This content explores the critical role of forensic science in solving crimes and verifying authenticity, highlighting how scientific analysis can uncover truth, exonerate the innocent, and authenticate valuable artifacts, while also acknowledging its limitations.
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a serial killer is taunting the police
by leaving the strangled bodies of his
victims in plain
view detectives and forensic Specialists
come up with only the tiniest of [Music]
[Music]
Clues a few hairs and fibers and a muddy
killer in the summer of 1994 the first
victim Ladonna Jean Stellar is
Florida investigators find no useful
evidence at the
scene a few months later a delivery
driver spots Something In The Weeds on
road he calls the police
first on the scene is Officer Glenn
ward he checks for a pulse sector 89
confirm signal there is
none Next To Arrive is the pelis county
forensic science unit their job is to
collect physical
evidence these aren't your tire tracks
right Glenn no certainly not Lieutenant
Walt jacqu notices a possible clue a
tire print at the edge of the
road the sandy soil in this part of
Florida doesn't usually make for a clear
Tire print but rains during the night
muddy first the track is
photographed then castings are made of
track dental cement the same material
used by orthodontists is poured into a metal
metal
form the team searches the grass for
trace evidence looking for anything that would
would
Flores using a high powerered light the
investigators trace a path to the body
the light reveals fibers hair blood and other
other
substances the light shines at
flues Orange goggles help make evidence
sharply soon the victim is identified
her name is Wendy Evans she was killed by
strangulation is a serial killer on the
County evidence collected at the crime
scene is sent here to Florida's
Enforcement Jerry Sereno is the chemist
assigned to the case it can literally
take weeks to go through the debris that
is recovered from a crime scene
kind of like looking for a needle in a hay
hay
stack Serena looks for things out of the
materials and he finds something a pink
carpet carpet fibers are valuable Clues
because they can link suspects to a
specific location
examiners also find hairs on the body
hairs these short brown hairs belong to a
a
dog there is one piece of evidence left
track Peter McDonald is a tire track
identification expert he agrees to help
with the
case McDonald begin by studying the
scene when he examines the tread pattern
he recognizes it
immediately this tire called an ATX was
designed for small pickups and sport utility
utility
vehicles McDonald tells detectives that
the tire print at the crime scene was
probably left by a small truck riding on
in the following months two more murders take
take
place first the decomposed body of Peggy
Darnell is discovered beneath power
lines then Cynthia pews is found behind
a trash
can examiners find pink fibers and dog
hairs on Pew's body just like those on Wendy
Wendy
Evans now there is little doubt a serial
County the only hope of stopping him is
to find the car that left that tire
print but
how the search starts at the County's
Dealer Lieutenant good pays a visit to
manager Larry Morgan we're investigating
a series of homicides over in penel
County Morgan offers to check the
company database
the computer shows the tire is sold
out look at that we had four we sold
four September 11th
1995 the last set was purchased 8 months
earlier someone named Terry Joe Howard
set Howard is placed under surveillance
while detectives check her
background from there we went out and
actually found the vehicle parked at her
residence one night and we're able to
confirm that those tires were on that
vehicle is Howard the
killer the next step for the
investigators is to examine her tires to
see if they match the
print Morgan tells Howard that her tires
have been recalled and she can come in
for free
Replacements but we've made arrang a
week later accompanied by a man Howard
shows up for her new
tires hi I'm Terry Joe Howard you called
me about my tires
minutes at a police garage detectives
prepare to make an ink print of the
tread patterns on Howard's tires now
vehicle a long strip of cardboard is
used as an ink
fingerprints looks good come slow
carefully the tire is rolled over the
ink pad Keep It Coming okay go are we
okay Sandy yeah the tire is then rolled
over a clean length of
cardboard once all four tires are
printed the strips will be analyzed but
follow Target's walking eastbound
towards your car during the course of
the surveillances we noticed a white
male and that's when we identify James
Randall James Randall Terry Joe Howard's
boyfriend is the man who accompanied her
store while detectives check Randall's
background McDonald examines the tires
from Howard's
car Treads are made up of geometric
shapes called
pitches at first glance the pitches seem
