Forensic Science Degree Complete Guide to Forensic Science Degrees and Schools Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:48:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Cell Phone Forensics – Extracting Personal Data from Cell Phones Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:04:17 +0000 DAta1

Your cell phone likely contains more personal data than your wallet. It is a repository of every number you have ever called, every website you’ve used it to visit, every text you’ve ever sent, your location at any given time (as well as where you’ve gone in the past) and a host of other information. Cell phones can provide a treasure trove of data for those working in forensics and the data frequently helps solve cases and win convictions. Let’s take a look at how cell phone data is extracted, as well as some famous cases that were solved thanks to cell phones (and one that wasn’t).

It Starts with Your Service Provider

Whether your get your cell service from Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or another provider, your cell phone service provider keeps records of who you call, when you called them, where you went (thanks to the GPS location on your phone), who you texted, and when you texted.

Most of us know that between the years 2001 and 2015 the National Security Agency (NSA) requested cell phone data from services providers on a grand scale – they gained this information on the majority of Americans whether they were suspected of wrongdoing or not – but you may not know that law enforcement regularly does the same thing, frequently without a warrant. This is possible because the cell phone service providers sell access to their logs. They have created repository databases of their user data, and they sell both access to those databases as well as data specifics like cell tower dumps for a fee. Right now, the databases are only accessible to law enforcement agencies (you can’t for example, pay Verizon to tell you where your significant other was last night using the GPS on their phone) but law enforcement officials can find out easily. It’s big business too – in 2012 cell providers raked in about $20 million dollars selling data to law enforcement agencies. Cell phone forensics begins with the providers and continues once police gain physical access to a subject’s phone.

Cracking Your Cell Phone

Once Forensic Technicians gain access to a cell phone they have two primary goals: extract as much information as possible, and preserve it in a manner that is admissible in court. Extracting both current and deleted data on a cell phone is possible, just like it is with a computer. Data that can be recovered from your cell phone (even if you’ve deleted it or done a factory reset) includes: your photos, videos, the content of your texts, your contacts, banking details (if you use your bank’s app), your GPS location history, your emails, and a whole lot more. Forensic technicians extract data by using specialty software (and some of the software they use is publicly available). If you are working on your forensics degree and wish to work in this industry, you may want to learn how to use the publicly available software, and add it to your resume. It will help you find work after you graduate. You may also want to check out this NIST analysis detailing the current software, it’s capabilities and it’s limitations.

Three Famous Cases Solved Using Cell Phone Data

Jodi Arias


Jodi Arias was convicted of the murder of Travis Alexander in 2013, partially thanks to the information contained in her cell phone and the phone belonging to the victim. Police knew from cell phone tower dumps that her alibi didn’t match up with her actual location and his phone contained messages she left for him after she murdered him in an attempt to establish her alibi (as well as multiple texts where she tried to establish contact prior to his murder). She was sentenced to natural life in prison.


Darryl Littlejohn

DLittlejohnIn 2009, nightclub bouncer Darryl Littlejohn was sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of 24 year old student, Imette St. Guillen. His cell phone records revealed that he made multiple calls after the murder, specifically while he was traveling from Queens to Brooklyn where he dumped her body.



Kruse Wellwood

Kruse2In 2010, 16 year old Kruse Wellwood raped and murdered his ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Proctor. Like Arias, Wellwood tried to establish an alibi by contacting the victim’s cell phone after the murder – he sent her a text saying, “Hey, I thought you had babysitting did you finish early?” The cover text wasn’t enough to prevent police from finding the avalanche of digital evidence Kruse left behind – linking him and his best friend Cameron Moffat to the crime. Detectives recovered so much data on Kruse and Moffat that if they had printed it out, it would have taken up about 1.4 billion pages. One critical piece of evidence presented at trial included a text message Kruse sent from the location in the woods where he and Moffat tried to burn Proctor’s body.


