Page 18 - Cigarette Butt News Today

But first, an artist is proving what you leave behind could be a lot more than you think. we go below the surface in todays technovations. >> you may want to think twice the next time you spit out your gum or put out a cigarette butt in public. this artist might pick it up, extract the dna and turn it into a 3-d face that could look like you. >> a lot of my work begins with a question. in this particular case, the question was, what can i learn about them from a single hair. >> once she finds a ...

A question. in this particular case the question was what can i learn about someone from a single hair. >> reporter: she takes it to the lab to mine it for dna and then analyze the results. >> from a cigarette butt i can learn where someones ancestors likely came from, their gender, eye color, hair color, complexion. >> reporter: that information is then fed into a computer program that generates a 3-d model of a face. >> the way im using code here is a lot like how a sketch artist would use a p...

If they were going to arrest me then take me now or back off and let me finish what i started. >> chris, people joined you today to help in the clean-up efforts. why do you think they joined you? >> it was unbelievable. today we had volunteers, had a volunteer that heard about it yesterday in ohio. they drove all through the night to get here today so they could teach their children who activism is. we had people reach in their pockets and by airplane tickets from as far as seattle, washington, ...

Detective t.j. watts began taking a fresh look at the evidence -- a cigarette butt was the gotcha moment. >> it was inside of a mountain dew can in the console. >> reporter: dna was tested and linked the cigarette to this man, jose manuel martinez, and watts caught up with martinez in an alabama jail where he was awaiting trial for a murder there. he had been captured in arizona crossing the border into the u.s. from mexico. watts says martinez confessed to the florida killings right away, and t...

Their bodies were left in the back seat of a pickup truck on a rural stretch of road in central florida, shell casings scattered around. javier and gustavo had been shot to death. for more than half a dozen years, the killings had gone unsolved. >> it was a cold case. >> reporter: no leads? >> no leads until we picked it up and started going back through the case. >> reporter: that was a year and a half when detective t.j. watts took a look at the evidence. a cigarette butt was the gotcha moment...

Killed those two workers. authorities say a lab test showed martinezs dna on the cigarette butt. right now martinez is sitting inside of an alabama jail in connection with a homicide there. cnns elena mocado joins me now with this crazy story. a lot of questions. first question, what prompted him, do we even know, to up and then confess to killing 30 people? >> brooke, according to the detective who spoke with him in alabama, jose martinez just wanted to come clean for all of the crimes hes comm...

Trying to post a sign on her side of the fence. >> you are a riot. are you seriously doing this? >> do you see me? >> it was actually kind of comical because she couldnt get the sign to stay up. >> oh, phooey. >> the sign post saga is the culmination of months of bickering between these neighbors in side-by-side bungalows. >> moved into the house in july of 07, and within a couple months we realized that there might be a little problem with her and how she perceived us because she brought to our...

The camera and he followed me around to the side, where we found her, you know, banging away. >> angie discovers her neighbor trying to post a sign on her side of the fence. >> you are a riot. are you seriously doing this? >> do you see me? >> it was actually kind of comical because she couldnt get the sign to stay up. >> oh, phooey. >> the sign post saga is the culmination of months of bickering between these neighbors in side-by-side bungalows. >> moved into the house in july of 07, and within...

Obnoxious banging, and it was clearly on our fence. so you know, my husband grabbed the camera and he followed me around to the side, where we found her, you know, banging away. >> angie discovers her neighbor trying to post a sign on her side of the fence. >> you are a riot. are you seriously doing this? >> do you see me? >> it was actually kind of comical because she couldnt get the sign to stay up. >> oh, phooey. >> the sign post saga is the culmination of months of bickering between these ne...

Big question mark there. dr. michael baden is a forensic pathologist and fox news contributor. dr. baden, what do you think? >> hi, jenna. there is no such thing as the body bursting into flame which is what spontaneous human combustion implies. this is a situation, and ive investigated a few of these cases over the years, where a person burns, dies of flame burns to the body and which the cause of the flame isnt found. it is often a cigarette butt or matchstick falls on to clothing. the clothin...