to be the same
this is the key to Tire
identification with the sequence of
pitches you can determine the exact
location on the tire that made the
imprint McDonald can tell which part of
the tire left the
print but he still doesn't know if it
was this tire or another of the same
model he needs to find a match point a
place on the print that could have been
only so McDonald turns to a more subtle
feature the tiny cuts on the tire
cypes during manufacturing the cypes are
molded into the tires by small steel
teeth but occasionally tires come out of
the mold with a few cypes
missing why
because the fragile metal teeth
sometimes break
off McDonald finds a missing cype in the tire
tire
print he finds the same missing cype in
the same location on the right rear tire
truck now there is no doubt this tire
left the print at the crime
scene it's a major break in the case
Terry Joe Howard's truck has been placed
at the scene of one of the
murders and fibers and hairs link that
crime to one of the other
murders and there's
more by now the background check on
in he served 6 years in a Massachusetts
prison for sexual assault and he was a
suspect in a murder
case but investigators lacked enough
evidence to indict him in both crimes
strangled now the detectives want to
arrest Randall but they know that unless
they have enough evidence they can't hold
him they need an airtight case and they
it the investigative team comes up with
another another sting
operation detectives Linda hilard and
Stephanie Campbell pose as women
starting a dog bathing
Service I looked we they come at a time
when they know Howard will be home
home
hi my name is Stephanie and this is
Linda and we're starting our own dog
grooming business their offer of a free
introductory flea bath is too good for
Howard to refuse I get Miss Penny yes
Miss princess Penny let me see how she
likes does she like me all right she
very friendly Hi how are you what a good
girl can I calm you a little bit at an
hair good
girl after the bath Terry Joe invites
the women into the living
room the detectives noticed the color of
the carpet it's pink similar to the
fibers found on the murder
victims as hilly chats with Terry Joe
fibers back in the lab the carpet fibers
and dog hairs taken from Howard's home
are compared to those found on the murder
murder
victims they
match that means the women had either
been inside the house or had come into
physical contact with Randall or
Howard detectives now have the evidence they
they
need they decide to move in bin on James
Randall but as they approach him he
flees suddenly escaping into the nearby
Woods a massive 4-day Manhunt can't
flush him
out finally an exhausted and dirty James
Randall shows up back at Howard's front
door where he is taken into custody by
deputies Terry Joe Howard knew nothing
of Randall's crimes the evidence pointed
squarely to
him Randall is tried and convicted of first-degree
first-degree
death forensic science has become one of
the Justice system's most powerful tools
but even the best tools can do great
harm if they're misused your honor the
Commonwealth calls angel Nichols to the
raped at trial she points out her
attacker that is the
man the defendant's name is Edward Haner
his trial takes 2 days we find the
defendant guilty on all
charges Haner is given life in prison
the maximum
sentence he wonders if he'll ever wake
up from what what he prays is a
nightmare I remember when I was
sentenced it it was like you know I
didn't do this my last words to the
judge were you've convicted an innocent
man your honor the Commonwealth calls
Elmer gist the most damning testimony
came from a state forensic
examiner Elmer G testified that hairs
found on the victim closely matched
hukers same coloring it is unlikely that
the hair would match anyone other than
the defendant he is without a doubt
guilty and you at the trial's conclusion
the jury took 2 hours to reach their verdict
verdict
guilty huker was sent to notaway
Correctional Center in burkeville
Virginia to spend the rest of his life Behind
Bars most people don't realize what it's
like to be inside of a
Haner spent much of his time writing
short stories a novel and letters
hundreds of
letters he tried to find someone on the
outside who would listen someone who
would believe that a grave Injustice had been
done Centurion Ministries then Ed heard
about the Centurion Ministries a
nonprofit organization in Princeton New
Jersey that tries to help people who
his letter was read by staffer Kate
germand then she requested the
transcripts from Han's
trial when she read them she understood
how Haner got
convicted even through the dry
transcripts you could read the strength
of the victim's testimony this was the
man that is the man so I understood it
but I also clearly saw to my read that
he couldn't have committed the crime in
the transcripts germon saw testimony she
