JUST THE FACTS
Gunshot Residue
For the most part gunshot residue (GSR) forensics doesn’t appear to play into our zombie scenario. Or does it? This case began with an attack on a security guard at a medical research company in western Pennsylvania. If this is the first reported attack or, better yet, the very first attack, then we are close to locating the source of the contagion. But what if by the time the police catch a zombie there are more than one of them? How will they be able to tell one from the other? This is when police rely on evidence that directly matches the suspect to the crime scene. Fingerprints, blood spatter, and DNA samples are all useful; but often the presence of these can be explained away. The suspect can claim (if he wasn’t a brain-dead zombie) that he was a witness to the events rather than a participant and was wounded because he got too close to the action. Remember that in court reasonable doubt is the key to a criminal defense.
GSR, on the other hand, more clearly ties the suspect to the crime. If a person fires a gun, there is residue and powder burns on the hand, wrist, and forearm (or sleeve). The attacker who was shot at by the guard, since the fight was at close quarters, will have telltale residue on his clothes, even if the bullets missed.12
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Oh, Come On Now!
In films we are willing to suspend our disbelief, but in return we should expect at least an attempt on the part of the filmmakers to use as much logic as possible. Give us a reason (even a mediocre one)! Some films step way over the line and abuse our credulity. I called on my friends on the PhillyGeek Yahoo! group for their input on films that just break too many rules of science:
Independence Day (1996): “The odds of being able to interface with the computers on an alien spaceship are astronomic. Having someone cook up a computer virus (within a couple of hours) that will then wreck those alien computers is just too much.”—Shelley Handen
Godzilla (1998): “In the Matthew Broderick remake there’s a scene where ’Zilla runs through the streets towards the Hudson River and makes this graceful dive into the river; the thing is, that part of the Hudson isn’t that deep, and half the body should have been sticking out the surface of the water.”—Pete Hynes
Alien: Resurrection (1997) (a.k.a Alien 4): “Even if you grant the whole ‘cloning Ripley to get the Alien queen’s DNA out of her,’ how could that queen give live birth at the end? She’d need all new reproductive/endocrine/nervous system organs.”—Dena Procaccini
The Last Mimzy (2007): “The little girl can put her hand even her face in a force field where her molecules are jumbled, and yet there is no physical effect and she doesn’t suffer from oxygen deprivation even though she has no means of breathing. And then there is the kids’ affecting the power grid even though they are not plugged into it?”—Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Star Trek (1966–present): “I love it, but it’s riddled with ridiculous science, but one part stretched even their stretched physics: There are theoretical maximums to faster than light travel for the space vessels, but broadcast communications have zero lag.”—Steven Feldman
The Black Hole (1979): “Emotional robots and people breathing in outer space. Oh, come on now!”—Lynn and Bill Koehle
Return of the Living Dead (1985): “All of the zombies have perfectly fine eyes with not a single indication of rot. Really, take a look. And then there’s Linnea Quigley not having a mark on her after hordes of zombies had chomped on her. But I’m not complaining about that. An intact naked zombie Linnea Quigley is better than a ripped to pieces zombie Linnea Quigley.”—David Christman
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Expert Witness
Elizabeth Becka, forensic specialist and author of Trace Evidence and Unknown Means, says, “GSR can refer to two different things—gunshot residue that blows back13 from the gun onto the shooter’s hands, which is residue from the primer compounds and usually contains barium and antimony, and gunshot residue that flies forward from the barrel onto the victim, the victim’s clothing, or anything else in the vicinity, and is gunpowder, containing nitrites.”
I asked Becka how distance was measured in GSR. “Usually through a Griess test, using treated photographic paper to demonstrate the nitrites present around the bullet hole in clothing. The gunpowder leaves the barrel in an expanding cone, getting wider the further from the barrel the particles travel (until they fall off entirely at around 3 feet). The smaller and denser this circular pattern is, the closer the end of the barrel was to the target. This can be determined with great accuracy if you take the same gun with the same ammunition and do test firings at six feet and twelve feet etc. and do the Griess test on the test targets as well as the article of clothing, then compare.”
She says that the test is different when looking for GSR on human flesh: “On skin—it used to be via atomic absorption, which involved picking up the samples with moistened swabs; this would tell you if barium or antimony or both were present. Now it’s done with stubs with sticky tape on the end and they’re run through a scanning electron microscope, which can not only tell if barium and antimony are present but also if the particles are in a telltale spherical shape.”
When asked how long GSR evidence will linger, she says, “On clothing forever if not disturbed, I suppose. On living skin (will natural oils affect this) we generally don’t bother collecting if it’s been more than 4 hours since the shooting, or if they’ve thoroughly washed their hands in the meantime.”
