Sep 30, 2013
A forensics first occurred in 2008 in Tasmania when DNA harvested from a leech led police to a robber.
by Liz Porter
On a late spring afternoon in 2001, two intruders broke into a house in bushland outside the small town of Launceston, in the Australian island state of...
Sep 2, 2013
An edited extract from Cold Case Files: Past crimes solved by new forensic science – winner of Australia’s 2012 Davitt Award for best true crime book and available for Kindle in the United States on amazon.com. Hard copies available at www.panmacillan.com.au
by Liz Porter...
Aug 5, 2013
Aug. 5, 2013The latest big thing in forensics is a technique called “stable isotope analysis,” a process that allows scientists to analyze a human body’s hair – or fingernails or bones – to find out where its owner has been living or travelling. ...
Jul 15, 2013
The evolution of forensic science is turning hopelessly unsolvable cold cases into convictions.
by Liz Porter
British armed robber Andrew Pearson probably never imagined he’d end up as the star of an anti-dandruff advertisement. He also probably never dreamed he’d get caught...
Apr 18, 2013
How bite marks can lead to convictions.
by Liz Porter
Criminals are regularly nabbed because they make stupid and careless mistakes. The burglar who robbed a safe at the up-market Haigh’s chocolate factory in the South Australian capital city of Adelaide is a perfect...
Nov 12, 2012
George Kaufman
The first criminal investigation in Australia – and one of the first in the world – to use DNA to solve a case.
by Liz Porter
The affluent middle-class suburb of North Caulfield, in the southern Australian city of Melbourne, is the kind of area that sends...
Sep 17, 2012
Handwriting analysis example from the University of Kent
The School Stalker is an extract from Written On The Skin– an Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter, joint winner of the 2007 Ned Kelly Prize for best true crime book. This book is available in a Kindle...
Aug 13, 2012
Aug. 13, 2012Skulls on the beach of Punuk Island Alaska by Liz Porter The science Many experts start their forensic science timeline in 1810, when a German scientist did a chemical test for a particular ink dye on a document. Three years later, Spaniard Mathieu Orfila published...
Jul 3, 2012
July 3, 2012 An edited extract from Cold Case Files: Past crimes solved by new forensic science – available for Kindle in the United States on amazon.com. Hard copies available at www.panmacillan.com.au by Liz Porter Mark Chrystie relished the challenge of hunting criminals with...
May 21, 2012
Farah Jama (L)
Farah Jama, a 21-year-old Somali immigrant in Australia was convicted – based on contaminated DNA evidence – of raping a woman he had never met at a bar in Melbourne he had never been to. His exoneration, after 16 months in prison, led to important reforms in...
