fingerprints

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Texas Schools Sending Home 'Incredibly Triggering' DNA Kits

The kits, intended to help locate a missing child, have taken on a macabre meaning after Uvalde

(Newser) - Texas public schools are sending students home with DNA kits meant to help identify them in an emergency—a move parents say is a horrifying reminder of inaction on gun violence in the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Parents aren't required to use the...

On Michelangelo Sculpture, a Possible 'Direct Connection'

Museum staff find what may be the artist's fingerprint on wax model

(Newser) - A big find on a Michelangelo sculpture suggests the artist may have left something important behind on his work. Per the London Times , one of the butt cheeks on Michelangelo's "A Slave"—a wax statue said to have been used as a model for a never-completed marble...

Breakthrough in Old Case, but Not the Way You'd Expect
'Remarkable' Feat Solves
50-Year-Old Cold Case
in case you missed it
Apr 11, 2020 11:30 AM CDT

'Remarkable' Feat Solves 50-Year-Old Cold Case

Winston Morris identified as victim of 1969 murder, not by DNA but by plotted fingerprint

(Newser) - Human remains found in a pit off I-93 near Salem, NH, more than 50 years ago have finally been identified thanks to a criminalist who manually plotted a fingerprint. First came failed attempts to identify the remains—buried in 1969 and then exhumed in 2012—through DNA and fingerprinting. Though...

This May Fix a Weak Point of Fingerprint Analysis
This May Fix a Weak Point
of Fingerprint Analysis
new study
Feb 3, 2020 9:40 AM CST

This May Fix a Weak Point of Fingerprint Analysis

Study suggests prints can be dated within 24 hours

(Newser) - Fingerprints may have changed the game in police work since they were first used more than a century ago, but they still have a weak spot: Detectives can't tell precisely when they were left, per ScienceDaily . Generally, police can tell if a print has been left within the last...

Cold-Case Murder Revived by Simple Job Application

Todd Barket's trial in Florida began Monday

(Newser) - A 21-year-old cold case has come to life over—of all things—a job application, the Washington Post reports. Sondra Better, 68, was stabbed to death while working at a Florida consignment shop in 1998, her wounded hands suggesting a fight for her life. The killer left a trail of...

He Went For a Job, Got Charged With Murder

Fingerprints submitted by Todd Barket link him to 1998 Florida slaying

(Newser) - A decades-old cold case may have been solved after the suspect applied for a job. More than 20 years after a woman was murdered in South Florida, police have arrested a man they think is the killer. Todd Barket, 51, submitted his prints to a potential employer, which matched ones...

'Fingerprint Implants' Helped Fugitive Stay On the Run

Spanish police say the 'sophisticated process' included cutting and burning skin

(Newser) - It turns out you can change your fingerprints, but it sounds painful. A Spanish fugitive dodged arrest for 15 years by cutting and burning the skin of his fingertips, then replacing it with micro-implants, the Guardian reports. The man, who was not named by police, was arrested Tuesday on drug...

How They Got Sayoc
How Bad Spelling
Doomed Sayoc
the rundown
Oct 27, 2018 12:00 PM CDT

How Bad Spelling Doomed Sayoc

Authorities didn't just use fingerprints

(Newser) - Cellphone pings, DNA, and misspelled words all helped authorities to find and arrest suspected bomb-mailer Cesar Sayoc on Friday, CNN reports. Law enforcement officials say they got a big break Thursday when five of the packages were traced to a processing and distribution center in Opa-Locka, near Miami. When DNA...

Cops Try Unlocking Phone With Dead Man's Finger

The move sparks debate about 'ghoulish component'

(Newser) - Florida police have raised eyebrows by showing up at a funeral home and trying to use a dead man's finger to access his phone, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Victoria Armstrong was at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home in Clearwater when two detectives showed up and held the hands of...

WhatsApp Photo Secures 'Groundbreaking' Conviction

British cops sent it to fingerprint lab

(Newser) - Fingerprinting is an "old-fashioned technique," says Dave Thomas of the South Wales police. Convicting a drug dealer on the basis of a partial fingerprint from a photo in a WhatsApp message, however, is groundbreaking stuff. The image of a hand holding ecstasy pills was the key evidence in...

