Geophysical monitoring of simulated clandestine burials of murder victims to aid forensic investigators

Locating murder victims buried within clandestine graves is one of the most important and difficult challenges for forensic search teams. This article details how applied geoscientists have been geophysically monitoring simulated clandestine burials, using pig cadavers as human proxies, for over 10 ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeology today Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 63 - 65
Main Authors Pringle, Jamie K., Stimpson, Ian G., Wisniewski, Kristopher D., Heaton, Vivienne, Davenward, Ben, Mirosch, Natalie, Spencer, Francesca, Jervis, Jon R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2021
Subjects
Electrical resistivity
Geophysical exploration
Locating
Methods
Murders & murder attempts
Polls & surveys
Radar
Surveying
Surveys
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Summary:Locating murder victims buried within clandestine graves is one of the most important and difficult challenges for forensic search teams. This article details how applied geoscientists have been geophysically monitoring simulated clandestine burials, using pig cadavers as human proxies, for over 10 years, in order to discover the best geophysical methods to detect cadavers and how this might change over time. Low frequency ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity methods could both locate the burials throughout the survey period, with winter/spring surveys producing better data and the style of burial also found to be important.
ISSN:0266-6979
1365-2451
DOI:10.1111/gto.12344