Effect of Fire on DNA and its profiling in homicide cases

Abstract

In forensic investigation, experts deal with distinct types of crime scenes. Every crime scene is considered ubiquitous in correspondence of evidences including sexual assault, murder, homicide by adopting various methods i.e. burning, drowning etc. In homicidal cases, where dead bodies are burnt with very frequent and specific aspiration to dismantle the evidences and concealment the identity of the deceased. Insight of cases, it becomes to determine the cause of death on the spot due to burning and the presence of soot. In addition of it, Isolation of DNA from the remnants of dead bodies or blood present on the partially burnt belongings i.e. clothes, body tissues etc. is a tedious process. By this time, no technical process exists that could deal with such samples that has confronted the elevated temperature during burn process. In this study, an attempt was done to determine the quantity and quality of DNA from body tissues and blood found on the spot with high amount of soot and effect elevated temperature due to burning and accurate DNA profiling in such cases. As a resultant of this study, it was observed that a part/piece of clothes or the biological material can help to identify the deceased on the basis of DNA profiling from the sample which were not in the direct contact of heat/elevated temperature.