Categories: Legal

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene

It is notoriously difficult for law enforcement personnel, crime scene technicians and the medical examiner to preserve an outdoor crime scene. When a murder, rape or other victimization occurs outdoors, the factors that can compromise a crime scene increase dramatically, and valuable evidence can be lost. When preserving an outdoor crime scene, law enforcement personnel are usually the first to arrive, and it is their job to make sure that no one is allowed to compromise it.

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene: Weather Conditions

The weather conditions are one of the major factors that can compromise an outdoor crime scene. For example, in extreme hot or cold temperatures, the decomposition rate for a body will be effected, complicating the medical examiner’s job of determining time of death. If it is windy, important trace evidence can be scattered, making it more difficult to find. Snow complicates the process of finding trace evidence as well as recovering bullets and cartridges, and it is much more difficult to cast foot impressions in snow than it is in soil or sand.

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene: Curiosity

It is the law in nearly all U.S. states that bodies are not to be touched until the medical examiner (or a deputy medical examiner) arrives. When a murder is discovered outdoors, it is usually found by either a police patrollman or a civilian, both of whom are likely to be curious and to disturb the crime scene. For example, if a car were to be found by the side of the road with no one inside, a patrollman might open the doors to look in the glove compartment for the registration. If a crime were committed in that car, however, much of the evidence (fingerprints, for example) would be compromised.

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene: Identifying the Boundaries

When a crime occurs outdoors — versus inside a house or building — it can be difficult to identify the exact boundaries of the crime scene. For example, if a body were to be found in the woods, there would be no telling where exactly evidence could be found. The victim might have been running for several yards from his or her assailant, or perhaps the victim was forced to walk into the woods from another location. Valuable evidence is often missed in outdoor crime scenes because the police, the crime scene technicians and the medical examiner cannot search several square miles in the hopes of finding a fiber or expended cartridge that might assist in the case.

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene: The Media

When a crime scene is discovered outdoors, the media immediately has better access to it than if the crime were to have occurred indoors. The media listens to police scanners and stays alert for any indication that a crime scene has been found, and as soon as they catch wind of it, they are out in droves, hoping to get a spot in the evening news or in tomorrow’s paper. Law enforcement personnel have to exercise more aggressive protection of outdoor crime scenes, sometimes limiting the number of individuals available to process it.

Preserving an Outdoor Crime Scene: Time

Most indoor crime scenes are processed within hours or days of the occurence of the crime, while outdoor crime scenes are often not discovered for months or years after the crime took place. Scavengers eat the evidence and natural decomposition will aid in destroying any evidence that might have been found otherwise. Animals also carry off pieces of evidence that would have remained.