Search

Geoscientists are being increasingly asked by law enforcement, environmental agencies and even wildlife trusts to investigate suspected illegal activities in and around water bodies for criminal or civil investigations. Searches and surveys in aquatic environments can be challenging, depending on the item(s) of interest that is being looked for, the available search teams and equipment and the search area. This article will briefly detail the current work of geoscientists in assisting these aquatic investigations, provide some relevant case studies and discuss future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geoforensic trace evidence studies can be crucial for law enforcement and civil/criminal prosecution and defence, to test potential links between suspect(s), crime scenes or forensic object(s). In addition, trace geological evidence can be used to identify forensic sites of interest such as clandestine graves of murder victims. However, geoforensic trace evidence also has applications in a range of other investigations. This article briefly details the current geoscientific methods used to assist in such investigations and uses recent case studies to illustrate their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most Latin American countries, there are significant numbers of missing people and forced disappearances, over 120,000 in Colombia alone. Successful detection of shallow buried human remains by forensic search teams is difficult in varying terrain and climates. Previous research has created controlled simulated clandestine graves of murder victims to optimize search techniques and methodologies. This paper reports on a study on controlled test site results over four simulated dismembered victims' clandestine graves as this is sadly a common scenario encountered in Latin America. Multispectral images were collected once post‐burial, electrical resistivity surveys were collected 4 times, and ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys were collected three times up to the end of the 371 day survey monitoring period. After data processing, results showed that the multispectral data set could detect the simulated clandestine and control graves, with electrical resistivity imaging relative high resistances over some of the simulated graves but not over the empty control graves. GPR results showed good imaging on the Day 8 surveys, medium imaging on the Day 294 surveys, and medium to good imaging on the Day 371 surveys. Study implications suggest that, while clandestine graves of dismembered homicide victims would likely result in smaller‐sized graves when compared to graves containing intact bodies, these graves can still potentially be detected using remote sensing and geophysical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colombian forensic investigators required assistance locating clandestine burials of missing persons related to human right atrocities from 14 years ago. Geoscientific search methods were trialled, including a predictive spatial statistical model, using various input and database information, to select the most likely grave locations in difficult mountainous terrain. Groundwork using forensic geomorphology, near‐surface geophysics (ERT) and subsequent probing identified suspect burial positions. One site was in mountainous terrain and the other in former school grounds, both difficult to access and in poor weather conditions. In the mountainous area, a negative resistivity anomaly area was identified and intrusively investigated, found to be a buried rock. In school grounds, after MESP and intelligence were used to identify a burial site, surface depressions were identified, and ERT datasets collected over the highest priority depression; intrusive investigations discovered a hand‐dug pit containing animal bones. This approach is suggested for Latin American searches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]