New forensic chemistry method to reveal the age of bloodstains and fingerprints

A fingerprint, a bloodstain or other biological material are some of the traces the police search for at a crime scene. With the help of the biological traces, a person or perpetrator can be tied to a crime scene. However, until now it has not been technically possible to determine when a fingerprint or other trace was made and thus determine whether it is relevant to the investigation. Researchers from the Section of Forensic Chemistry and from the Bioinformatics Research Centre at Aarhus University are collaborating with researchers from the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen, as well as the National Forensic Services at the Danish National Police, on the development of an analytical method that clarifies the age of biological traces. The method will potentially determines whether a person or perpetrator was at the scene at the time a crime was committed.