Lucas' Portfolio

This project allowed us to put everything we learned in forensics into one assignment. We had observational skills and the processing of a crime scene when Ace investigates the scene and the crime scene technician studies the evidence. We had hair analysis when the crime scene technician found the hair inside the hat. And we … Continue reading Ace, P.I.

Before doing this lab, I knew what the different blood types were: A, B, AB, and O. However, I never knew what these meant or why they were different. It’s all based on the DNA found on the red blood cells. A and B are the two types of proteins and a person can have … Continue reading Blood Stains at the Crime Scene

The analysis of hair is a very useful tool for forensics. Any remaining hair can be studied and one can determine the type of animal it came from. In this lab we compared dog, cat, and human hair. The dog hair tended to be thicker and had diagonal lines going down the hair. The cat … Continue reading Hair Evidence Lab

Fingerprinting is an extremely useful tool for forensic science and crime scene investigation. No two people have the same fingerprints. In fact, even the fingerprint of each finger on one person’s hand are completely unique. This makes fingerprints a very good identifier of a person. If a fingerprint is found at a crime, it could … Continue reading Fingerprint Blog

Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas to Julian and Mercedes Ramirez. His father was violent and abusive, so Richard became close with his cousin Miguel Ramirez. Miguel fought in Vietnam where he raped and murdered Vietnamese women. He then took pictures with their bodies which he then showed to Richard. Miguel later murdered … Continue reading The Night Stalker

In this lab, we looked at the differences between wool, cotton, rayon, nylon, and polyester. We first looked at each fabric under the microscope and observed their weave pattern and filament count. We did not see much of a trend in their weave patterns, but we did notice that the natural fabrics tended to have … Continue reading Fabric Lab

Two men name Kak and Hin were members of an Asian gang in Stockton.  They were suspects in numerous violent acts that occurred over a three month period. This included the mugging of a 29 year old man and his girlfriend. The man was shot and killed, the girlfriend was shot and survived. The investigation … Continue reading Stockton Case Study

This is a presentation about mtDNA or Mitochondrial DNA that I made with Jordan Dorff. It explains what mtDNA is, why it is used, its advantages and disadvantages, and its applications to forensics. The project went very well because Jordan  and I were able to do the research together efficiently. Jordan and I also gave … Continue reading Mitochondrial DNA

An international database of DNA information in which every person’s DNA is entered upon their birth would be a great thing for a society because it would have many benefits are very few drawbacks. Crimes would be solved very quickly and much fewer crimes would go unsolved. All an investigator would have to do is … Continue reading An International DNA Database