Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Discrimination Of Automobile Carpet Fibers Using Multiple Analytical Techniques And The Subsequent Creation Of A Searchable Data, Derek Dorrien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forensic fiber examination is an important part of trace evidence analysis. Fibers may be recovered from a crime scene that could link a particular suspect to the scene. Clothing fibers are most frequently encountered but automobile carpeting fibers may also be recovered. An understanding of the frequency of occurrence and the discrimination power of different analytical techniques is needed in order to better establish the evidentiary value of automobile carpet fiber evidence. Seventy-five automobile carpet fiber samples were analyzed using a series of techniques ranging from nondestructive to destructive. These techniques included polarized light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, microspectrophotometry, Fourier-transform infrared …