Modus Operandi (17 page)

Stabbing

Stabbing deaths account for a large number of homicide-related deaths yearly. Some statistics report that the number of deaths caused by stabbing is just below the number caused by gunshot wounds.

There are two types of injuries caused by sharp items. The first is the stab wound: A pointed object, such as a knife, is pushed through the skin causing injury to the victim. Little or no bruising is observed around the wound. The hilt of some knives may cause bruising. The bleeding associated with the stab wound is internal and little blood is observed at the crime scene. The injuries suffered are internal and to the different organs of the body.

The second is the cut wound: A sharp knife, or other object such as a razor blade, is dragged across the skin causing cuts to the surface of the skin. These injuries will bleed profusely and will only be as deep as the pressure that is applied. Therefore, the injury indicates the amount of force used to make the cut.

Cut wounds are closely related to defense wounds. Defense wounds are injuries suffered by the victim in an attempt to protect himself from the attack. Defense wounds are found on the palms of his hands and on his fingers from when our victim made an attempt to grab the knife. Fingers will be cut deeply causing a large amount of bleeding. When the knife is grabbed by the victim, the perpetrator will pull back with extreme force causing large wounds.

Defense wounds may also be located on the forearms, below the knees on the legs, and sometimes the feet as the victim kicks the assailant.

For suicides, stab and cut wounds are quite different. The victim will show signs of past attempts of suicide: old scars or semi-healed wounds from prior attempts. At the time of the suicide, a number of superficial wounds will be present. These wounds are referred to as
hesitation wounds
and are caused by the victim's attempts to cut himself.

Most suicide lacerations are horizontal. Even with self-inflicted stab wounds, the victim will have hesitation wounds from experimenting prior to the actual suicide. This is one of the ways of determining if a victim was killed by his own hands or those of another.

Some weapons used in stabbings are axes, scissors, forks, screwdrivers, razors, kitchen knives or ice picks. The following cases give an indication of how stab wounds and their attendent (or non-attendent) blood splatter and pooling assist the forensic detective in determing the method of death:

Example 1:
A young couple are at home and are complaining about the lack of money to pay their bills. The argument starts in the living room, and proceeds to the bedroom where the wife attempts to take refuge. The husband forces his way into the bedroom by pushing the locked door open. The wife, fearing for her safety, picks up her knitting needles and strikes the husband until he is mortally wounded. The victim's body may show defense wounds on the hands and forearms. The body may also show signs of one or more stab wounds. All injuries to the victim will be pre-mortem. The blood splatter found at the scene will be consistent with the suspect's story and the blood will be contained in one room.

Example 2:
Let's take our same young couple and add some complicating factors. The wife wants to leave the husband because she found a better lover, but she knows that if she gets a divorce, she will walk away with little or no money. The wife and boyfriend plan to kill the husband and to make the homicide appear to be self defense. In this case, the husband may be found in the kitchen area or the bedroom. The husband will show few or no defense wounds because the attack will be a surprise. The stab wounds will be numerous and may even be found on his back. Some stab wounds will be postmortem.

The victim's body will contain both cut and stab wounds and the blood splatter will not be consistent with the suspect's story. The blood splatter will be consistent with defensive behavior such as fleeing from room to room and there will be blood pooling where the victim has stopped to defend himself.

Example 3:
A middle-aged fellow is walking home from work and, prior to arriving home, he is stopped and robbed by the neighborhood gang at knife point. Our victim, having been robbed numerous times in the past, decides he is going to fight back. The victim is found the next morning with a single stab wound to the chest. Little or no blood will be observed at the scene. Most of the victim's bleeding will be internal, leaving small blood staining around the wound on the victim's clothing.

Example 4:
A young woman is walking to her vehicle after leaving work one night. The suspect grabs her from behind, places a large knife to her throat, and demands that she obey his requests. The victim is then taken to a waiting van where she is forced to lie on her stomach while her hands are secured behind her with duct tape. The victim's eyes and mouth are also covered with duct tape to prevent her from calling for assistance and seeing the suspect. The victim's body will show bruises caused by rough treatment at the hands of the suspect. The victim will show signs of sexual assault and will receive from one to multiple stab wounds depending on the psychological motivation of her attacker.

Death by Gunshot

Before we get into some examples, let's take a moment to discuss the different types of weapons and wounds that one will find. The so-called small arms are basically weapons that can be carried easily and comfortably by one person. They include machine guns, submachine guns, handguns, shotguns and rifles. We have, on occasion, observed cases involving cross bows and long bows. In most cases involving a bow and arrow, the person using these weapons has a hunting background, and these weapons are readily at hand.

Handguns come in many forms from the very simple to the very complex. Zip guns are homemade single shot pistols usually carried by gang members and guerrilla fighters. Only one round of ammunition can be inserted and fired.

Derringers and Saturday Night Specials are small, cheaply-made handguns. Most Derringers contain chambers for two rounds and can only be fired one at a time. The Saturday Night Specials are knock offs of more expensive revolvers.

Revolvers, or wheel guns, are pistols with a two- to twelve-inch barrel. The rounds are inserted into the wheeled chamber, which can hold from five to eight rounds. The shell casings will remain inside the chamber until they are physically ejected.