The Case That Got Away

apple vs fbi1

The 2016 mass shooting in a night club in San Bernardino, California remains one of the most famous cases where cell phone data could not immediately be used to gain information about a case. This is because tech giant Apple refused to comply with the FBI’s demand that they build a backdoor program which would allow them to get data from one of the shooter’s cell phones. Some Apple phones have a feature that automatically wipes the data off the phone after ten incorrect guesses at the password. The FBI wanted a way to disable this feature so that they could use a brute force attack to unlock the phone and get at the data, but Apple refused. The FBI did eventually gain access to the smartphone data months later, with the help of a third party; but the case highlights the legal issues facing retrieval of smartphone data. Even after a judge ruled that Apple had to comply, they found a way around it and the case was eventually dropped. Our laws have not yet caught up with our ability to collect digital data and until they do, be aware that nothing you do on your phone is private and for the most part it’s all easily obtainable.

The Highest Paying Forensic Science Jobs Fri, 30 Dec 2016 19:38:06 +0000

Forensic Science is a broad category, with salaries ranging from around $50,000 per year to over $200,000 per year depending on your level of education and your employer. Here are the top five highest-paying forensic science jobs as well as the amount of education required to get them.

#5: Forensic Accounting (also known as Forensic Auditing and Investigative Auditing)

One of the fastest growing and most popular jobs for those with forensic degrees is forensic accounting. Forensic Accountants have two primary specialized functions: they do investigative accounting and provide support during litigation. You may be called upon to thoroughly investigate the books of a company for example, then generate a report and testify during a trial. Forensic Accountants can be employed by law enforcement, private companies or even the government. The majority of them however, are employed by CPA firms which constitute the bulk of the new employment hiring right now.

Average salary for a forensic accountant:  $63,000

Job Outlook: 11% growth projected through 2024 (the growth average for all occupations is 7%).

Education Required: You’ll need a Bachelor’s Degree in Forensic Accounting or a related degree like a general Accounting Degree. You’ll also need to obtain your Certified Financial Forensics Accreditation.

#4: Forensic Psychology

Before a defendant can claim insanity as an excuse for their crimes, they first have to visit a forensic psychologist and undergo a battery of tests. As a forensic psychologist you would be responsible for administering those tests, generating a report to be used in the trial, and often, for testifying in court and offering your expert opinion. Many forensic psychologists also practice psychology in other areas too, and include forensic evaluations as a part of their larger practice.

Average salary for a Forensic Psychologist: $72,000 (though if you own your own practice the number could be much larger depending on your client base.)

Job Outlook: 20% growth through 2024, far faster than the 7% average

Education Required: The most successful forensic psychologists hold their PhD or PsyD. It is usually necessary (or at least preferred) for those wishing to offer expert testimony in court to hold their doctorate.

#3: Forensic Engineer (Mechanical or Architectural)

Forensic Engineers investigate cases involving structural failures (Forensic Architects) or product failures (Forensic Mechanics). If a seat belt latch in a specific model of car failed for example, a forensic mechanic would be called upon to isolate why it failed, and they may participate in a court case requiring expert testimony if the failure resulted in death or injury because of the faulty product. In the case of a Forensic Architect they may be asked to evaluate the structural failure of a building, and could also offer expert testimony in any resulting court case.

Average Salary for a Forensic Engineer: $80,000

Job Outlook: 4% growth through 2024 (lower than average).

Education Required: A Bachelor’s degree in Engineering is the first step, followed by additional accreditation in your specialty area. Once you have obtained your engineering license you can specialize in forensics and become certified through the International Institute of Forensic Engineering Sciences.

#2: Forensic Attorney

forensiclawer1Attorneys who specialize in forensics are the superheroes of the law field. They can conduct their own investigations based on scientific evaluations of evidence and use that information to help prosecute offenders or represent their clients in a way that regular attorneys cannot.

Average Salary for a Forensic Attorney: $131,000

Job Outlook: 6% growth through 2024, slightly lower than average.

Education Required: In order to work as a Forensic Attorney you would need to get your Juris Doctor (J.D.) and pass the bar exam in order to be licensed.

#1: Forensic Medical Examiner

Forensic Medical Examiners do post-mortems to determine the cause of death. They may also look at crime scene evidence found on the body (things like gunpowder residue or bodily fluids). Then, they report their findings and will often testify in court as experts.

Average Salary for a Forensic Medical Examiner: $174,000

Job Outlook: a staggering 24% through 2020.

Education Required: Bachelor’s Degree, then attend medical school to obtain your M.D. or D.O. After that, Forensic Medical Examiners put in four years of training in Forensic Pathology and a year long residency in order to obtain their license to practice.


