Page 40 - Veritas

FORENSIC SCIENCE GLOBAL NEWS UPDATES

In a case like drowning, a homicidal drowning, or a corpse thrown to any

water body to mislead the case, the primary and secondary crime scene can
be found by water isotopes analysis when the corpus is badly decomposed
and any other identification details of the victim cannot be found. In Oc-

tober 2000, some duck hunters in Utah, near the south of Great Salt Lake,

found a half-buried in a shallow grave, a plastic bag with white socks, an
oversized t-shirt, a women blue choker necklace, 12 bones, and a human
skull. The victim was named ‘Saltair Sally’ by the police. There were no

clues to find the victim as well as the suspect. The body was badly decom-

posed, and the dental record didn’t reveal anything. The case went cold
for 8 years until a new technique in Forensic Science arrived. The scientists
used Stable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectroscopy (SIRMS) for analysis of the

hair fragments of Saltair sally, which revealed the person to be from the

Pacific Northwest region. Varying O/ O ratio of the victim’s hair frag-
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ment showed that the person travelled from Pacific Northwest to Utah
reveal times during her last time. Comparison of O/ O ratio of water in
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Utah and northwest pacific region showed, somewhere consistent in Utah

environment others were from the Pacific Northwest region. On August
7, 2012, the police found the victim to be Nikole Bakoles, a Washington
native, who moved to Utah in 1998. A DNA test confirmed the victim.

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