Forensic identification of urine on cotton and polyester fabric with a hand-held Raman spectrometer
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2018 Elsevier B.V. On-site detection and identification of body fluid samples at crime scenes and in prisons is critical for law enforcement. Current forensic tests for body fluids are highly specific, destructive to potential DNA evidence and time-consuming. Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a label-free, non-invasive and non-destructive analytical technique that provides information about molecular vibrations and consequently chemical structure of the analyzed specimen. These advantages make RS highly attractive for forensic applications. This study demonstrates how RS can be used for confirmatory, non-invasive and non-destructive detection and identification of urine directly on fabrics. This is very important because there have been cases of correctional officers subjected to urine from prisoners. One would envision that conclusive evidence other than eyewitness testimonies will help in potential prosecution of such cases, especially if both urine and DNA can be simultaneously detected. In this study, we show that using a handheld Raman spectrometer we can detect and identify urine in liquid samples, both on cotton and synthetic fabric, as well as on sweat-contaminated clothes. We also demonstrate that RS is capable of detection and identification of urine directly on police uniform. Finally, we show that coupling of partial least squares discriminant analysis with RS allows for high accuracy prediction of urine on all studied types of fabric.
