Improved Hair Analysis to Indicate Identity More Quickly
From now on, essential information for investigation into the identity of human remains will be much more quickly available to the police and the Public Prosecution Service. The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) and VU University Amsterdam have introduced an updated analysis method for analysing hair from a scalp, on the basis of isotopes.
This method makes it possible to already determine – within 2 weeks – whether the person concerned arrived in the Netherlands recently and whether this person has been present in different geographical areas. The entire analysis used to take at least 6 months. The accelerated version of this analysis method uses the most recent techniques. This analysis focuses on hair of the scalp only, whereas standard isotope analysis focuses on all tissues.
This analysis regarding origin or recent location of a person on the basis of isotopes may be used when it is not possible to establish the identity of human remains on the basis of DNA analysis. It provides tactical information that can be used to find out a person’s identity. The most recent information about a person’s whereabouts is stored in hairs, but also in skin and blood cells. Due to the fact that –compared to skin and blood cells – hair remains in the same state of preservation for a longer time, it is more interesting in terms of analysis to focus on hair of the scalp.
The power of isotopes
Isotopes are extremely small information carriers in our body. We take them in, among other things, through drinking water, whereby the isotope composition of such drinking water differs by region. The information contained in these isotopes may be of major importance in the investigation into a person’s identity. The isotope ratios in bones, teeth, and hair tell forensic analysts where a person has lived during his life.
How does it work?
A single tuft of hair with the thickness of a pencil is sufficient to carry out an accelerated analysis into the origin or recent location of a person. Two samples are taken from this tuft: one sample from the youngest part of the hair (the hair closest to the skin of the head), and one sample from the oldest part of the hair (at the furthest tips of the hairs). The relevant isotopes in the two samples are compared with each other and are compared, via a database, with the hair of people who live in different areas in the Netherlands.