New Light on Old Fingermarks: The Detection of Historic Latent Fingermarks on Old Paper Documents Using 1,2-Indanedione/zinc

Abstract

This study explores trends in the effectiveness of 1,2-indandione/zinc chloride (IND/Zn) for visualizing latent fingermarks on paper substrates of various ages. Preliminary investigation of contemporaneous documents showed that high quality fingermarks could be deposited through incidental handling, although smudging and overlapping were evident. IND/Zn was then applied to incidentally handled documents up to 80 years old and successfully developed potentially identifiable fingermarks, significantly increasing the established timescale for fingermark detection with amino acid sensitive reagents. The results indicate that IND/Zn remains effective over longer periods than has been previously demonstrated, although a comparison between documents of different ages suggest that progressive diffusion of the target amino acids occurs over time, affecting the proportion of potentially identifiable marks.The findings of this study reinforce the applicability of IND/Zn for the detection of historic latent fingermarks on old paper documents.

To glove or not to glove? Investigations into the potential contamination from handling of paper-based cultural heritage through forensic fingerprinting approaches

“…Fingermarks have been shown to become visible brown marks after being aged at relatively low temperatures, and McKay's artificial aging experiments on paper surrogates confirms this [ 33 ]. Further research needs to be conducted into the interactions of fingermarks and paper; however, we know that fingermarks are persistent and can be detected on 90 year-old documents [ 25 ]. As this research proves that fingermarks on paper-based documents, books, and artworks cannot be prevented with simple handwashing, archives and cultural institutions should reconsider their object handling guidelines in light of this evidence.…”

“…Ninhydrin has been shown to fail to detect 24% of marks, whereas the false-negative rate of IND is only 1% [ 38 ]. The IND treatment is currently widely used for forensic purposes in multiple jurisdictions [ 25 ].

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“…Latent fingermarks can also be very long-lived on paper documents. A recent study has demonstrated the detection of historic latent fingermarks on paper documents using the amino acid-sensitive reagent 1,2-indandione/zinc (IND) [ 25 ]. Fingermarks with forensically useful ridge detail were detected on a range of paper documents up to 90 years after deposition.…”

Comparison of three active 1,2-indanedione-zinc formulations for fingermark detection in the context of limited resources and supply chain risks in Seychelles

“…1,2-indanedione was first proposed as an amino acid-sensitive fingermark detection technique in 1997 [1,2] and subsequent studies in Australia [3][4][5][6], Israel [7,8], USA [2,9], and the UK [10][11][12][13][14] have led to its widespread operational use. With consistently strong evidence of high sensitivity [15], IND-Zn is recognised as one of the most effective treatments for the detection of latent fingermark on porous substrates [14,16,17] and routine use in smaller jurisdictions such as Seychelles is hence anticipated [18].…”

“…This appears to have been resolved with the development of a modified IND-Zn formulation containing the addition of zinc chloride [5]. In a recent comparative study [15] of three IND-Zn formulations in operational use by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) [23], the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) in Germany [24] and the Centre of Applied Science and Technology (CAST) in the UK [12], we demonstrated their comparable effectiveness in developing fingermarks on old documents stored under two different climatic conditions. Although the results indicated comparable performance characteristics between the formulations, variations in their composition present different chemical supply chain risks and financial impacts that must be considered.…”