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1200
Middle of the 12th Century
The Chinese were the first to attempt to find the difference between natural death and death with criminal intent -
Arsenic Poisoning
Karl Scheele found that you can transform arsenic oxide and arsenic acid and make arsine when mixed with zinc. This lead to the discovery of arsenic poisoning -
Fingerprints
In the 1800s people started studying fingerprints but have not yet used them to identify people. -
Father of Toxicology
Professor Mathieu Orfila is the first to use a microscope to look at blood stains -
Tracing Bullets
Henry Goddard noticed a flaw in a bullet and traced it back to the original mold -
Presence of blood
A German Scientist realizes that hydrogen peroxide foams when there is the presence of blood -
Hair
A German realizes that you can use hair as a way to identify someone by the unique characteristics -
Finally using fingerprints
They finally realize that you can use fingerprints to identify a suspect by using their fingerprint -
Discovery of Benzidine
Benzidine is a chemical compound universally used to find blood -
1st American Police Crime Lab
It was built in Los Angeles, CA -
1950-1953
Because of the war, we have techniques like lifting fingerprints using tape, voiceprint identification and the discovery of the unique structure of DNA -
Forensic Development
By mid-1960s we perfected Identification of firearms and Breathalyzer tests -
Rules of Evidence
This is the federal rule that says evidence must be relevant to the crime -
AFIS
The FBI starts using computerized fingerprint identification cards -
First DNA Database
The first DNA database was created in England -
2000-2020
We now have many different ways to identify not only the suspect and the victim but the murder weapon of choice. We know the cause of death, and when they died.