Human scent signature on cartridge case survives gun being fired: A preliminary study on a potential of scent residues as an identification tool

PLoS One. 2023 Mar 22;18(3):e0283259. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283259. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

This paper focuses on a chemical analysis of human scent samples that were obtained from cartridge cases after being fired and their comparison with scent samples collected under laboratory conditions. Scent samples were analyzed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with the time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The results obtained from the chemical analyzes confirmed the desired stability of the human scent evidence and outlined the possible application for forensic purposes. The qualitative results of the study converge with the findings of previous studies on the composition of human scent and the chemical composition of human fingerprints. Furthermore, statistical analyzes were performed employing similarity algorithms such as Pearson's and Spearman's correlations, or Kendall's tau. The resulting comparison of the scent samples secured on fired cartridge cases compared with those samples collected under laboratory conditions yielded ten out of ten correct identifications of the scent inflictor.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Gas
  • Forensic Medicine* / methods
  • Humans
  • Odorants* / analysis
  • Pheromones

Substances

  • Pheromones

Grants and funding

Ministry of Interior VJ01010123 Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic https://starfos.tacr.cz/cs/project/VJ01010123 The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.