Guide to Forensics

Basics

See standard security procedures for more about evidence collecting.

It's quite simple, anything you touch leaves little traces. Fingerprints, if you didn't even bother to wear gloves, fibers if you're wearing clothes (please do), or blood if you're a blood-drenched axe murderer.

Therefore, to avoid contaminating the evidence you collect, use Evidence Bags to put things in, and cordon crime scenes with a tape to prevent pesky onlookers from getting too close until you are finished with your examination.

Collecting evidence

Grab your crime scene kit, then poke at all the surfaces - you should also scan (and collect using evidence bags) any evidence you see, as well as the bodies of any dead victims. See Guide to Forensics for more info on how to Investigate a Crime Scene. Send the body off the medical for an Autopsy and have the results sent to you (or do it yourself, if you are IC skilled enough). This should help identify the cause of death and the murder weapon. If you have fingerprints, run them through the microscope and then search the records for a match.

If you have no prints, try to work on fibres, as most departments have unique clothing. Fibres can give you good leads, but often criminals will use this to try and fool you. Remember that Latex Gloves still leave material and also have a chance of leaving fingerprints.

If you have multiple hits, you're going to have to do some more investigating and possibly some interviews. If you get a single hit, you've got your guy. Make sure to get a Warrant and ask security to bring them in for questioning.

Fingerprints

People have fingers, and fingers have very specific patterns on their tips. Since they tend to leave greasy imprints of them everywhere, these can be used to find out who touched what.

Problem with these is, that more often than not, people only leave a fragment of the whole print, so you'd need to collect enough of these before you can conclude who it belongs to with certainty. The upside is, that once you get past that, it's a matter of a simple search in Security Records to connect the name to the print. Assuming no one tampered with those of course...

Fibers

Doesn't tell you as much, but you'll find a lot more of these than fingerprints. What happens, is whenever you touch something, tiny bits of fabric from your clothing might fall off and stick to the item. It's nearly impossible to prevent it, aside from not wearing any clothes (but then you'd have to worry about fingerprints).

The problem with these is, that unless you're very lucky, they only help to reduce the number of suspects, as many crew members on the station wear the same uniform and there is no way to tell the specific one that left this fiber.

Gunshot Residue (GSR)

Guns are messy. Their results are messy, and their workings are messy. When a gun fires, it creates a cloud of tiny burnt-up particles, that stick to just about everything - especially your hands. By swabbing hands (or gloves) for said residue, you can find out if their owner recently fired a gun, and even what type of bullet it was.

DNA samples

Nature was kind enough to make your job easier by sticking a unique identifier on all bits of humans - the DNA. In this line of work, you'll find it in body liquids - swabs of either blood or saliva from (unidentified) victim's mouth - if you need it.

Tools

You get all kinds of nifty toys to collect evidence with, all fitting nicely in a crime scene kit that should be lying somewhere in your lab. Feel free to stick them on your belt, if that's your thing.

Evidence bag

Sealable plastic baggie to hold all kinds of nasty (or not) stuff. You should get any evidence found into these as soon as possible, to avoid it being contaminated. To scan the item inside, click the bag to take it out and use tools on it.

Luminol & UV light

Fun for rave parties and murder investigations. Luminol is a magical chemical compound that reacts with blood traces that are invisible to naked eye. Spray it on the floor where you think blood used to be. If you were correct, the chemical reaction will make them visible under UV light (that's what it is for) as cool-looking blue glowing stains. That is, of course, assuming the culprit didn't clean up thoroughly enough after themselves.

Fingerprint powder

Aluminium powder and a brushie. Lets you collect those pesky fingerprint fragments off various surfaces. Just use it on anything you wish and if there are any prints, fingerprint card will appear.

Fingerprint cards

Nice and white plastic cards with malleable layer, used to hold full set of fingerprints. Click in hand or aim at someone else's hands to take nice and complete fingerprints. Analyze in Microscope for details.

Fiber collection kit

Cool magnifying glass for finding small bits of fibers, and tweezers for picking them up. All findings go into tiny baggies. Can be used to get fibers off pretty much anything - just click on something and if there are some fibers on it, they'll appear. Analyze in Microscope for details.

Swab kit

Cotton swab and airtight vial. Used to get all kinds of sticky liquid (or powdered) samples. Can be used to:

• get DNA from saliva - target mouth on mob;
• get blood off something - click on item, select Blood if prompted;
• get GSR off a clothing item - click on item, select Gunshot Residue if prompted;
• get GSR off someone's hands - target hands on mob.

Analyze in Microscope for GSR or DNA Scanner for blood / DNA.

Machinery

Click with sample in hand to put it in, empty hand to start scan. Drag machine sprite over your character to remove sample.

Microscope

Advanced machinery for looking really hard at really small things. Stick GSR swabs, fingerprint cards or fibers into it for full analysis.

DNA Scanner

Machine for figuring out the DNA of sticky icky things you put in it. Accepts swabs with blood or saliva.