The use of novel electronic nose technology to locate missing persons for criminal investigations

Amber Brown; Erin Lamb; Alisha Deo; Daniel Pasin; Taoping Liu; Wentian Zhang; Steven Su; Maiken Ueland

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106353

The use of novel electronic nose technology to locate missing persons for criminal investigations

iScience. 2023 Mar 7;26(4):106353. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106353. eCollection 2023 Apr 21.

Authors

Amber Brown^{1

2}, Erin Lamb¹, Alisha Deo¹, Daniel Pasin¹, Taoping Liu³, Wentian Zhang³, Steven Su^{3

4}, Maiken Ueland¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Forensic Sciences, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
² Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia.
³ Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
⁴ College of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for Medical Science, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250117, China.

Abstract

The search for missing persons is a major challenge for investigations involving presumed deceased individuals. Currently, the most effective tool is the use of cadaver-detection dogs; however, they are limited by their cost, limited operation times, and lack of granular information reported to the handler. Thus, there is a need for discrete, real-time detection methods that provide searchers explicit information as to whether human-decomposition volatiles are present. A novel e-nose (NOS.E) developed in-house was investigated as a tool to detect a surface-deposited individual over time. The NOS.E was able to detect the victim throughout most stages of decomposition and was influenced by wind parameters. The sensor responses from different chemical classes were compared to chemical class abundance confirmed by two-dimensional gas chromatography - time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The NOS.E demonstrated its ability to detect surface-deposited individuals days and weeks since death, demonstrating its utility as a detection tool.

Keywords: Health technology.