The Zombie Factor
I asked if GSR would adhere differently to the skin of a corpse as opposed to living flesh? “You can think of GSR as very fine dirt or dust,” Becka says. “It doesn’t adhere well to dry, clean skin, sticking better to sweaty, oily or sticky hands. So it would depend on how long the person has been dead, and/or if he’s been cleaned since death (such as at the morgue or funeral home), and/or if he’s got something sticky on his hands, blood, mud, soda pop. On dead skin it will last forever if not disturbed, though dead skin would always be disturbed eventually by the decomposition process.”
This means if the zombie is caught it can be tied to the crime scene, and if this zombie is our patient zero, then the medical research company and the surrounding area become the center point for the search for the origin of this zombie plague.
JUST THE FACTS
Forensic Anthropology
Forensic anthropology combines the study of the culture and physicality of humans throughout history—with the criminal investigation. These investigators have a detailed knowledge of osteology (skeletal anatomy and biology) and a working knowledge of the requirements of law enforcement. Their research, evidence analysis, and findings often aid in discovering the cause of death of skeletal remains, and in the identification of the victim. Quite often they are called in to excavate remains using precise archaeological techniques.
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Gregg Winkler’s Decaying Zombie Quiz, Part 2
Folk-rock singer Jonathan Coulton did a song about zombies that was a major hit on YouTube. Name the song.
Who is the only actor to reprise a role in Romero’s zombie series?
What is the incantations Bart and Lisa used to return Springfield’s zombies to their graves in Treehouse of Horror III?
What Japanese zombie movie has a television commercial selling “Bruce Campbell’s Right Hand 2”?
Who infects Spider-Man with the zombie virus in the Marvel Zombies Versus Army of Darkness miniseries?
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Across the United States there are a number of outdoor field labs, called “body farms” where forensic anthropologists train, such as the Anthropological Research Facility operated by the University of Tennessee Knoxville, a facility founded in 1972 by Dr. William Bass—a pioneer in the field.
Expert Witness
According to private investigator and forensic anthropologist Bryon Morrigan,14 “Just about the first thing a forensic anthropologist (FA) is going to want to do is remove all of the ‘soft tissue,’ so any work on the skin or
other organs is going to need to be completed prior to the forensic anthropologist getting his/her hands on the body. If the body is severely decomposed, then an FA is probably going to be the one doing the examinations, but those are often limited to establishing time of death, which is going to be hard to figure on a zombie.”
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Zombies…Fast or Slow? Part 3
“Definitely slow. Zombies aren’t cheetahs, you know? They’re not particularly smart (they’re dead, after all), and the muscles are slowly dissolving, but if those bastards get hold of you, you’re zombie meat.”—Nate Kenyon, award-winning author of Bloodstone (Leisure Books, 2008) and The Reach (Leisure).
“Damned fast!”—Nancy Kilpatrick, author of The Goth Bible (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004).
“Slow zombies will always have their place but I think the fast zombie even if it isn’t intelligent is a far more frightening thing. With slow zombies you have a chance even if you’re unarmed and vastly unnumbered whereas with fast zombies, they will take you down even if you’re armed to the teeth and a highly experienced combat veteran.”—Eric S. Brown, author of the zombie novel/novellas Cobble (Mundeniz, Press, 2005), The Queen (Naked Snake Press, 2006), and The Wave (Naked Snake Press, 2006).
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He adds, “A good FA, with access to a full skeleton, ought to be able to tell you the body’s sex, age, and race with no problems. They can also give good information about damages to the body. For example: You find a gunshot wound in the skull, but the FA finds a certain amount of healing has taken place, leading the FA to believe that the wound was not fatal, and the person lived for some time after the wound.”
Retired Canadian forensic anthropologist Martin Schöenfeld adds, “Forensic anthropology is as much about preserving remains as it is about discovering who this person was. I’ve worked some cases high in the mountains where a bone was exposed by soil erosion, and as we began excavating the site we determined that the skeleton was broken up and scattered by weather and by scavenging animals. If the reconstruction had been attempted by anyone but an expert FA some valuable information may have been missed. As it turned out we determined that the bones were not from one body but from two—young twins that had gone missing a number of years before. We had 15% of one body and 11% of the other and we were able to determine the approximate age of the victims and even a cause of death. It went a long way to solving the case.”
The Zombie Factor
So how would forensic anthropology help our manhunt for a zombie?
“In the early stages it won’t,” says Schöenfeld, “at least not in the initial stages because this is not a fast science. Forensic anthropology is slower because it requires very precise care in recovering even a single fragment of bone. There’s site mapping, photography, and all manner of precautionary steps needed to preserve both the integrity of the site and the actual remains. However…. if it turns out that the zombie disease is the result of some older incident, perhaps contamination from an old toxic disposal site, or a contamination from improperly buried medical wastes—or even the grave of a person who had died from an infection years before, then we can help.”
