Crime scene investigator gives tips on how to preserve evidence

A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) workshop was presented by the DNA Project of South Africa at Panorama Primary School on 17 September, and was attended by residents from Ward 126.

Forensic Scientist David Swanepoel presented the workshop that focused on DNA and the preservation of it.

He started the night off with a short video clip that had people in white and black T-shirts that passed a ball among each other.

The challenge was to count how many times the people in white passed the ball to each other, and most of the crowd guessed it was passed around 13 times. What they failed to note, however, was that a man in a monkey suit did a moonwalk in the middle of the stage while everyone was passing the ball around.

“Everyone was busy counting the times that the ball was passed around but missed the man in the monkey suit. And this is the first important point of DNA, it’s easy to miss something you are not looking for,” Swanepoel told the residents.

“Everything in a crime scene is important as anything can be used as evidence. But we need to preserve this evidence and that is usually the first responder’s job to cordon off the scene,” said Swanepoel.

“With these workshops, we teach people… six steps to preserve DNA to prevent contamination of the crime scene and evidence.

The tips are as follows:

l Don’t touch anything when you arrive on scene.

l The first responder needs to note, record and observe everything.

l The responder needs to assist the police by telling them if they saw anything that could help the law enforcement with their investigation.

l Officers need to support and comfort the victims and any rape victims need to keep on their clothes as vital pieces of information as DNA could be hidden on the clothes, like semen or even a strand of hair.

l The crime scene should be secured and all entry points to the scene should be minimised to one access point to stop people from disturbing evidence on the crime scene.

l The responder must insist that no one interferes with the crime scene or any rape victims as these are very important parts of the investigation.

Swanepoel said gloves are extremely important and everyone on scene should wear at least a pair of gloves.

“We need to remember that any contact we have with anything leaves a trace that could contaminate the evidence.”

He concluded and said, “If people keep these tips in mind they should be able to preserve any evidence and assist the officers where necessary”.