DNA Phenotyping: Revealing the Faces of Killers Wed, 30 Nov 2016 03:35:48 +0000 dna1


What is DNA Phenotyping?



What can DNA Phenotyping Reveal?



What DNA Phenotyping Can’t Do?


How is DNA Phenotyping Being Used in Forensics?



The (Likely) Uphill Legal Battle Facing DNA Phenotyping


Meet the Researchers Behind the Technology


Forensics Under Fire: DNA, Bitemarks, Fingerprints and Ballistics are NOT Infallible Mon, 31 Oct 2016 12:35:34 +0000 pcast1

One of forensic science’s dirty little secrets is that it isn’t always accurate; results are subject to interpretation and error. In some cases, there are no set standards for technicians or expert witnesses to follow when evaluating evidence. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has released their 2016 report: Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods and they have called multiple forensic techniques like DNA, fingerprints, bitemarks, and even ballistics into question.

Multiple-Source DNA Testing


DNA testing is considered the “gold standard” in forensics today because of it’s accuracy. However, PCAST has identified several key issues that still need to be resolved; ones that scientists and even jurors need to be aware of. Sometimes police retrieve DNA samples which contain biological information from multiple people. Perhaps the crime took place in a public area where many people touched the same surface, or even the weapon of the crime. These samples are known as “multiple-source” and it can be very difficult for forensic scientists to sort out which bits of DNA belong to which people, or if the possible perpetrator’s DNA exists somewhere within the mixture. It often becomes a subjective call, depending on the experience and knowledge of the technician. Instead of stating that multiple source samples ought to be inadmissible or impossible to use in legal cases, PCAST has called for the creation of scientifically valid and standardized procedures for testing multiple-source DNA.



Bitemarks have always been a bit of a subjective area; scientists first determine whether or not the marks on a victim where made by human teeth, then they make a cast and compare the injury to the teeth or dental records of the suspect. The problem? A 2010 study found that bitemarks leave impressions so general that they can be matched to a wide range of dental profiles, with some scientists in previous studies unable to even agree on whether certain bitemarks were made by humans. In order to ensure bitemark evidence presented in court cases is as accurate as possible, PCAST recommended multiple independent studies be conducted on the marks prior to the admission of the evidence.


Glow2Fingerprinting has been used to identify criminals as far back as the 1800’s, yet even with it’s solid history the process has yet to be perfected. Fingerprint verification first relies on computer technology to evaluate the features of the fingerprint and generate a list of possible suspect matches. The fact that it is a technological process ought to increase validity as it removes human bias from the equation. However, the software used to evaluate prints is private, not open-source, so the software itself may contain inherent errors. Additionally, once the software compares prints it is still up to an expert to interpret the results, re-opening the door to possible human error or bias. In order to ensure the validity of fingerprint evidence PCAST again noted the need for multiple independent studies to verify accuracy, as well as the need to validate common testing methods. There is some new technology on the horizon which may be a bit of a game-changer for the next PCAST report.


ballisticstestingThe science of firearms examination is based on the idea that when a bullet is fired through the barrel of a gun it will leave marks on the bullet which are unique to the inside of the barrel, much like a fingerprint. PCAST called this theory into question, noting that this has never actually been proven, only assumed. Bullets may not always have enough unique identifying marks to determine with 100% accuracy that there is a match between a suspect’s gun and a particular bullet. Firearms and Tool Mark Examiners however, understand that it is not essential for the bullets to have unique marks in order to determine whether or not they came out of a specific gun; matches can still be made with near-perfect accuracy. The PCAST report calls for a re-evaluation of testing procedures anyway, and additional studies to confirm validity of the theory.

Expert Bias

jury1One of the most notable themes throughout PCAST’s report was that of Expert Bias. Not only the biases of the scientists themselves, but the fact that jurors give great weight to the scientific evidence presented during a trial. Jurors are heavily biased to believe the testimony of experts, they trust the scientific process and some of them lack the education or expertise to understand the jargon commonly used by experts when testifying. Additionally, some of the experts present their findings in too conclusive a way, without explaining to the jury the possible flaws in the scientific testing process. It is not unusual for an expert to claim they are “certain” of their findings when the actual scientific process used to examine the evidence was inherently flawed or biased. This is bad news for those facing wrongful conviction on dubious testing processes and it’s something PCAST and the scientific community as a whole are working to remedy.

