Chelsie Greer, Weber State University
Chemistry
Luminol with its chemiluminescense properties can be used at crime scenes to develop and document bloodstains. By itself, luminol cannot be used because it destroys the blood stain pattern details. Using a fixing agent before applying luminol will chemically fix the detail of the bloodstain, preserving the pattern for analysis. 5-Sulfosalicylic acid (5-SSA) is used as a fixing agent and can be applied to bloodstains before the luminol to adhere the blood to the surface, but it interferes with the luminosity. We investigated the degradation effects of luminol and 5-SSA to develop a better method to use both chemicals together. Blood patterns were placed onto glass, systematically treated with a series of Bluestar (a commercial, luminol-based, blood detection reagent), 5-SSA and/or buffered rinse solutions then, photographed immediately. The luminol intensity was measured by processing digital photographs of the luminescent blood stain through Image J to examine the individual pixels of the photographs. The effect of the treatment on the pattern fastness was measured by making fingerprint impression in blood, and having fingerprint analyst score the treated prints on their second level detail quality. Results will be presented to show if an intermediate rinse between the application of the blood fixing reagent and the application of luminol can mitigate some of the negative effects of this procedure.