Abstract
Body fluid and body tissue identification are important in forensic science as they can provide key evidence in a criminal investigation and may assist the court in reaching conclusions. Establishing a link between identifying the fluid or tissue and the DNA profile adds further weight to this evidence. Many forensic laboratories retain techniques for the identification of biological fluids that have been widely used for some time. More recently, many different biomarkers and technologies have been proposed for identification of body fluids and tissues of forensic relevance some of which are now used in forensic casework. Here, we summarize the role of body fluid/ tissue identification in the evaluation of forensic evidence, describe how such evidence is detected at the crime scene and in the laboratory, elaborate different technologies available to do this, and reflect real life experiences. We explain how, by including this information, crucial links can be made to aid in the investigation and solution of crime.
Highlights
This feeds the development of new methods, like RNA typing assays which were especially triggered by the limitations for the tests for vaginal cellular material and menstrual secretion [72,204,205,206,207] and the difficulties to apply immunohistochemical staining for organ tissues to samplings from bullets where the tissue tends to reside in the grooves [208]
It is interesting to reflect, in a retrospective manner, on which forensic questions RNA typing assays are applied in actual forensic casework, and whether this corresponds to the questions that initially triggered the development of the assays
For a case with the presence of vaginal cells on the outside of a condom, the alternative scenario was that the father masturbated using a condom and that the results of vaginal cells and DNA-match with the adolescent daughter should be ignored as the mother was not included in the comparison
Summary
Body fluid and body tissue identification are important in forensic science as they can provide key evidence in a criminal investigation and may assist the court in reaching conclusions. Many different biomarkers and technologies have been proposed for identification of body fluids and tissues of forensic relevance some of which are used in forensic casework. We summarize the role of body fluid/ tissue identification in the evaluation of forensic evidence, describe how such evidence is detected at the crime scene and in the laboratory, elaborate different technologies available to do this, and reflect real life experiences. Body fluid and tissue identification can add evidence in criminal investigations by establishing a crucial link between the donor, the cell type and the activities that occurred
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