In many cases, even a single gunshot wound is fatal and the injured party cannot provide an account - except the silent account provided by his wounds. Gunshot wounds on the living also tell a story. In an extraordinary case, a man had been shot (i.e. hit) ten times by bullets fired from several pistols as he ran away,
. He was examined by our expert a decade later, when a 9mm bullet was palpable at the back of his neck and the 50cm wound track from the entry wound on his back to the bullet in the neck was visible as a dark line. In that case, it was sufficient to simply confirm the presence of multiple healed gunshot wounds (it was an appeal against deportation). In another case, a 17-year old girl had been struck (in the buttocks and thighs) by 170+ shotgun pellets and survived. In that case, distance from gun to impact was the issue (i.e. determine the position of the shooter). The pattern of pellet impacts demonstrated the approximate distance: the gun was fired from within a car on the road, not from a position on the pavement. In a peculiar case involved a combination of wound analysis and toolmark comparison, an elderly woman was struck on the head with a decorative China cart-horse from her own house. The impact killed the elderly lady and left 'hoof prints' on her scalp. Our expert examined and photographed the hoof marks (bruises) on the scalp and compared them to the shape of each 'hoof' on the China horse. Our expert was able to demonstrate that two of the hooves on the China cart-horse each matched one of the wounds on the scalp.
A crime scene can be anywhere humans interact. Shootings have occurred inside vehicles; at vehicles; inside houses; at houses, inside nightclubs, on city streets, and in remote rural fields and so on. A crime scene may contain spent bullets or lead shot, spent cartridge cases, bullet impact damage, ricochet marks, blood stains and other trace evidence. Any of these items could help reconstruct events and thus assist the Court determine what happened and what did not happen. 'Bullet wipe' will confirm the passage of a bullet and the direction of travel may position the origin of shot and hence the gun. Photographs provide a record, as decided by the photographer, but there is no substitute for putting your feet on the ground and getting a feel for the scene for yourself. Sometimes, a room will feel larger or smaller than a photograph suggests or the road may have a camber or an uphill or downhill gradient not apparent in the official photographs.
later and recovered lead shot that had been fired from the shotgun. This discovery helped the Court of Appeal re-consider (and uphold) a murder conviction.
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