Suspect burial excavation procedure: A cautionary tale

Monitoring controlled graves representing common burial scenarios with ground penetrating radar

“…In the past decade, there has been an increased interest in the application of forensic geoscience in the field of criminal investigations (Billinger, 2009;Davenport, 2001;Fenning and Donnelly, 2004;Morgan and Bull, 2007;Pye, 2007;Pye and Croft, 2004;Ruffell andMcKinley, 2005, 2008;Ruffell et al, 2009;Schultz, 2007b). Because of the growing interest in the field of forensic geoscience, the use of geophysical tools, especially ground penetrating radar (GPR), to locate clandestine graves and physical evidence associated with criminal activity, has received growing acceptance by criminal investigators.…”

“…Also, this equipment can be used at potential crime scenes to highlight anomalous areas across a larger survey area for follow-up testing that can include invasive methods. Furthermore, not only can GPR be used to highlight certain areas within a crime scene, but it can also be used to clear areas where a body is thought to have been buried (Billinger, 2009;Ruffell, 2005;Ruffell, et al, 2009;Schultz, 2007b). One of the main advantages of using GPR for forensics and archaeology is that it is a non-invasive tool that does not produce surface damage to a site, thus, preserving the context of potential buried evidence.…”

Experimental forensic scenes for the characterization of ground-penetrating radar wave response

“…In some cases, such as that of the bone remains, the identification was not clear from the field data. In this sense, although some studies in the specialized literature showed successful results when entire bodies were searched for using GPR [3,12,15,25], other authors have confirmed the existence of difficulties in the analysis and interpretation of the acquired data, when detecting skeletal remains in heterogeneous environments [5,10].…”

“…The presence of conductive media, such as clay-rich subsoil, can attenuate the electromagnetic signal, and detecting underground features becomes difficult because the signal is not able to penetrate [7,11,12]. The use of GPR in forensic applications is a quite recently implemented practice, as it has only been used since the 1990s [13], but in recent years, the amount of published works with successful results in this context has increased [3][4][5]11,12,14,15].…”

Controlled research utilizing a basic all-metal detector in the search for buried firearms and miscellaneous weapons

“…It is important to note that a great amount of time may be spent excavating all of the false positives to clear an area. However, negative forensic searches are also important for the investigators [32]. For example, even if a weapons search is negative for the suspected weapon, it is important to have cleared the survey area, and if the case is still ongoing, investigations can be directed elsewhere [1][2][3][5][6][7]9].…”