Friday, December 02, 2022

Forensics

 I caught a glimpse of this at Instapundit, then followed the link to Tam's place.  Clicked over to the Daily Beast about a cold case that suddenly had gotten warm again.

An unspent .40-caliber round discovered between the bodies of two young girls found dead on an Indiana hiking trail in 2017 led investigators to their alleged killer half a decade later, according to a probable cause affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

 A forensic examination showed the still-live bullet had been “cycled through” a Sig Sauer P226 owned by Richard Matthew Allen, who was charged last month with murder in the deaths of Delphi teens Libby German and Abby Williams.

I read through the article, and it didn't tell me how the girls had died, but a single .40SW cartridge was found between the bodies. Examiners say that they can match to a gun owned by the suspect.  They can show that it was cycled through the action.  I'd love to see that report.

3 comments:

bolomk1 said...

This has also befuddled me. I've never heard of it being done without the cartidge actually having been fired in the suspec weapon. If it is a new technique they will have to lay foundation and have some sort of corroboration.

Jonathan H said...

Same here, I can't figure out how they claim to be able to match a cycled but unfired round to a particular gun .
I understand they must have other evidence, but to me this claim would undermine the credibility of the police to a potential jury.

Anonymous said...

Extractor and chamber marks can be unique to a given firearm.