Your Fingerprint Might Have Cocaine in It
Your Fingerprint Might Have
Cocaine in It
study says
Mar 22, 2018 10:24 AM CDT

Your Fingerprint Might Have Cocaine in It

Even if you don't do drugs

(Newser) - Even if you don't do drugs, there's a surprisingly decent chance your fingerprints have traces of cocaine and even heroin. Researchers from the University of Surrey in Britain found that slightly more than 1 in 10 drug-free study participants had cocaine in their prints and 1% had heroin,...

'John Doe' Buried by Wrong Family Identified as US Vet

John Dickens' body is being exhumed and sent to his estranged family

(Newser) - Southern California authorities have revealed the name of a dead man they misidentified and who was buried by the wrong family. It's a US Army vet whose family hadn't talked to him in 30 years. The Orange County Sheriff's Department said Friday the man found dead with...

Your Face May Be All You Need to Board a Plane

JetBlue launching facial recognition program to make boarding speedier, more secure

(Newser) - "We’re rapidly moving toward a day when your fingerprint, iris or face will become the only ID you’ll need for any number of transactions throughout a given day." This from the COO of Delta Air Lines, which along with JetBlue is testing facial and fingerprint-recognition technology...

Flashing the Peace Sign Can Get Your Identity Stolen

So say Japanese researchers

(Newser) - Thanks to improvements in technology, the following popular hand gestures are no longer advised in photos: waving, giving the thumbs up, and flashing the peace sign. Raising the double bird or a fist remain excellent options. Researchers at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan say that smartphone cameras are...

To Unlock a Dead Man's Phone, Police Turn to 3D Printing
 To Unlock a 
 Dead Man's Phone, 
 Police Turn to 3D Printing 
in case you missed it
Jul 24, 2016 9:36 AM CDT

To Unlock a Dead Man's Phone, Police Turn to 3D Printing

Michigan State University professor Anil Jain is on the crime-busting case

(Newser) - An unsolved murder and a locked mobile phone led police to Michigan State University, with an unusual request: Could computer science professor Anil Jain whip up 3D-printed fingers of the victim? Doing so would give them manufactured fingerprints that could unlock his phone and perhaps glean clues about who killed...

Woman Ordered to Unlock iPhone With Fingerprint

Some say move violates 5th Amendment

(Newser) - Apple's fight with the feds over unlocking the San Bernardino shooter's phone has dominated the headlines, but a judge demanded a woman's fingerprint be used to unlock her iPhone—a first in a federal court case, reports the Los Angeles Times . Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan's phone was seized...

Cops: Fugitive Chewed Off His Fingertips

Kirk Kelly accused of tampering with ... his fingers

(Newser) - A fugitive chewed off his own fingertips—or at least the skin covering them—after being arrested at an Ohio traffic stop last Sunday, police say. Officers in Tallmadge, Ohio, apparently pulled over Kirk Kelly and several others and placed them in a cruiser after smelling drugs in their vehicle,...

$5M Gun Database Never Solved a Single Crime in 15 Years

Maryland program finally nixed

(Newser) - Since 2000, more than 300,000 bullet casings have piled up in an old fallout shelter in Pikesville, Maryland, the result of an ambitious program launched to catalog the casings in a database, which would then be used to help solve crimes, per the Baltimore Sun . But 15 years and...

Man Gets Arrested, Tries to Gnaw Off His Fingerprints

This happened in Florida

(Newser) - People have gone to some crazy lengths to try to hide their identity from police (Exhibit A: this guy ). And then there's Kenzo Roberts. Lee County Sheriff's detectives pulled over the Florida man on Thursday as he was driving a 2015 Mercedes that was listed as stolen;...

Your Fingerprint Can Reveal Drug Use

Scientists able to tell whether person has taken cocaine

(Newser) - Might the days of taking saliva or blood samples for drug tests be numbered? Scientists have figured out a way to use fingerprints instead, they report at Phys.org . Specifically, the researchers used a chemical analysis of the prints to determine whether a person had ingested cocaine. Currently, scientists are...

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