The Hair-raising DNA Alternative You Won’t Want to Miss! Fri, 30 Sep 2016 20:45:53 +0000 hair1

Splitting Hairs to Solve Cases

Have you ever wondered what your hair says about you? Straight, curly, dyed, puffy, dry or oily? New research suggests your hair can reveal a lot more about you than the style you present to the world. A single hair left at a crime scene may actually be able to identify you. Biochemist Glendon Parker and his team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered that human hair contains unique protein markers which can be examined up to 250 years later and still provide valid evidence.

Lawrence’s team evaluated six historic hair samples along with 76 current samples and discovered unique protein markers which revealed enough information to identify the person they came from. So far they have discovered 186 protein markers which can reliably identify the person the hair belongs to within a limited pool of a million options. Their research is ongoing; Lawrence and his team hope to narrow down and standardize the process to about 100 protein markers which can then be used to identify anyone in the world.

What does this Mean for the Future of Forensics?

Right now, DNA is the gold standard in investigations. It took around thirty years for us to develop the technology and obtain regularly accurate results. According to chemist Brad Hart (Lawrence’s co-author and director of the Lab’s Forensic Science Center) the research they are doing may one day be just as effective as DNA, but their research is still in it’s infancy. “We are in a very similar place with protein-based identification to where DNA profiling was during the early days of its development. This method will be a game-changer for forensics, and while we’ve made a lot of progress toward proving it, there are steps to go before this new technique will be able to reach its full potential.” Hart said to website EureakAlert.

In fact, hair samples may one day provide more reliable evidence than DNA, because DNA degrades over time. According to their recently released study, “A major limitation of [DNA] techniques however, is the susceptibility of DNA to biological, environmental, and chemical processes that reduce template length and modify base structure. These processes result in a loss of template DNA in samples, sometimes beyond the capacity of PCR and sequencing strategies to compensate. In the event that DNA typing yields a partial or null result, few quantifiable genetic alternatives are available to the investigator.” In other words, when DNA fails, investigators have little to go on. Until now, that is. Once Lawrence and his team have finished their research, hair samples are going to become that much-needed forensic alternative. An alternative that can solve cases, even hundreds of years after the fact. This is great news for cold case investigators who could finally obtain enough evidence to solve the decades-old cases that haunt them.

Cold Cases

Currently there are more than 211,000 unsolved homicides that have occurred in the United States since 1980. The families of the victims are left with nothing; no answers, and often no hope of ever knowing who killed their loved one. Yet, thanks to the research of Lawrence and his team, some of these cases may one day end up closed, all because of a single hair left behind by the killer.

Get Your CSI On!

Hair identification is just one method future forensic scientists will be using to solve cases. 3D Printing and even the bacteria on our bodies can be used in forensics. If you’re thinking about getting your degree online so you can become a forensic scientist be sure you check out our list of schools and scholarships.


Glow-In-The-Dark Fingerprints: It’s Forensic Party Time! Tue, 30 Aug 2016 03:10:33 +0000 Glow2

Did you ever play with Day-Glo paint as a kid? Do you remember smooshing your finger prints all over a paper plate to watch them glow? Researchers have just brought the next best thing into your forensic tool-kit and it may soon be helping to solve crimes all over the world. Sadly, the founder of the new technology wasn’t inspired by anything as happy as childhood memories – he was the victim of a break-in. As he watched police fingerprint the scene he began to wonder if there was a better way to lift prints, especially off of surfaces like glass and metal.

CSIRO_print_croppedThe luminescent  little wonders are the brain child of Dr. Kang Lang of CISRO in Australia. He achieved the breakthrough by adding tiny liquid-filled crystals to surfaces which contain fingerprints. The crystals then bind onto the fingerprints and about a half a minute later they start to glow brightly under a UV light. The best part about this technology is it’s precision. Every whorl and pattern can be perfectly captured in photos; photos which can then be emailed straight to the lab and compared with the database of known offenders.

