FBI specialists attend forensics class at Texas State

By Ann Friou
University News Service
July 28, 2010

Forensic specialists from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attended a workshop at Texas State University-San Marcos July 27-29 to learn techniques for recovering fingerprints from human remains.

The training, given by faculty in Texas State’s nationally recognized Forensic Anthropology Center, will enable FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT) members to recover fingerprints from fresh skin, partially decomposed remains, dismembered remains and mummified tissue. What they learn can be applied at the scenes of crimes, accidents and natural disasters to establish positive identification of unknown individuals and to recover the fingerprints of perpetrators.

The trainees worked in a lab with human limbs, learning to rehydrate tissue and enhance it chemically in the search for forensic evidence.

About the FBI’s Evidence Response Teams

The FBI’s ERT program consists of specialists in all 56 FBI field offices. These highly-trained and equipped teams, totaling about 1,200 personnel, operate at a high level of competence to ensure evidence is collected in such a manner that it can be introduced in courts throughout the U.S. and the world.

About the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS)

The Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State provides teaching, research and community service. FACTS works with law enforcement and medical examiners’ offices, conducts research on skeletal remains, and provides master’s degree training in forensic anthropology. For more information, visit www.txstate.edu/anthropology/facts/.