Page 340 - Forensics News Today

Skype signal. a woman is shot, her home is set on fire with her children inside t. person accused of you have to hear the forensics on this. was it murder? or was it suicide? we know its your most important videoconference of the day hi! hi, buddy! thats why the free wifi and hot breakfast are something to smile about. now, get great getaway rates and feel the hamptonality

Killed herself and then somehow simultaneously burned the house down all while he and their two little boys, aged just 2 and 4 years old, were inside the house. at the time, he had just been served with divorce papers. so we ask the question, was this suicide or was this murder? joining me now to talk about this is the guy who could probably shed a lot of light. hes the person i always ask when it comes to this, chairman of the science department at john jay college science department of crimina...

We are pausing on a non-existent option. which is everything kind of goes back to a situation that we can ignore. the real issue for the united states is, do we get involved on our terms or do we get involved on someone elses terms? i also worry desperately not just about the moral and strategic failure about the credibility of the united states of america. and i dont think it matters whether the president is a republican or a democrat, whoever it might be. when you put something out there. when...

Which is everything kind of goes back to a situation that we can ignore. the real issue for the united states is, dowe get involved on our terms or do we get involved on someone elses terms? i also worry desperately not just about the moral and strategic failure about the credibility of the united states of america. and i dont think it matters whether the president is a republican or a democrat, whoever it might be. when you put something out there. when you put something else out there, the use...

Florida. todashev, who knew tamerlan as well. >> we just got these pictures in to cnn. bloody crime scene photos from the scene where oscar pistorius shot his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, on valentines day. joining us from johannesburg, south africa, is robyn kurnow. describe the photos to us. >> reporter: the key photograph is that bloodied bathroom in which reeva steenkamp shot. blood on the floor, blood on the toilet seat. key is the door. you remember oscar pistorius shot his girlfriend thro...

Theyll also look at the forensics. theyll try to determine whether or not on the envelope or on the letter is there hair? is there saliva samples? there are fingerprints? one of the reasons i think you see the joint terrorism task force is investigating this, is because thats where the federal government coordinates with state and locals and pulls all the federal resources together. including cia and other intelligence resources to help them understand what is this against the mayor? >> how hard...

Analyst and former homeland security adviser fran townsend. also on the phone, dr. sanjay gupta. they mentioned the gun debate, the joint terrorism task force is investigating. it could be more of a political threat than a terror threat, really. >> thats right, anderson, but as youve mentioned, thats not really at the moment the most relevant piece to the investigators. they dont much care about motive at the moment. they want to know who. and so, to determine the who, they will look for the for...

Will. they will look at forensics and fingerprints, not accounted for. they will look for saliva, dna, fingerprints, all of it in an effort to find the individual which will then tell them what the motive was. was it indeed a political motive? >> how dangerous is it, the fbi and others, in relation to the internet. because here you have ricin, people can already how to make deadly ricin from looking at the internet. we knew from the boston bombings that pressure cookers can be adapted to be horr...

How easy is it now to create a ricin scare? >> reporter: well, piers, we should start by reminding people look, there are inconsistent preliminary tests, the field tests are typically inaccurate which is why they have sent them to the lab. the ricin recipe, you can easily get it on the internet, we have found it in al-qaeda-related matters before. but making the basic components, they are easily accessible beans, the basic recipe is not hard. it can be used as a contact poison. sounds like this ...

See if whether or not there are dna samples that will lead you to a specific person. you know, you have to eliminate the sort of fingerprints that will naturally be on it because of people who handled or opened the mail. and eliminate those. so that is a more time consuming process. theyll walk through pretty deliberately the steps. theyll also look at how competently was the compound itself made? are they the same in both letters? all those sorts of forensics take some time and real investigati...