Category: Forensic Science & Pharma Intelligence Certification Course

Edmond Locard

Dr. Edmond Locard, born in 1877, was a french criminalist known for being a pioneer in forensic science and criminology. He was often called “Sherlock Holmes of France.” While studying medicine, he developed an interest in the application of science to legal matters and wrote his thesis on Legal Medicine under the Great King (Grand Roy in La Medicine Legale Sauce). He has published more than 40 works. The most famous is the seven-volume series Traite de criminalistique (Treaty of Criminalistics).

After working as an assistant to Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne for some time, Locard started his career in law. As he passed the bar in 1907, he began his studies with Alphonse Bertillon, an anthropologist known for his anthropometric system of identifying criminals.

During World War I, Lockard worked with the French Secret Service as a medical examiner, examining the stains and damage of soldiers and prisoners’ uniforms, trying to identify the cause and location of death.

In 1910, the Lyon Police Department gave Locard the opportunity to create the first police laboratory. The evidence gathered from the crime scenes could be scientifically verified in those small attic rooms. Until 1912, the police department did not officially recognize the laboratory, so the first official forensic science laboratory was formed.

Locard is also known for his contributions to improving dactylography, a field of study related to fingerprints. He developed the science of poroscopy, the study fingerprint pores, and the impressions produced by these pores after he established the laboratory in Lyon. He wrote that if the 12 specific points are identical between the two fingerprints, then this is sufficient for positive identification. Since then, fingerprints are being used in identifying criminals instead of Bertillon’s earlier technique of anthropometry. Locard and many other criminalists founded the International Academy of Criminalistics in 1929 in Switzerland. However, it was demolished during the Second World War.

Moreover, Edmond Locard is renowned for his creation of Locard’s Exchange Principle, the theory that states “every contact leaves a trace” relating to the transfer of trace evidence between objects. The theory suggests that when two objects come into contact with each other, each object either picks up or drops something from the other.

Edmund Lockard passed away in 1966, but his transfer principle is one of the most influential works in forensic science and is still cited today.

Sir Alec Jeffreys

Sir Alec Jeffreys is known for development of the DNA fingerprinting techniques. Sir Jeffreys was initially working in Amsterdam with Dick Flavell, establishing how to detect single copies of human genes. In 1977, he moved to Leicester, where he began using molecular biology techniques in the investigation of human genetics. His research resulted in the first description of Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP), a technique that involved the use of enzymes to target short DNA sequences & cut the genome.

In the year 1978, Jeffreys first described single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). SNPs are DNA sequence variations that occur when a single nucleotide differs between members of a species or between the paired chromosomes in a person. When an SNP site is present at the target site, the enzyme is prevented from cutting the DNA at that site. However, SNPs did not show significant variation, and so Jeffreys began looking for sections of DNA with more considerable variation.

Jeffreys then focused on tandem repeat DNA. The tandem repeat DNA was difficult to locate in the human genome. The discovery came through a different project investigating the myoglobin gene in humans- a gene first found in grey seals. This technique was used to isolate the corresponding gene in humans, which was discovered inside a minisatellite. This myoglobin minisatellite was then used to identify various minisatellites until a core sequence was found. This core sequence was a DNA piece similar in numerous minisatellites.

A probe DNA was produced through core sequencing that should hybridize to numerous minisatellites simultaneously. This probe was hybridized to a blot with DNA from Sir Jefferys research assistant Jenny Foxon as well as her parents. In 1984, an X-ray blot was developed. This was initially viewed by the scientists as nothing more than a complex mess, but soon patterns emerged, expressing individual specificity. Jeffreys realized that this was the first DNA fingerprint. With the development of advanced technology, the image was improved. This lead to the discovery of  more variable minisatellites. However, there were significant shortcomings with Sir Jeffreys’ method in that large sample sizes were required. Also this technique lacked the potential to be automated. This led to DNA profiling gradually becoming more reproducible, sensitive, as well as suitable to computer databasing, allowing DNA databases to be created eventually. Some of the Improvements include being combined with Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in 1989, the use of STRs in 1990, as well as the incorporation of DNA profiles with databases.

Clyde Snow

Involved in the examination of thousands of skeletal remains, Clyde Snow was a world-renowned American forensic anthropologist.

He was born in 1928 in Texas, and his rise to forensic stardom was not a smooth one. He had finally obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology after being expelled from high school, failing at military school, and dropping out of college the first time around. Snow was initially working for the Civil Aeromedical Institute, examining the bodies of individuals involved in fatal air crashes. Later, he became increasingly involved with human rights issues and worked with the United Nations Human Rights Commission and was involved in the investigation of victims of mass graves and genocide. He worked on an array of prominent cases over the years, which included the victims of infamous serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, the Oklahoma City bombing victims in 1995, and John F Kennedy’s death. He had also testified in Saddam Hussein’s trial.

In Brazil, during 1985, a set of remains was discovered that was suspected to be those of infamous Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele. After the German officials released a warrant for his arrest, it was believed that until his death, Mengele fled to numerous South American countries where he lived under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. To confirm the identity of the remains, Snow was asked to put together a team of experts and confirm, and he did just that. Snow traveled to Sao Paulo and set to work on examining the remains along with an X-ray specialist, a human rights colleague, a renowned forensic odontologist, and various others. The team established that the victim was in his sixties, close to Mengele’s would-be age, was a European male and had the correct stature and handedness. Mengele’s SS dental records were consistent with the skeleton under scrutiny, although it lacked in much substance. They also used photograph superimposition by using Mengele’s both old and recent photographs, and superimposing them over the skull resulted in an “impressive match.” Ultimately, the team concluded that the remains found in Brazil were those of Josef Mengele. This deduction was verified by DNA analysis a few years later.

His work was not just limited to legal investigations but also extended to the historical studies of the remains of King Tutankhamun and the suspected remains of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

For decades Clyde Snow’s career spanned stretching across dozens of countries and was of the utmost importance. Any set of human remains that came his way, he strived to identify it and hoped to discover the identity and whatever information he could gather to help bring someone to justice and put yet another victim to rest. The work was no doubt grueling, both emotionally and physically.

In 2014, Snow passed away.