Combining Diamond™ Nucleic Acid Dye with cyanoacrylate fuming for detection of fingermarks and visualising latent DNA

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ABSTRACT

Detection and identification of both fingermarks and latent DNA are common practices in forensic science, aiming to obtain crucial identification evidence in various types of criminal investigations. This study seeks to enhance cross-disciplinary research by combining important aspects of fingermark detection and recovery with evolving techniques for latent DNA detection. The goal is to produce fingermarks suitable for comparison that, when observed under the correct conditions, can utilize the fluorescent properties of the Diamond™ Nucleic Acid Dye to provide information on usability for DNA analysis. This preliminary research specifically focused on determining the most effective combination of Diamond™ Dye with cyanoacrylate fuming. The research demonstrated that pre-treatment of the fingermark before cyanoacrylate fuming could produce suitable fingermarks with observable friction ridge details, while simultaneously allowing for the visualization of DNA.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyanoacrylate fuming
• Diamond™ Nucleic Acid Dye
• DNA containing material
• fingermarks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by Western Sydney University.