ABSTRACT
Acts of extreme violence often produce a dispersion of blood volumes forced from a wound site. Gunshot and other high-energy impacts, such as blunt force beatings, may disperse these blood volumes along relatively flat trajectories. Molecular cohesion creates surface tension at the boundaries of these blood volumes. Surface tension causes the drop volumes to assume nearly spherical shapes in free flight. These drops result in bloodstain evidence being deposited on the floor, walls, ceiling, or other surfaces or objects within a crime scene. Interpretation of the resulting stain patterns may permit an analyst to approximate the three-dimensional point of origin. This chapter develops an equation and a methodology for calculating that point. Using the Pythagorean theorem we can solve for the distance between a stain and the intersection point. Used in conjunction with photographs, this system fully documents the spatial relationship of evidentiary objects.
