September 2021 - Bluestar Forensic

A state-of-the-art portable crime lab

Costa Rica's First Female Forensic Biologist Designed a State-of-the-Art Portable Crime Lab

MENAFN : 18.09.2021

In 2010 Tatiana López had to present a University project, she was already working in the Judicial Branch and, together with her partner, Alejandro Castillo, reflected for her work one of the dreams she had for years, the design of a portable laboratory where, under adequate conditions, analyzes of the crime scenes that had been modified could be carried out. A decade later, her task evolved, the dream was fulfilled and the laboratory became a reality and has been part of the many innovations that Costa Rica has had in forensic science .

At 49, Tatiana López does not hesitate to look at the past and remember each of the obstacles that she went through to improve the techniques of analysis of crime scenes and, better yet, she looks forward to the future because she still has many dreams to fulfill. .

Her work has been developed in the Department of Forensic Sciences and the Canine Unit, right now he is working on a project to improve techniques

“At this moment I am in charge of a project called the consolidation of the multidisciplinary team and field criminology, and the idea is to make a team where we work on highly specialized scenarios, but also within my work and what I have in charge is all that are the scenes, the analysis and collection of evidence in modified scenes where it is presumed that a crime event has occurred and this has been tried to erase and that is why they are called modified scenes, where the blood is not seen through with the naked eye, what we call latent blood tests.

“We also do the search for evidence with blood in scenes, whether in closed or open sites, the search for human remains and at this moment we also have the part of the search for evidence with semen and in the relatively near future, the search for the human smell through signs, this by mixing or blending, using specialized dogs and laboratory tests and equipment” she explained.

To carry out the work, Doña Tatiana requires specialized techniques, the use of luminol and bluestar“which is what we can see the blood with when we cannot see it with the naked eye.”

“With the blood in the eye” Bioarchaeology and Biomaterials.

"With blood in the eye". Romano et al. Axis 1 - Bioarchaeology and Biomaterials.

Presentation of the paper “With blood in the eye”. Revealing and documenting traces of latent blood in archaeological materials.

This paper is presented by Andrés Romano, Sara López Campeny, Jorge Martínez and Juan Ronelli.

The first three authors belong to the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales (ISES-CONICET) and the Instituto de Arqueología y Museo (IAM-UNT), while Juan Ronelli is Director of the Specialization in Crime Scene Analysis, Coordinator of the Natural Sciences Area of the B.Sc. in Criminalistics and professor at the Instituto Universitario de la Policía Federal Argentina (IUPFA).
Police (IUPFA).

Canine Handlers and Forensic Specialist Testify in Smart Hearing on 2021 Searches

United States

News, Press articles

September 3, 2021

Canine Handlers and Forensic Specialist Testify in Smart Hearing on 2021 Searches Neither cadaver dog made strong alerts to seized Volkswagon or Ruben Flores’s property

Paso Robles Press : Sep 3, 2021

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Two cadaver dog handlers and a forensic specialist testified in court on Thursday, Sept., 2 in the preliminary hearing for Paul (44) and Ruben (80) Flores.

The father and son are charged in connection with the 1996 disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. Paul has been charged with her murder, and Ruben is being charged with accessory after the fact. Both men were arrested in April. Ruben is out on bail, but Paul remains in the San Luis Obispo County jail with no bail.

Getting through this together, Paso Robles

Kristin’s remains have never been found, but she was declared legally dead in 2002.

Kristine Black, Karen Atkinson, and their cadaver dogs were called to search under the back porch of Ruben Flores’ home in the 700 block of White Court after warrants were executed on the residence in March and April of this year.

Both women are Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Canine Specialized Search Team handlers. Both dogs are certified in human remains detection through the California Rescue Dog Association, according to testimony.

As the assistant director for the search and rescue team, Black talked about her search of Ruben’s home on White Court in Arroyo Grande on March 15.

She said she brought her Belgian Malinois, Annie, with her and first searched a maroon 1985 Volkswagon that was later seized from Ruben’s home as part of the investigation.

Black says Annie, who is only trained in detecting human remains, went inside the vehicle but did not have a final response. They headed into Ruben’s backyard next.

Black said she intentionally stood out of sight from the house at the end of White Court in order to not influence her search.

She testified that Annie started to show changes in behavior in an area under the left side of the deck behind some lattice. While the behavior change was consistent with odor, Black says Annie did not go to a final response, instead of putting her nose down and changing her breathing and snorting hard while circling the area.

Atkinson testified that she searched the property with her dog, Amiga, on the same day and had the same results.

She noted a slight change in behavior in Amiga as she worked a long, narrow area that sloped up near the foundation. According to Atkinson, Amiga began to sniff and make “head pops,” which indicated she detected an odor. Atkinson described the change in behavior as being characteristic for when Amiga detects her target odor – human remains – but Atkinson says the dog’s alert is sitting, which she did not do.

Attorney Sarah Sanger, who represents Paul with her father Robert Sanger, questioned whether a change in behavior is not an alert. Atkinson explained Amiga will not alert until she reaches the strongest point of the odor. Harold Mesick, Ruben’s attorney, questioned whether Black searched any trailers on the property, to which she replied no. During the afternoon session, the court heard testimony from a forensic specialist with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

Shelby Liddell talked about two different searches at Ruben’s home on Mar. 15 and 16, 2021. She was assigned to process the scene at 710 White Court, including taking photos and collecting soil samples. Liddell testified that at three feet deep, while detectives were digging up under the deck in the backyard, they started noticing staining in the soil. According to Liddell, dark staining was noticed down to four feet. She told the court she collected samples along with control samples around the property.

She said she returned on Apr. 13 and 14 to collect more samples from under the deck again.

Liddell also testified to spraying the inside of the trailer seized from the Flores’ residence with Bluestar, a forensic chemical used to detect blood and other bodily fluids.

According to the sheriff’s Detective, Clint Cole, the trailer belonged to the boyfriend of Susan Flores, Paul Flores’ mother, and was seized on the belief that it was used to transport the remains of Smart from Ruben Flores’ residence in February 2020.

Liddell said that 30 minutes after spraying Bluestar, a blue luminescent stain approximately a foot-and-a-half wide appeared on the inside of one of the trailer’s doors, which was documented with a camera.
Bluestar, which reacts to the hemoglobin in human blood and is a proprietary formula, can also show false positives for cleaning materials and some types of vegetables. However, according to Liddell, the reaction is typically a “white flash” that goes away after a while.

The preliminary hearing resumes at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 3, at the San Luis Obispo County Superior Courthouse.