The New Detectives

It is difficult to convict a murderer if the body can't be found. But forensic science is finding ways to do it. Devious killers can think up many was to dispose of their victim's remains, but they are often no matches for creative and devoted investigators. A speck of blood, a piece of a fingernail or a strand of hair may now be enough evidence to prove a murder and capture a killer.

Forensic Botany & Geology: Plants help provide oxygen and nutrients for existence. Soil is the fertilizer of life. Yet both can yield clues to the time and location of a person's death. In criminal investigations, a simple seedpod can provide the missing link by placing a suspect at a crime scene. Dirt left on shoes, tires or clothes can pinpoint a crime scene.

Hairs and Fibers: The tiniest filament can become a mark of distinction in the most singular and intimate of ways. Investigators have come to rely on forensic evidence as fine as a carpet fiber or as innocent as an eyelash to crack difficult cases.

Toxicology: While drugs can cure disease and ease pain, they can also be agents of murder. Toxicologists can examine blood and tissue to uncover cases where death is not as natural as it may seem--from slow arsenic poisoning to quick cocaine overdoses.

Tool marking: A tool used to commit a crime can often be the same tool used to solve it. The pattern a machine leaves on an item, the unusual way a tool crimps a wire, and even something as innocuous as the shape of a wood chip can lead to a killer.

New Forensic Techniques used to Solve Old Cases: Advancement in science and technology are encouraging people to revisit the past in hopes of answering questions that have remained unanswered, and solving crimes that seemed unsolvable. Techniques from the 20th century are applied to cases from as far back as ancient times.

High Tech Forensics: Investigators are always on the cutting edge of new forensic techniques that can help them solve cases more accurately. An experimental "brain fingerprinting" technique has already won the acquittal of a police officer accused of a drug charge. Solving crimes by computer and robotic police offers provide investigators allow crime-solving to take on a new-age dimension, and provide safer and more efficient ways to capture an embezzler, a drug-dealer or a killer.

Arson Investigation: Insurance torchings, mob burnouts and arson murders: these crimes are designed to take all clues with them. But a solid case can be built from a heap of ashes. Arson investigators do everything from gathering physical evidence to mounting undercover and sting operations.

Terrorism: Thanks to new technology and, perhaps, the approaching millennium, terrorism is a growing international threat. The Oklahoma City explosion and the bombing of the World Trade Center are just two of the incidents of this growing problem. With the expertise of bomb squads, chemists and tool mark experts, bombs are deactivated and criminals are caught.