Car Carpet Fiber Forensic

Fibers can also transfer from a fabric source such as a carpet bed or furniture at a crime scene.

Car carpet fiber forensic.

Forensic scientists distinguish four broad categories of fibre. Manufactured fibers can be continuous filaments but these. Natural fibers vary in length depending on the source. When it comes to synthetic fibers there are four major types of fibers used for carpeting.

More specifically if the victim was transported or assaulted in a vehicle carpet fibers from this vehicle may be collected. Wool silk fur note that hair analysis is a specialised field separate from fibre plant e g. Roux in encyclopedia of forensic sciences second edition 2013. The carpet in his car was very specific to the year make and model of his car and was also found on the boys so they took samples from the car.

In forensic science analysis carpet fibers of unknown origin are often discovered as trace evidence on a victim s person or clothing. The carpet fibers found in his house were yellowish green which was the color of the fibers found on the boys and it was discontinued and only made by one company. By itself this match is interesting but not conclusive. Fiber properties and textile fabrics.

After obtaining a search warrant the police impound the car and submit it to forensic testing. There are several reasons why synthetic fibers are preferred by many over natural fibers such as wool including cost strength durability and stain resistance. Carpet fibers from the car are consistent in all respects with the fibers found on the victim. Among the prosecution s forensic evidence were gray carpet fibers collected from duct tape left at two of the crime scenes which an fbi crime lab report claimed exhibited the same.

As discussed previously fibers are considered a form of trace evidence that can be transferred from the clothing of a suspect to the clothing of a victim during the commission of a crime. Synthetic man made fibers make up the biggest portion of the wall to wall carpet market. Most of the fiber samples were obtained from collaborative testing services a commercial company. Textile fibers generally fall within the range of 10 50 μm in diameter and individual fibers can vary in length from less than 1 cm to thousands of meters.

Some labs then extract the dye from the fiber and analyze it by thin layer chromatography hinks says. Digital records and physical samples. Most forensic labs currently employ polarized light microscopy to identify fibers.