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Collection of evidence from the reverse side of self-adhesive stamps: A combined approach to obtain dactyloscopic and DNA evidence

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 330; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.111123

1872-6283

Rahel Ruprecht, Roger Suter, Manuela Manganelli, Andreas Wehrli, Miriam Ender, Balthasar Jung,

Digital Media Forensic Detection

The commonly applied method for the examination of self-adhesive stamps mainly focuses on DNA-profiling while neglecting potential fingerprint evidence. In our preliminary study it was shown that in an uncontrolled environment, fingerprints are transferred from the adhesive side of stamps onto the envelope within the first two days after application. Fingerprints can therefore be examined independently after the separation of the stamp from the envelope. The aim of this study was to develop a novel approach, which enables the combination of fingerprint development and the analysis of DNA traces originating from the same evidence, and to implement this into routine processes. Furthermore, this approach was compared with the edge fragment approach, the commonly applied standard method in our laboratory. The results showed that the novel approach is very beneficial for forensic examination of self-adhesive postage stamps on letters. Moreover, it enables parallel evaluation of dactyloscopic and DNA evidence without having an increased risk of contamination, PCR interference or altering of the fingerprint. The chance of obtaining useful forensic evidence for downstream database searching was increased from 50.0% to 83.3%. This novel method was shown to be valuable for the parallel evaluation of dactyloscopic and DNA trace material originating from the same evidence.