Crime Scene Investigator Network Newsletter

Introduction
Friction ridges that cover the hands and feet have long been accepted as an infallible means of identification. Flexion creases of the hands and feet are anchored in the dermal layer of skin, making them permanent, but they have been less widely used as a means of identification. Most often when creases are visible, so are the friction ridges, and, therefore, the ridges are used. In the case of infants, the ridges are so delicate and fine, that, when inked, the ridges are not clear, but the flexion creases are often visible. A hospital's practice of inking the footprints of infants after birth was a means of identifying them should they be mixed up with other infants or be abducted from the hospital. Now, DNA would likely be used to establish who the parents are in the case of a mixup or an abduction, but foot creases still have a purpose for individualization.

A case requiring the examination of foot creases crossed my desk in 2002. This research project on the persistence of creases was spawned during the course of this investigation.

The Case
In January of 2002, I received a request to examine foot impressions that had been left at a murder scene in the town of Rankin Inlet in the North West Territories of Canada. Corporal Harry Harding of the Iqaluit RCMP Forensic Identification Section had attended a murder scene at a house. The victim, found lying on a bed, had extensive trauma to the head. There were bloodstains throughout the house. Corporal Harding photographed the scene and specifically the impressions of boots, socked feet, and bare feet, as well as friction ridges, both palmar and plantar, that had been left in the victim's blood.

< read the complete article and view example photographs. >