Christopher Hardy

And so in the cases of leaf fragments, you're looking at small little fragments and trying to identify those two species.

And in my case, with that case in Florida, there were three species that were dominant at the crime scene actually touching the body.

And those same three species were the species in the back of the suspect's vehicle.

So they provided circumstantial evidence that he had been or may have been at the crime scene.

So that's one way that you can do that.

There are certainly other ways that you can take a more statistical approach, for instance, in aquatic crime scenes.

I recently was involved with a sexual assault case and kidnapping case where a woman was dragged into a retention pond and the suspect got away, but they were able to develop a suspect based on some closed circuit television in the area.

And we went to that person's home and we confiscated his clothing and were able to find microscopic algae on his clothing that was very abundant.

And I was able to match that up in a very statistical framework to the crime scene.

Lots of, you know, thousands of unicellular microscopic algae that were present on his clothing was also the same algae found at the crime scene.

Exactly.

And it's all microscopic.

They don't even know it's on them.

So you're right.

In a terrestrial crime scene in a forest, you're lucky to find a few leaf fragments that the suspect picks up because they're big enough often that the suspect sees them and brushes them away.

Now, there's some seeds and pollen that can be picked up that the suspect may not be aware of.

But in an aquatic crime scene, every time you place your foot in the water, that foot or that shoe comes out with thousands of unicellular microscopic algae.

And so actually, you know, to the contrary, aquatic crime scenes provide the greatest amount of evidence.

And I have 100% certainty that if I've got an aquatic crime scene that I can make something out of that.

Not on the algae.