found troubling and what were those test
results we removed two hairs from the
crime scene which were the forensic
scientist testified that the hairs found
on the victim were most likely hankers
it is unlikely that the hair matched
anyone other than the
defendant but could they be sure the
hairs were
hankers hairs simply aren't distinct
individual the most we can ever say is
that these hairs could have come in
quotes from the same Source we can never
say that these that this hair did in
fact come from a a given
individual Dr Peter DeForest is one of
the world's leading Authorities on the
forensic analysis of
hair he was called in to reexamine the
hair from the crime scene and compare it to
huker there are a number of features we
look at DeForest first looks at the
hair's color
color color in hair is determined by
tiny pigment granules that appear here
as brown
Speckles adjusting Focus lets the forest
examine each plane of the hair shaft for pigment
distribution in some hairs the granules
are distributed evenly in other hairs
[Music]
clumps another characteristic of hair is
its outer sheath called the
cuticle the cuticle grows in overlapping
fish these scales can be pointed
up some hairs have a clearly visible
inner shaft called a medulla
in other hairs the medulla appears
medulla DeForest looked for similarities
between the hairs found on the victim
honer he saw some similarities in color
distribution but he couldn't make a
trait for trate match between crime
hairs based on his his observations
DeForest concluded that the hair found
Haner DNA analysis is revolutionizing
system each cell in the body contains
DNA which is shaped like twists on a
ladder of chemical rungs the sequence of
individual scientists can now remove DNA
from body tissues and fluids and make
film the patterns produced in these
films can positively link a suspect to
DNA from a crime
suspect germand told Haner that the test
could exonerate him but if his DNA did
match the crime scene sperm no one would
Innocence hanar submitted a blood sample
germand also persuaded The Reluctant now
ex-boyfriend to submit one as [Music]
[Music]
well a few days later the results came
back the boyfriend was excluded the
his hanar was also excluded
there could no longer be any question
Edward Haner was
innocent that was
it all emotions that I had held in check
me after 10 years in prison coner was
pardoned and
released he returned to his home in Rowan
Rowan
o eventually he received a settlement
from the state of Virginia for his
DNA testing is giving a new chance to
those who are unfairly trapped by an
imperfect system of
justice but forensic science can do more
than solve
crimes it can also uncover
forgeries almost everyone on Earth
recognizes this image the Mona Lisa one
of History's Greatest paintings created
few names in history are as revered as
Leonardo da Vinci a scientist inventor and
and
painter Da Vinci's masterful technique
and his attention to anatomical accuracy
traits but aside from the last supper
and the Mona Lisa only a handful of his
day some experts believe there are fewer
world but what if another Da Vinci
survived is it conceivable that a work
by the Great Master lost centuries ago
today and if someone claimed to find
such a painting how could anyone be sure
joh Al right John Harrington on the
right is an art collector who lives in
Florida he believes that this painting
of Jesus Christ is in fact a long lost
avinci help Jeff got it all
right and for the past 10 years he's
World Harrington has had a respected
forensic scientist and a handful of
painting if they agree it's authentic
the painting would instantly become one
existence but has John Harrington really
Vinci How could a Priceless Masterwork
Florida in 1984 Harrington took a short
drive from his Sarasota home to visit
Mrs Ida
Martin let's see painting is up here
somewhere Harrington had heard that Mrs
Martin was selling a painting that had
been in her family for centuries careful [Music]
[Music]
careful he immediately recogniz the
painting subject yeah it's good let me
get some light on it so I can really
look at it a young Jesus Christ was
pictured standing in front of a group of
rabbis this biblical scene rendered by
many artists throughout the centuries is
called Christ among the [Music]
[Music]
doctors Harrington was
intrigued some historians had written
that da Vinci had indeed painted a young
Jesus Christ around the year 150 before
but the work had been presumed
painting after a quick negotiation the
price was set Harrington paid Mrs Martin
ring thank you but now he faced the big
question How likely was it that he had
really just purchased a long lost da Vinci
Vinci
Harrington decided to bypass the
contentious art world he decided an
impartial scientist should have the first
first
look he called Walter mccrone one of the
world's most respected forensic
