AI & crimeAI could help crack unsolvable murder cases

Published 28 November 2018

Some of history’s most notorious unsolved murder crimes could be laid bare thanks to new forensic research. Researches have shown that machine learning – a field of artificial intelligence – could be used to determine which ammunition, and ultimately which firearm, was responsible for a particular gunshot from the residue it left behind.

Some of history’s most notorious unsolved murder crimes could be laid bare thanks to new forensic research led at Northumbria University in Newcastle.

Dr. Matteo Gallidabino, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science at Northumbria University, working with colleagues at King’s College London and the Universities of Lausanne, Santiago de Compostela and Rome (La Sapienza), have revealed that machine learning – a field of artificial intelligence – could be used to determine which ammunition, and ultimately which firearm, was responsible for a particular gunshot from the residue it left behind.

Their findings have been published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s The Analyst – the home of fundamental discoveries, inventions and applications in analytical and bioanalytical sciences.

Machine learning uses a series of algorithms to model complex data relationships” explains Dr. Gallidabino. “Through careful fine-tuning, these can be applied to predict important characteristics of the ammunition used in a particular shooting event from those of the respective gunshot residue (GSR) deposited on surrounding surfaces or items, such as spent cases, wounds and, potentially, also the shooter’s hands.”

Northumbria says that this is a ground-breaking progression when compared to techniques currently available in GSR analysis. Indeed, the complex computer statistics implemented by the research team allow identification of the ammunition responsible for the different gunshot traces left at a crime scene and eventual association of such traces, with unprecedented accuracy. Both capabilities are currently challenging using traditional forensic methods.

With further developments of the suggested approach, new investigative leads could be rapidly pursued to avoid similar unsolved murders of the past, like Jill Dando in 1999 and the notorious Bloody Sunday killings of 1972.

After Bloody Sunday, the problem was to determine if gunshots were fired by civilians or military staff” states Dr. Gallidabino. “The investigators found large amounts of GSR all over victims and concluded that these resulted from shooting activities. It was later established, however, that these were likely due to the secondary, post-event transfer of contaminations from military staff – whose hands were rich with GSRs – to dead bodies. Small amounts of GSR, indeed, may be transferred by prolonged contacts with contaminated surfaces, such as those that took place when soldiers helped transport victims to the hospital after the event.