Let’s Get Technical:

Glow1So, how do the glow-in-the-dark prints really work? The crystals are known as Metal Organic Framework (MOF) and they work by binding to salt, proteins, peptides and fatty-acids within the fingerprint. They don’t alter the print; they just create a neon film overlay which shows up perfectly under a black light. The unique qualities of the MOF crystals cause them to highlight the dominant features of the prints which then show up beautifully on camera. CISRO and Dr. Liang are currently working with law enforcement officials in Australia to implement this technology into their regular investigations. With any luck, we will soon see fingerprints glowing all over the United States and around the world.

If you’d like to know more about Dr. Liang’s research you can check out his report in the journal Advanced Materials.

Want even more details? You can check out this short video produced by CISRO featuring an interview with Dr. Liang.

Life After Death? Necrobiomes, Thanotomicrobiomes, and the future of Forensic Entomology Sat, 30 Jul 2016 22:06:14 +0000 featuredimage1
While scientific evidence of the soul’s continuation after death is still a hotly debated topic there is one thing forensic scientists have no trouble agreeing on: some of the bacteria inhabiting our bodies not only survives, but thrives, after our death. We even pick up new varieties of bacteria postmortem and the whole cycle is so predictable that it allows forensic scientists to gauge a victim’s time of death with near precise accuracy; something that hasn’t been possible until recently. Known as Necrobiomes (or Thanotomicrobiomes), these macabre bacterial colonies can also be as unique as fingerprints, revealing the identity of perpetrators like rapists, even when no DNA sample is available. It may even be possible to teach cadaver dogs to detect their presence in soil; granting investigators another method of locating bodies, or places where bodies may have been held.


The Body Farm

The Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science (STAFS) Facility (a.k.a. “The Body Farm”) contains the remains of some of those who have donated their bodies to science. The remains are placed outside, open to the elements and every factor of their decomposition is tracked.  Disgusting as the research is, it has undeniably unearthed facts which have changed our ability to discover the time of death in a homicide. Traditional methods of assigning time of death are imprecise at best: investigators note everything from the temperature of the body to the stiffness and amount of decomposition present in order to create a reasonable estimate of when the person died. Still, it’s far from an exact science; environmental factors like humidity and temperature can cause variable decay rates. Even the best educated guesses can be off by hours to days, depending on the age of the corpse. This makes the subsequent investigation more difficult because police can’t pinpoint when the crime occurred.  Microbe colonies like those being investigated at the body farm (though not yet admissible as evidence in court) may well be a game changer which allow forensic scientists to pinpoint the time of death almost exactly. Whether it’s hot or cold, rain or shine, microbes are predictable and predictable is solvable.

Biological Fingerprints

Measuring the time of death isn’t the only way to use forensic entomology. It turns out that the specific combinations of bacteria living within our bodies is unique to us – as unique as a fingerprint. The places we go, the things we touch, even the things we eat, all leave a specific microbial trail. Just like fingerprints, no two people in the world have the exact same combination of bacteria living within them and on them. This discovery could one day lead to criminal convictions in cases like theft, rape or assault where the perpetrator may not have left anything behind but these microscopic hitch-hikers. There may one day be a time when CSI crews check for microbes right along with DNA and those findings get presented in court. We’re a long way off still; the ability to identify individuals by their bacteria or precisely identify the time of death in a homicide is largely untested; it’s the cutting-edge of future forensics. That’s what makes the work done by scientists like the intrepid staff at the Body Farm so valuable.

Interested in Forensic Entomology?

If you are a student working on your forensic science degree then forensic entomology is one of the paths available to you. If you’d like some more information about entomology and necrobiology you can check out these links:


Bleeding Edge Technology: Forensic Scientists Use 3D Printing to Reveal the Face of the Future Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:39:38 +0000 3dskull2

3D printing is revolutionizing many industries and forensic science is no exception. The experts at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) are using this cutting-edge technology to identify fallen soldiers so that their families can have closure and their remains can be appropriately laid to rest. It’s a fairly involved process but it bodes well for forensic scientists throughout the United States. As the 3D printing technology becomes cheaper and more accessible it is going to open up opportunities for the identification of previously unidentifiable remains and may help close cases that are decades old. Here’s how it works.

Scan, print, superimpose, solve.

