identification
o FLOATING—collect fly larvae
o SUBMERGED—collect aquatic organisms
o Collect from body and clothes

Anthropology (4 questions)
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Definition: scientific study of the origin, behavior, and physical/social/cultural
development of humans
o Physical anthropology=study of human remains to develop ways to evaluate
bones to find out about people
o Forensic anthropology=examination of human skeletal remains for law
enforcement agencies to determine the identity of unidentified bones
§ Identify origin of remains (human vs
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Coroner System
6 Manners of Death
AUTOPSY: Technique for Opening a Body
Outcome of Reported Cases (accepted vs
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capability to detect, prosecute, punish fraudulent
activities
§ Gives MFCU power to investigate/prosecute abuse and neglect of
residents in nursing homes and other Medicaid funded providers
§ ALL states except North Dakota
§ Roles:
• Review complaints
• Prosecute cases of abuse/neglect
• Prosecute cases of misappropriation of patients funds

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• Investigate/prosecute cases of fraud in Medicaid program
Abuse/Neglect Referral Sources
o 70% from Mass Health (Medicaid/Dept
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Wireless
o Radio waves available to everyone, sends ALL data (passwords)
o Cell phones/car remotes/cordless phones send ID data
o Encryption: public key and private key, public place shared
Malignant Software
o Virus: embedded in host programs, pictures
o Worm: delivered by another program
o Trojan Horse: appears as legitimate application
o Malware: software designed to infiltrate computer/network
o Logic Bombs
Virus Culture
o “Morris” Worm: first major worm
o Used to slow down computers
o “Cookie Monster”
o Getting worse, over 3,000,000 viruses in 2014
o Corporations don’t report successful virus/worm attacks
Identify Theft
o Definition: unauthorized use of another person’s financial records or identifying
information without permission
o Discarded mail, online social security number, stealing info while on job, bribing
an employee, hacking, conning information out of person, stealing from personal
home
o Stealing wallet, “change of address form”, steal mail, credit reports, posing as
landlord/employer
o “Skimming”: stealing credit card/debit card numbers by capturing the information
in a data storage device
§ When you swipe for an actual purchase or can attach to ATM
Phishing
o Definition: stealing personal information via email/phone by posing as legitimate
companies (ex: you have a problem, we need to update, “free gifts”)
o Case: 17 year old male formed a company, registered at state level
§ Created bank accounts using SSN of dead people

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§ Phished for victims bank accounts, transferred money to his own account
§ Caught because too much in too short time period
Digital Forensic Analysis
o Fragile: can change/be destroyed/altered by improper handling and storage
o Find offender
§ IP address—spoofing, masking, redirecting, anonymizers, proxies, public
locations, Wi-Fi can make this difficult
§ Work with Internet Service Provider (ISP)—log files, subscriber lists,
transactional information (connection times, dates, IP addresses used),
content
§ ISP log must contain:
• Every website ever visited (data/time)
• Every file ever downloaded using FTP or P2P
• Every email ever sent/received
• Name, time, date, content of every internet chat
• Every web forum posted on/visited
• Logs of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) sessions
§ Email address, website address (@something
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o Digital Evidence
§ Recover hard drive data—protect drive, special software to copy and read
all tracks, decryption software if encrypted, use storage devices
• Current AND deleted files
• Search by name, format, content
• “empty space” also provides data
§ Look for database formats
§ Financial records
§ Phone records
o User Created Files
§ Address books, calendars, internet bookmarks, documents, emails,
audio/video, images, spreadsheets, backups
§ Compressed, encrypted, hidden, misnamed, password-protected
§ Steganography: art/science of writing hidden messages so that no one
apart from sender and recipient knows there is even a message
• Ex: embedded pictures in video material (played at slower speed)