I asked him to explain. “There are incidents in folklore that hint at zombielike creatures,” says Schöenfeld, who is currently writing a book on anthropology and folklore. “The Ghul of Arabic legend, the Blutsauger of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Brahmaparush vampire of India, and the Craqueuhhe of France—all of these were flesh eaters according to legend, and since many people believe that there is a connection between myth and truth, then we could stretch the point to say that a zombie plague is a disease that has occurred from time to time throughout human history. It is a much more plausible and workable hypothesis than demonic possession or alien radiation. The pallid face, the diminished mental capabilities, the unnatural hunger—each of these symptoms can be individually explained by medicine. Why would it be so outrageous to postulate than a single disease, perhaps a mutated strain of rabies, cropped up now and again in different places around the world and caused zombielike behavior? If such a thing turned out to be the case, it would be either a forensic anthropologist or, perhaps, a forensic pathologist, who might make that discovery, and from there we might find a line of research leading to a cure.”
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Jikininki: The Flesh-Eating Ghosts of Japan
Zombies aren’t a 20th-century invention nor are they uniquely American. Ghouls of one kind or another pop up all through history. In Japan, for example, the jikininki, whose name literally means “man-eating ghosts,” are greedy sinners who return to feed on the flesh of the living. Unlike domestic zoms, the jikininki are smart and resourceful, and use verbal threats and even bribes to keep officials from hunting them down. The jikininki are in torment, however, because they actually don’t want to eat human flesh…but a curse is a curse.
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JUST THE FACTS
Forensic Art
Forensic art is widely used in the identification, apprehension, or conviction of suspects. This science includes a variety of disciplines including composite art, image modification, age progression, postmortem reconstruction, and demonstrative evidence. Of these, composite art is the most commonly used form of forensic art.
The forensic artists use witness statements and other information (including fuzzy video images) to create a reasonable likeness of a suspect. Having a likeness greatly increases the likelihood of identifying and then apprehending a suspect because the old saying really is true: One picture is worth a thousand words.
Artistic ability is only part of what it takes to be an effective forensic artist; of equal importance is the skill of interviewing a witness to bring out even the smallest details. Witnesses are seldom experienced with being able to usefully recall details, but with the right interview technique an almost miraculous process occurs where the image from the witness’s spotty memory becomes a reality on the sketchpad.
Expert Witness
Becoming a qualified forensic artist takes more than art school, according to best-selling thriller novelist and artist Jonathan Santlofer15: “The trend seems to be that the best forensic artists take the Quantico intensive forensic art program where they learn everything from anatomy to profiling. I’d say that the best are also psychologically trained or have an understanding of how to make a witness trust them and feel comfortable. My forensic artist protagonist, Nate Rodriguez, also has a sort of sixth sense when it come to sketching a face; he really gets inside the witness’s head and sees what they see!”
I asked Santlofer how and when forensic artists are invited into a police case. “When a witness or victim has seen a perpetrator and a sketch needs to be made,” he says. “Many forensic artists see more cases than any homicide cop will ever see in a lifetime sometimes producing as many as five sketches a day.”
When asked how much computer work is involved in forensic art, Santlofer remarked, “There are many (commercial forensic art) computer programs but the major complaint against them is that they are expensive and difficult to master. And of course there are only a set number of features available as opposed to the total spectrum that a forensic artist can create with pencil or charcoal. I’m for the old fashioned method because it creates a bond between the artist and the witness. It’s really hard to warm up to a computer program.”
The Zombie Factor
So, how would forensic art help police catch a zombie, or identify one so that police could backtrack to the possible source of the infection?
“If the zombie had been seen but not caught,” advised Louis Michael Sanders, a forensic artist from San Diego, “then a forensic artist would likely be called in to sit with the witness and interview them in order to create a likeness of the suspect. If the police are unable to find the suspect by canvassing the area immediately following an attack the availability of a police sketch will greatly increase the chance of locating that suspect. It can be sent via Internet, fax, TV broadcast, and photocopy handout.
The police can blanket the area with these pictures and then everyone—official police and civilians alike—become spotters. Especially when you have a zombie staggering around someone is sure as hell going to see him. That’s when the cavalry come a-running.”
Forensics expert and author Andrea Campbell adds, “Advanced decomposition and re-creation depends on a couple factors. If there is enough of a skull, we can glue the jaw back on, take our skin tissue depth charts, cut vinyl pegs to match 26 key points on the skull and work up several pounds of clay to meet those levels, creating a 3-dimensional bust. Then the eyes are set (we set acrylic eyeballs, very life-like and expensive), lids placed carefully; features such as the nose, lips and ears are fashioned (ears are especially difficult) and, add some messy Zombie hair (I do prefer clay hair versus a wig) and we have it. That’s called Forensic Reconstruction Sculpture.”