At JPAC they primarily work with the skulls of unidentified soldiers. First, they use special software to scan them and create blueprints for their Projet 3D printer. Then, the scans get printed out into a physical model – a process that used to be an expensive procedure (and one they had to outsource). Now, thanks to 3D printing it’s fast, cheap and efficient. Next, the 3D models are superimposed onto photos of known MIA soldiers to see if there is a match. Forensic scientists have long known that our skull shapes can reveal race and sex, but the 3D printed models allow JPAC’s scientists to do far more than that. They can compare the unique shapes and angles of each skull to the images they have on file and match specific points until they can positively identify the remains. Through this process they are able to identify as many as seven soldiers a month.

Revealing History via Forensics

While the experts at JPAC are busy identifying POW and MIA soldiers, experts at Swansea University have 3D printed a warrior (an archer to be exact) whose remains date to around 1545 AD.  Like the scientists at JPAC, they used scans of the archer’s bones and then took the process one step further, extrapolating what his face would have looked like based on his bone structure. Add a lot of forensic expertise and a little 3D printing technology into the mix and voila – a glimpse of the past we could never have previously imagined.

In order to reconstruct the archer’s face, Swansea University’s team leaned heavily on the skills of forensic scientist Oscar Nilsson. Nilsson works with law enforcement in Sweden and is renowned for his ability to accurately reconstruct faces using only the person’s skull to guide him.


The Face of the Future


Perhaps the most exciting use of 3D printing in forensics is yet to come though. The research of doctoral student Heather Dewey-Hagborg may literally hold the key to solving crimes of the future (and the past!). She has created a computer program capable of projecting what a person’s face looks like using a sample of their DNA. Once she has the projection of their face complete, she uses 3D printing to make a life-size model. Can you imagine finding DNA at a crime scene, projecting the person’s face, printing it out, then using that model in an APB or for release to the media? Suspects could be identified and located far faster, even if their DNA isn’t in the registry! Artist sketches are rarely as useful as law enforcement officers would like them to be, but a life-size model of the suspect based on their DNA? That would be priceless! Even without having a suspect’s DNA, moving from a 2D sketch to a 3D printed facial model could result in far more arrests. Dewey-Hagborg is quick to note that her software is a work in progress and does not render an exact image of the persons face. Still, with this kind of technology on the horizon it’s an exciting time to be in forensics!


5 Free Digital Forensic Investigation Tools: Learn to Use Them and Make Your Resume Shine! Mon, 30 May 2016 18:59:29 +0000 ArticleHeader2

If you are earning your forensic science degree online, chances are you are busy balancing work, family and school all at once; so adding something else to the mix may be difficult. Still, if you take the time to get familiar with these free and open source forensic investigation tools it’s going to make your resume shine – especially if you plan to work in Cyber Crime and Security. Once you are hired you will be able to hit the ground running and begin helping your department immediately. Let’s take a look at some of the top free forensic software offers on the market today.


Autopsy & The Sleuth Kit

Used for: Analyzing computers & smart phones

The Sleuth Kit (packaged with Autopsy) is arguably the most well known free computer forensic software. A fairly active community has emerged around TSK +A and you will be able to join email lists, participate in forums and ask regular users any question you may have about how to use the tools. As expected with an Open Source platform, there are regular updates. You can also check out their website for some free training tutorials which will help you get started.


SANS Investigative Forensic Toolkit (SIFT)

Used for: Incident Response and Digital Forensics

SANS SIFT is free, open-source and constantly updated. It comes pre-configured with tools which will allow you to conduct a thorough forensic investigation as soon as you install it. It has so much out-of-the-box capability in fact, that it can go toe-to-toe with many of the most expensive commercial took kits and still come out ahead. There are also a number of free training courses you can take to get you up to speed once you download it. If you happen to live in Texas they are hosting a Summit and Training event this June (2016) in Austin. You can get details on it here. Even if you aren’t nearby for this training, check out their homepage for future announcements, they host events all over the U.S.




Used for: The Beginners Best Friend

PlainSight is a no-frills, easy to use beginning analysis platform. What good does to do to download free software with hundreds of bells and whistles if you don’t even know what you need them for? If you’re just getting started in computer forensics give PlainSight a try. It’s not a powerhouse, it’s the exact opposite. It’s easy to understand, easy to use and focuses on the core forensic tools you will need like: recovering dumped files, viewing internet history and discovering user information.



