Accident or homicide - virtual crime scene reconstruction using 3D methods

Buck, Ursula; Naether, Silvio; Räss, Beat; Jackowski, Christian; Thali, Michael J. (2013). Accident or homicide - virtual crime scene reconstruction using 3D methods. Forensic science international, 225(1-3), pp. 75-84. Elsevier Scientific Publ. Ireland 10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.05.015

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The analysis and reconstruction of forensically relevant events, such as traffic accidents, criminal assaults and homicides are based on external and internal morphological findings of the injured or deceased person. For this approach high-tech methods are gaining increasing importance in forensic investigations.

The non-contact optical 3D digitising system GOM ATOS is applied as a suitable tool for whole body surface and wound documentation and analysis in order to identify injury-causing instruments and to reconstruct the course of event. In addition to the surface documentation, cross-sectional imaging methods deliver medical internal findings of the body. These 3D data are fused into a whole body model of the deceased. Additional to the findings of the bodies, the injury inflicting instruments and incident scene is documented in 3D. The 3D data of the incident scene, generated by 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry, is also included into the reconstruction.

Two cases illustrate the methods. In the fist case a man was shot in his bedroom and the main question was, if the offender shot the man intentionally or accidentally, as he declared. In the second case a woman was hit by a car, driving backwards into a garage. It was unclear if the driver drove backwards once or twice, which would indicate that he willingly injured and killed the woman.

With this work, we demonstrate how 3D documentation, data merging and animation enable to answer reconstructive questions regarding the dynamic development of patterned injuries, and how this leads to a real data based reconstruction of the course of event.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Further Contribution)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine 04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Forensic Medicine 04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Forensic Imaging
UniBE Contributor:	Buck, Ursula, Näther, Silvio, Jackowski, Christian, Thali, Michael
Subjects:	600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
ISSN:	0379-0738
Publisher:	Elsevier Scientific Publ. Ireland
Language:	English
Submitter:	Antoinette Angehrn
Date Deposited:	24 Apr 2014 11:35
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:29
Publisher DOI:	10.1016/j.forsciint.2012.05.015
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/44404