Bloodstain Patterns at Crime Scenes

This three-day class will expose students to bloodstain pattern analysis and how it relates to reading and reconstructing violent crime scenes.  Topics that will be covered are origins of spatter, horizontal motion, the sequence of events, basic human physiology as it relates to blood, cast-off patterns, directionality, the three types of impact spatter, blood transfer, and voids, shadows and ghosting.  Students are required to participate in laboratory experiments that will allow the student to associate actions with bloodstain patterns.  At the end of the class students will be able to calculate the point-of-origin of a blood stain, determine the directionality of a bloodstain, recognize the three type of impact spatter and associate the type of force used to cause each type of pattern, and recognize and properly collect bloodstain pattern evidence.

Instructor: Vin Byron