Bombing/Arson & Explosive/Bio-Terrorism (16 questions)
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NFIRS: National Fire Incident Reporting System
o Data from local and state fire departments
ATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
o Investigate and reduce crimes of firearms, explosives, arson
o Collaborate with state/local officials on fire investigation
ARSON
o Leading cause of fire: 267,000/year, 475 fatalities and 2,000 injuries, $1
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§ Pipe Bomb (Amy Bishop Case)
• Metal pipe with cap on both ends and fuse attached
• Filled with explosive that ruptures inside
• Simple=sugar and chlorate
• Potent=TNT
§ Car Bombs (IRA, Middle East)
• Mass destruction—assassination, terrorism, guerilla warfare
• Easily hidden, wired to ignition system, triggered when started
• Can be attached under car and detonated from remote location
o Modes of Transport:
§ Courier delivered: physically carried to location, device concealed
§ Mail: delivered in package by postal service, activated when opened
o Suicide Bomber
§ Target poorly guarded, bomber has no specific profile
§ Guerilla warfare or terrorism
§ Sends message of empowerment
§ Motive=political, religious, social inequality (“sacrifice for group”)
o Extremists?
o NITROGLYCERINE?
o Bombs/Evidence Collection
§ Determine whether secondary explosives
§ Walk through: extent of damage/parameters of scene
§ Determine type of explosive
• Pattern of destruction
• Point of origin
§ Potential perpetrators/motives
• TYPE of explosive
• Sophistication of device
• Warning? (bomb threat)

Forensic Toxicology (11 questions)
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Narcotic: numbs senses, places user in stupor
o Opiates: morphine/codeine, heroin, methadone, OxyContin
o Hallucinogens: marijuana (THC), mescaline (cactuses), LSD, phencyclidine
(PCP), ecstasy (MDMA)
o Depressants: alcohol, barbiturates
o Stimulants: amphetamines, cocaine
o Inhalants
o Steroids
Fentanyl
o Powerful painkiller, analgesic
o Hospitals use patches to treat chronic pain from disease/injury
§ Each patch delivers meds for 3 day period
o Gas can be used as poison
o Derivatives are extremely powerful (heroin substitutes)
o Raise in temp + fentanyl=OD
o Overdose=fall into coma, stop breathing
Date Rape Drugs
o ALL three colorless, odorless, tasteless
o Eliminated from body in 72 hours
o Hard to detect in routine toxicology/blood tests
o Victim is unconscious but responsive with little or no memory of what happened
while drug was in system
o Used to help criminals commit robbery/physical assault as well
o GHB
§ Gammahydroxybutyric acid
§ Found naturally in CNS
§ Treats alcoholism, narcolepsy, insomnia—increases slow wave sleep
§ Used as general anesthetic
§ Salty taste
§ Hard to detect in urine sample (only 8-12 hours of ingestion)
§ Use HAIR sample for detection, or blood plasma
o Rohypnol
§ Prescription sedative/depressant
§ 2000: Samantha Reid Date Rape Prohibition Act made it illegal
o Ketamine
§ Legal drug used by vets as a sedative or hospital-grade anesthetic
§ Hallucinogen
§ Induces dissociates anesthesia, vaguely aware of and comfortably attached
from bodily sensations
§ Ketaset and Ketalar other forms
Controlled Substance Act (1970)
o 1875: banned opium dens
o 1906: Pure Food/Drug Act proper labeling required
o 1914: Harrison Narcotic Act FIRST FEDERAL drug legislation

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§ Pay for using narcotics
o 1970: Comprehensive Drug Abuse and Prevention and Control Act (Controlled
Substances)
§ Consolidated all narcotics into single law to control drug industry
§ Drug classification system put in place—5 schedules
§ Extent of “controlling” of drug depends on schedule
§ I=abuse potential high, no medical use (heroin, marijuana)
§ II=abuse potential high, accepted medically (opium, cocaine, barbiturates,
PCP)
§ III=less abuse potential, accepted medical use, low physical dependence
(barbiturates)
§ IV=low abuse potential, accepted medical use (valium)
§ V=low potential, medical use (ex: codeine)
Drug Analysis
o Bulk samples (large enough to be weighed) vs
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§ Antigen D=Rh factor
o Antibodies: Y-shaped proteins that bind foreign molecules introduced into body
Blood Typing (Karl Landsteiner)
o RBCs have 2 different antigens (A or B)
o Can be A, B, AB, or O (neither)
o Antibodies used to test blood type of victim, suspect, blood at scene
o Blood type exposed to antibody it expresses=AGGLUTINATION
§ Clumping together of RBCs
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
o Blood, hair roots, saliva, sweat, semen, tissues
o Humans DNA sequence only 0

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