The auto-loading pistols, which are also called semiautomatic handguns, use a magazine to contain the rounds. The magazine is placed into the pistol grip, and shells are fed into the cylinder by the action of the slide. After firing, the shell casing is ejected from the weapon.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the make up of a round, it contains four components:

1. Bullet

2. Shell casing

3. Powder

4. Primer.

The bullet, or projectile, is the portion that leaves the barrel of the weapon. The shell casing holds the powder, a flammable propellant similar to black powder, and the bullet. The final component is the primer, which rests at the base of the round. When struck by the weapon's firing pin, it creates an ignition source for the powder, which ignites and turns into gases that force the bullet out of the shell casing and down the barrel of the weapon.

The basic sizes of ammunition used for semi-automatic handguns are (starting from the smallest): .22 caliber, .25 caliber, .32 caliber, .380 caliber, 9mm, .40 caliber, 10mm and .45 caliber. Other handgun calibers used primarily for revolvers are: .38 caliber, .357 caliber, .41 caliber and .44 caliber. Caliber refers to the diameter of the muzzle, or opening, of a gun's barrel and is measured either in hundredths or thousandths of an inch or in millimeters.

Handguns are popular weapons because they are easy to conceal. Because they are so popular, we are going to concentrate on them.

The bullet creates a number of different injuries referred to as gunshot wounds. These wounds are classified into four categories, based on the distance from the muzzle of the weapon to the victim at the time of injury:

1. The
contact wound,
occurs when the muzzle of the gun is placed directly against the victim's body.

2. The
near contact wound
when the muzzle of the gun does not come in physical contact with the victim's body but is only a short distance away (one to three inches).

3. The
intermediate gunshot wound
occurs when the muzzle of the gun is six to eight inches away from the victim but close enough to have the victim burnt by the gunpowder. This burning is also known as
powder tattooing.
Powder tattoos can be found on the clothing or skin of the victim.

4. The
distant wound
occurs when the muzzle of the gun is more than fifteen to eighteen inches from the victim and no injury other than the bullet passing through the skin is apparent.

When investigating gunshot wounds, the official will take into consideration the size or caliber of the weapon. Basically, the smaller the weapon, the closer the weapon needs to be for powder tattooing. When examining the body, the official will also look for the direction or path of the bullet. This is determined through a number of observations and can give clues to the type of killing. For instance, a person usually does not commit suicide by holding a gun to the back of his own head.

The entrance wound is where the bullet enters and is identified by powder tattooing, if the weapon is close enough, and/or the abrasion wound, which happens when the bullet passes through the skin. The rotating action of the bullet causes the skin around it to abrade where the bullet enters. This abrasion appears as a reddish mark around the hole itself. Entrance wounds are usually small, the size of the projectile including the abrasive ring.

Exit wounds, no matter the distance from which the weapon is fired, are larger, more irregular and usually do not have the abrasion ring.

Experts use the aforementioned characteristics to determine the path of the bullet and the distance of the weapon from the victim. This is extremely helpful in verifying the suspect's account of what happened.

When dealing with homicides that occur indoors, it is important to remember that, whether it be a domestic dispute or a sexual sadist, most of the bullets will hit the mark. This is mainly because of the close proximity of the weapon to the victim.

Things to Remember

Most criminals are apprehended because they don't realize the clues they leave behind. This is especially true of homicides. Even the most carefully laid plan can result in an arrest. Here are a few ways the manner of death can lead to an arrest.

Strangulation.
Here's an example of killing someone for greed, an important motivation. One scenario is the business partnership where one partner wants to buy out the other partner and is unsuccessful. The business contract indicates that upon death, the surviving associate will maintain controlling interest. Our greedy partner decides that he will kill his partner to obtain control.

He has decided that the best way is to have the victim
appear
to hang himself and sets his plan into action. He will speak with employees and other associates about how he feels that his partner is down in the dumps lately to plant the idea of suicide among co-workers.

After work one night he uses the associate's personal typewriter to type a heart-felt suicide note and then signs the note by tracing the signature. The day of the killing, he will ask the victim to stay a little later to go over some business details. When the office is empty, the killer will make his way behind the victim and using a piece of clothesline, which he retrieved from his garage earlier that day, strangle the victim.

Now, you are all thinking that the victim sees the rope and starts to fight back. What we must remember here is that the victim has no idea of what is happening. He feels entirely comfortable with his partner. The killer has no need to wear gloves because his fingerprints would normally be found throughout the office. Once the victim has succumbed to the attack, the clothesline is removed and the victim is moved to a coat rack and the clothesline is replaced with the victim's telephone cord. The rope is taken from the scene by the assailant and prior to leaving, the suicide note is placed in an obvious location on the victim's desk.

The next day the killer will be late for work so that someone else finds the body. Now, remember, he told coworkers and friends of his partner's depression and placed the suicide note in an obvious location. The police respond and observe the suicide note and the lack of any signs of struggle in the office. There's only one problem, our killer left a handful of clues. The victim's secretary knows that the victim worked late with his partner. The victim's wife is aware of the attempted takeover of the company. The victim's body shows the rope imprint. Through handwriting analysis, it is determined that the signature was indeed forged by tracing.

Accidents That Aren't.
A husband returns home and finds his wife lying face down in a water-filled bathtub. Apparently, a slip and fall resulted in accidental drowning. The police arrive and examine the scene and observe no signs of foul play in the residence especially in the bathroom area. The scene is documented and the victim removed.

The next day, an autopsy is performed, and the victim's body is carefully examined. Close examination of the victim's neck reveal injuries from abrasions and lacerations. These injuries were not visible until the victim's body was thoroughly dry.