ABSTRACT
The authors’ hypothesis, “that the combination of animal, mineral, vegetable, and synthetic materials within any given household dust specimen, in combination with the DNA of its living inhabitants and visiting individuals, offers to the forensic scientist a formidable cocktail of irrefutable, scientifically sound data which is unique to any single location, and thus can be used to unequivocally identify any site on this planet,” is the underpinning for their work. The need for the increased utilization of trace evidence in the crime laboratory has been pointed out. McCrone has estimated that considerably less than 1% of all the potential trace evidence in crimes is ever examined. The formation of household dust is complex phenomenon. The authors’ research indicates that a hair, fiber, feather, or piece of fibrous material initiates the process. Of paramount importance to the successful analysis of forensic dust specimens is the procedure employed in collection and preservation of the various items of physical evidence to be examined.
