NecroSearch Revisited

Preliminary results of sequential monitoring of simulated clandestine graves in Colombia, South America, using ground penetrating radar and botany

“…Recent geophysical research using simulated clandestine graves have found optimal detection methods and configurations are highly variable, depending upon a host of factors, the most important deemed to be time since burial, burial style, local soil type, vegetation and climate [35,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54].…”

“…These full searches have also involved a variety of methods, including forensic geomorphology [20], forensic botany [23,24] and entomology [25,26], scent-trained search dogs [27,28], physical probing [29][30][31], thanatochemistry [32][33][34] and near-surface geophysics [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

Electrical resistivity survey to search for a recent clandestine burial of a homicide victim, UK

“…Near-surface geophysical surveys have been shown to be successful at locating near-surface buried remains, albeit dominated by the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method [9,[14][15][16][17][18]. However, whilst generally accepted to have the highest resolution, GPR investigations may not be suitable in certain sites, for example in large survey areas or where soils have very high clay contents that rapidly attenuates radar signal that results in poor penetration depths being attained [19].…”

“…; remote sensing [1][2], site walk-overs [3], cadaver dogs [4], methane [5] and soil probes [6][7], near-surface geophysics, which includes metal detectors [8][9][10][11], geochemical surveys [5] and mass excavations [12]. Current UK search best practice suggests creating a conceptual target (and geological) model of the suspected burial site, using available site, case, intelligence and other information, prior to undertaking fieldwork to maximise the chances of detection (see [13]).…”

Preliminary soilwater conductivity analysis to date clandestine burials of homicide victims

“…Field-based geoscientists have been employed to locate homicide victim's graves, weapons and other buried or concealed objects using a variety of techniques. The search methods include remote sensing [2][3], cadaver dogs [4], methane [5] and soil probes [6][7], near-surface geophysics, which includes metal detectors [8][9][10], geochemical surveys [5] and mass excavations [11].…”