IDENTIFICATION OF LATENT BLOODSTAINS FROM WASHED TEXTILE FABRICS ONE DAY AND EIGHT MONTHS LATER USING A LUMINOL DERIVATE AND THE ATR-FTIR TECHNIQUE

• Published in: Romanian Journal of Forensic Science (English ed.) 2024-03, Vol.25 (137), p.103-110
• Main Authors: Ursuţ, Gabriela-Alexandra, Manea, Florin, Ghicioi, Emilian, Vlase, Titus, Vlase, Gabriela, Pitulice, Laura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cleaning compounds; Cotton; Crime scenes; Criminal investigations; Evidence; Hemoglobin; Nitrogen; Textiles
• ISSN: 2069-2617; 2069-2617

[...]the materials, substances, and techniques used in the investigation are widely available to everyone. The evidence was stored in a room with temperatures ranging from 20 to 26 degrees Celsius, considering that this method of storage is within the offender's reach if he committed a crime, washed the material stained with the victim's blood, and then deposited it without raising suspicion; or, another hypothesis related to how the evidence was stored may be a case in which, following the commission of an offense, the location is identified after a certain period. BlueStar Forensic luminol Luminol produces short-lived chemiluminescence and is by far one of the most sensitive blood tests. Because other substances, such as bleach, plant peroxides, and some metals, can give a positive reaction to luminol, the reaction between luminol and these other substances is referred to as a false positive. RESULTS In both case scenarios, we analyzed samples one day after washing the blood from the materials, or 8 months later, we started by highlighting the bloodstains on the support materials with BlueStar Forensic luminol (Fig-5) The results obtained after the identification with BlueStar Forensic luminol can be seen in Table 1 and Table 2, where we represented the positive test results with "+" and the negative results with Following the removal of traces of blood from the support materials, the materials were subjected to a more sensitive analysis these being analyzed using the ATR-FTIR technique.