Digital Forensics Framework

Used for: Write blocking, remote access, deleted file recovery, RAM recovery

Digital Forensics Framework is a free user-friendly option for both beginners and advanced users. It includes guided tutorials to walk you through it’s capabilities and you can get it up and running quickly. The write blocking feature allows you to secure evidence and it even offers remote access capabilities. It is open source, and, if you’re extremely savvy you can write your own code for the DFF API.



Used for: Advanced RAM analysis

This is one of the most popular forensics tools on the market. You will likely be introduced to it as you earn your degree, but if you want to get a head start (or if your instructors somehow overlooked it) make sure you download Volatility. This is an essential program to be able to list on your resume when you graduate. There is a massive online community of users so any problem you have using it has likely been answered several times over. The most recent version even supports Windows 10 and there are plenty of available tutorials to get you started.

Cleared By Forensics: Innocent People Set Free By Science Sat, 30 Apr 2016 15:19:55 +0000 innocent1

We’ve all heard the joke: everyone in prison is innocent. But what happens when they really are innocent? When there is a true miscarriage of justice and an innocent person goes to jail forensic science is often their best hope for release. If the evidence against them can be re-examined using modern forensic techniques it is often possible to overturn their conviction and set them free. Let’s take a look at a few case samples where forensics has saved the day and helped an innocent person escape a punishment they did not earn.

Darryl Pinkins

Pinkins63 year old Darryl Pinkins has served twenty four years in jail for a crime he did not commit. In 1989 Pinkins was accused of participating in a gang rape. Although the DNA evidence available at the time did not point to his guilt, he was still convicted based on the fact that his coveralls (which turned out to be stolen) were left at the crime scene. In 1999 the Indiana Innocence Project picked up Pinkins’ case and began digging into the forensic evidence. In April of 2016 he was finally exonerated and released. In this case it was a new form of DNA evidence that was finally able to clear Pinkins. It’s called probabilistic genotyping and the results indicated that three of the five perpetrators in the rape were brothers, but none of the DNA belonged to Pinkins. Investigators now plan to use the new DNA results obtained through probabilistic genotyping to find and convict the real perpetrators who have never been caught.

Sean Hodgson

seanIn 1979 Sean Hodgson was convicted of the rape and murder of Therese di Simone. Hodgson was a pathological liar who actually admitted to the crime during an interrogation and his blood type matched the blood found at the scene. In 1979 police didn’t have the DNA advantages they have today yet detectives were forward thinking enough to store evidence for the future in the hopes that it could be tested later if needed. As it turns out, it was needed. Hodgson gave a false confession and even though his blood type matched the blood found at the crime scene, his DNA did not. He was released in 2009 after serving 27 years.

Kirk Odom

Kirk Odom was convicted of rape, sodomy and armed robbery in 1981. The conviction was based on hair samples: one taken from Odom and one from the scene of the crime. This, plus the victim’s testimony was enough to put him away. The only problem? He didn’t commit the crime. Hair sample identification is unreliable at best – but in 1981 advanced DNA testing wasn’t possible. Odom’s was finally released on parole in 2003 though he was forced to list himself on the sex offender registry. In 2013 he was completely exonerated when DNA testing revealed he was not the one who committed the crime.

Cathy Woods

Woods1In 1976 a woman named Michelle Mitchell was murdered. When police found her body her hands had been bound together and her throat had been slit. The case was quickly picked up by local media. In 1979 a woman named Cathy Woods confessed to the crime. Woods had verified mental health problems but was able to give police specific details regarding the crime (details she had learned from case coverage in the media). She was subsequently sentenced to life in prison and was serving her time until 2013 when critical DNA evidence from the crime scene was tested and found to be from a man instead of a woman. Woods was not the one who committed the crime. She was released in 2014 and completely exonerated in 2015.

It’s a frightening thing to imagine; that innocent people could go to jail. Unfortunately it happens a lot more often than it should. Thankfully, cases are being reviewed every day and DNA testing is far more accurate now than it was; allowing wrongfully convicted people to go free. In fact, more than 2,000 people have been exonerated in the last twenty years, largely based on advancements in forensic science. As you earn your forensic science degree never forget – forensics can catch the guilty but it can also free the innocent.