scientists Harrington took the painting
Chicago throughout his career macron has
analyzed hundreds of
paintings using techniques that he's
Pion ered mcon tries to determine the painting's
age knowing when a work was created may
offer Clues to who painted
it macron's first step is to take
samples of the paint
itself for this delicate procedure
mccrone uses a stereo Optical microscope
the same tool surgeons use to perform
operations the microscope lets macron
see down to the level of the pigment particles
particles
[Music]
needle then he carefully places them on
a microscope
slide to identify the particles in
Harrington's painting theone examines
them under the polarizing light
microscope because each color is made
from a different mineral or vegetable
base each has a unique appearance under
in the past pigments were Ground by hand
so paints were lumpy and
grainy today paint making is highly
mechanized pigments are ground for days
between Granite rollers to produce
distribution so an old painting is like
an archaeological find a time capsule
the microscope reveals the
state-of-the-art of paint making at the
point in history the work was [Music]
[Music]
produced each pigment we know when it
was first
used Prussian Blue for example is
1704 if I find Prussian Blue in a
painting I know that at least that paint
layer had to have been painted after
1704 macrone spent months examining the
pigments in Christ among the
doctors he found no modern colors in
fact he found that the pigments used in
the painting were all in use during Da
ago and mcone found something
else years earlier he had analyzed Da
Vinci's Masterpiece the last
supper mcon now had samples of every
pigment used in that
painting these were careful y saved on microscope
microscope
slides he found that the pigments used
in The Last Supper were virtually
identical to the ones he had found in
Christ among the doctors almost as if
they had come from the same [Music]
pallet mccrone looked at the paint's
too this besides pigment which provides
color paint also contains a medium that
suspends the pigment and allows the
artist to use it on
canvas the most common medium is linseed
oil and most Renaissance painters used [Music]
[Music]
it but Da Vinci always an innovator also
paints using infrared absorption
analysis macron's lab attempts to
identify the oil used in Christ among
the doctors the samples were too old to
be conclusive but the test indicated the
presence of walnut [Music]
[Music]
oil and mcon also removed a small
section of the canvas for carbon
dating this test would reveal the age of
the canvas
itself the test produced a date of 1495
plus or minus 30 years
in 1495 Da Vinci was 43 years
old I could conclude from from what I
did and from the carbon dating that the
painting was almost undoubtedly done
during Leonardo's
lifetime when he completed his work
mccrone published his findings in a scientific
scientific
journal he stated that none of his tests
of the pigments the medium or the canvas
could rule out the possibility that the
Vinci when you get results from the
laboratory that say that you have
pigments and canvas of the time of
Leonardo da Vinci it's very exciting
because you're getting much closer than
you thought you could but you can't
quite get to Leonardo's easel with those results
results
because Leonardo and his school in Milan
could all have access to the same kind
of canvas brushes pigments and mediums
they could all use the same thing it
turned out that science could go only so
far in determining the painting's
origins so Harrington was forced to
return to the subjective world of art
historians and other
experts yes Mr Haring Harrington called
in James Proctor an art authenticator
who had evaluated other alleged Da Vinci
for private clients around the
world Proctor warned Harrington that he
look Proctor studied the painting
closely he saw something that in his
wrist Da Vinci was the only one that
ever put the nail hole in the proper area
area
Da Vinci had studied human anatomy
extensively unlike other artists of his
day who showed Christ impaled through
his palms Da Vinci knew that the hands
couldn't support the weight of the
could in my opinion and my
expertise this is by the hand of
Leonardo da Vinci
Scholars will continue to debate the
origins of Christ among the doctors long
into the
future perhaps one day the truth about
this painting will be
known but as the scientist knows all too
well truth can be hard to separate from
Prejudice did you know it's not just the
value of an artwork that determines
whether someone might Forge it the
difficult ulty of making the fake is
just as important fewer than 1% of stone
sculptures are forged because they
require so much labor and so few people
buy them but as many as 10% of modern
French paintings on the market may be
forgeries because they are more popular
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