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Article: Crime seen.(profile of forensic microscopist Skip Palenik, U.S.)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN HIS LAB FAR FROM THE SCENE OF A CRIME, SKIP PALENIK FORGES UNBREAKABLE CHAINS OF EVIDENCE FROM DUST & DETRITUS. LET'S WATCH THE MASTER AT WORK.
THE SMALL, HALF-DECOMPOSED body came in for autopsy swathed in champagne-colored sheets, the way it had been found in a mound of leaves. Two sheets were wrapped more or less evenly around the body. A third, the innermost, was bunched around the woman's head, which had been shattered with repeated blows front a blunt object--perhaps a baseball bat. Within this gruesome bundle was a potential clue: a 3-inch-long tuft of red carpet yarn, along with stray orange and pink fibers. Nestled as these strands were within the sheets, ...