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The Importance of Using a Metal Detector for the Recovery of Spent Shell Casings at a Homicide By Cpl. Patrick Gould, Moncton FIS
Introduction As a Forensic Identification Specialist you will be required to examine persons crimes where one or several firearms have been involved. Like any other crime scene your responsibility will be to search for, recognize and recover all forms of physical evidence for analysis and to accurately record that evidence through photography and measurements. This article was written to accentuate the importance of using an approved metal detector in your attempts to recover spent shell casings or other types of evidence at your crime scene.
Item used For this homicide investigation, the author used a Tesoro Golden Sabre metal detector which was available at the Moncton FIS office. “ The Golden Sabre is a high performance metal detector which includes a separate variable notch filter as a part of its discriminate circuitry to enable the operator to either reject a band of targets or accept only a band of desired targets. It also has “an 8 inch open center concentric search coil”[1] which provides excellent performance and greatly simplifies pinpointing. As with any detector, the operator has to familiarize himself/herself with the instrument in order to understand its capabilities. “Since the most troublesome adjustments of standard detectors have been automated in the Sabre, the tuning procedure for this detector is simply a matter of selecting the desired operating mode, setting the sensitivity level, and the discriminate levels. The detector should be held in a position that is comfortable for you. Swing the detector from side to side in about a three foot arc, overlapping succeeding strokes well.”[1] Furthermore, the detector should be held to about 1 inch from the ground when making the side to side motion. “Try to avoid raising your coil at the end of your sweep, much like a pendulum, especially if you’re hurrying”[1].
2 Brief case history On the 30th day of November, 2006, Cpl. Brian Babin and the author were dispatched to a wooded area just outside Salisbury, New Brunswick (figure #1). About 25 meters from the dirt road was located a partly decomposed body covered by branches and leaves. At the time, the body was believed to be of a male that had been missing for approximately two months. Once the pre-requisite examination was conducted, Cpl. Babin and the author went through the process of excavating the body for a subsequent autopsy. FIS members were also advised that a firearm had been used in the death of the male either at the location of the body or on the dirt road at the beginning of the path leading to the body. Figure #1 Main paved road called the Homestead road Dirt road of Homestead road following power lines Location of the body in a small path from the side dirt road.
Actions taken to try and recover spent shell casings at the scene The author decided that a metal detector would be used to try and recover any potential evidence near the body and road area. The difficulty we faced was that the dirt road was the main road that NB power trucks used to access the large power lines. The dirt road was compacted and had been used on a regular basis by heavy equipment such as NB power trucks and was also used to access the wooded area during fall’s hunting season. With the use of the metal detector, writer opted to conduct a line search approximately 10 meters from the East and West edges of the dirt road. Once this was done, the writer did a search of the dirt road approximately 50 meters to the North and to the South of the small path leading to the body. The author used a base line running North/South and measuring tapes running East/West to account for distances during the search with the metal detector. The author used colored flags to indicate the areas already covered during the search. This process was done during a two day time frame with weather conditions being a mixture of rain, freezing rain and snow. Although high voltage lines can sometimes produce interference with electronic devices, the author did not observe any interference while using the metal detector during this time period.
3 The author was able to locate three spent shell casings. The first shell casing was recovered on the first day of searching near the entrance of the path to the body (figure #2, #3, #4). The other two shell casings were recovered on the second day of searching in dirt and grass respectively near the first shell casing (figure #5, #6, #7, #8). Figure #2 Path leading to deceased body
Marker “A”
Figure #3 Marker “A” shell casing #1
Figure #4 Shell casing #1
4 Figure #5 Second day of using the metal detector Path to deceased body
Markings “2” & “3” shell casings #2, #3
Figure #6
Shell casing #2 after being dug out of the dirt
Figure #7 Shell casing #2 was covered by dirt and shell casing #3 was covered by compacted grass in between the tire lanes of the dirt road.
5 Figure #8 Shell casing #3 after being dug out of the compacted grass
The author also used the metal detector around the grid area and inside grid area where the body was buried with negative results for any spent shell casings.
Autopsy Cpl. Babin attended the autopsy. Once this was completed on the deceased and his identity was revealed as being our missing male person, Cpl. Babin advised the author that bullet holes were observed on the lower part of the deceased’s black jacket, T-shirt and the upper part of his jeans, all consistent with being in line with the same trajectory entry. Bullet fragments were also recovered inside the deceased’s decomposed body cavity. The author also learned that accomplices/witnesses present when the homicide took place stated that the accused fired 3 to 5 shots towards the deceased while the accused stated he only shot twice in self defence when the victim grabbed his rifle. A forensic examination by the RCMP’s Firearms Section revealed that the three spent shell casings seized on the dirt road near the path leading to the deceased’s body were confirmed to have all been fired by a Remington firearm seized from the accused residence following a search warrant.
6 Conclusion That being said, the three spent shell casings corroborated the accomplices’/witnesses’ accounts of what took place and refuted the accused’s statement of self defence. The end result is the efforts put forth by the author using a metal detector during two days to scour the dirt road near the path leading to the deceased’s body was instrumental in providing important corroborating evidence in this homicide investigation. Forensic Identification Specialists should consider going over the scene several times with the metal detector using a systematic method to ensure proper overlapping of the area. Just because you obtain negative results during the first search does not mean your evidence is not present as was the case in this homicide investigation. Patience and thoroughness are two important aspect when using a metal detector at your crime scene. Court proceedings results Two accused plead guilty to manslaughter and the other accomplice died of unrelated circumstances prior to having his day in Court. References [1] www.tesoro.com
I would like to thank IFIS Program Support and Sgt. Guy Chamberland, Moncton RCMP NCO i/c for their guidance with the article and Cpl. Jean Belliveau, Major Crime South Unit with his assistance in providing a detail account of the investigation. Please send further correspondence to Cpl. Patrick Gould, Moncton FIS 161 Macbeath avenue, Moncton NB E1C 8R2 or email the author @
[email protected]
