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

Molina, Carlos Martin; Pringle, Jamie K.; Saumett, Miguel; Hernández, Orlando

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.12.011

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(80 reference statements)

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“…These control studies have shown that the geophysical responses in active cases could be predicted, although responses seem to vary both temporally after burial and between different study sites. A few studies have also collected repeat (time-lapse) geophysical surveys over controlled experiments (e.g., [18,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]), which have documented temporal changes in geophysical responses over their study periods.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Search for “Fred”: An Unusual Vertical Burial Case,

Wisniewski

Cooper

Heaton

et al. 2019

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Police witness intelligence stated a murdered adult male “Fred” had been vertically buried in wooded hilly terrain 30 years ago in the Midlands, U.K. Conventional search methods were unsuccessful; therefore, the police requested a geophysical investigation to be undertaken to determine whether “Fred” could be detected. A multiphased geophysical approach was conducted, using bulk ground conductivity and metal detectors, then follow‐up magnetics and ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey profiles on electromagnetic (EM) anomalous areas. A tight grid pattern was used to account for the reduced target size. Relatively high‐resolution EM and GPR techniques were determined optimal for this terrain and sandy soil. Geophysical anomalies were identified and the most promising intrusively investigated, and this was found to be a large boulder and tree roots. Study implications suggest careful multiphase geophysical surveys are best practice and give confidence in cold case searches. This study yielded a no‐body result, effectively saving police time and costs from further investigations.

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confidence: 99%

The Search for “Fred”: An Unusual Vertical Burial Case,

Wisniewski

Cooper

Heaton

et al. 2019

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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“…Actualmente, se ha sumado el desarrollo de estudios geofísicos en fosas clandestinas de prueba para elaborar metodologías más precisas de ubicación de estos sitios y que aumenten la posibilidad de hallazgo considerando varios factores como antrópicos, de enterramiento y climáticos, entre otros (Davenport et al, 1992;Murray y Tedrow, 1992;Strongman, 1992;Pye y Croft, 2004;Ruffell y McKinley, 2008;Schultz, 2008;Schultz y Martin, 2011, 2012Pringle et al, 2012Pringle et al, , 2015Ruffell et al, 2014;Hansen et al, 2014). En Colombia los primeros ensayos empíricos para la ubicación de enterramientos clandestinos, fueron realizados aplicando métodos geofísicos en fosas simuladas, entre éstos: magnético, electromagnético, resistividad eléctrica y georradar (Molina et al, 2012(Molina et al, , 2015Molina, 2016).…”

Section: Antecedentesunclassified

Avances De La Geología Forense en Argentina: Búsqueda Con Métodos No Invasivos De Personas Víctimas De Desaparición Forzada

et al. 2017

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RESUMENLa desaparición forzada de personas ha sido una práctica histórica a nivel mundial especializada en la eliminación y ocultamiento de los cuerpos utilizando distintos estilos y profundidades de enterramiento. Latinoamérica no ha sido la excepción a esta repudiable práctica, ya que en varios países se registran víctimas de desaparición violenta. En Colombia en la actualidad existen alrededor de 21.000 personas desaparecidas de manera forzada y en la República Argentina se estima que entre 9.000 y 30.000 personas fueron también desparecidas de igual forma entre los años 1976 y 1983 durante un gobierno de facto denominado "dictadura militar". A partir del año 1983 se inicia un período de sucesivos gobiernos democráticos en el cual, pese al diferente contexto socio-político, se registraron hasta el año 2014 un total de 210 desapariciones involuntarias de personas. Esta situación en Argentina demanda, de forma imperativa, la formación y el perfeccionamiento de geólogos forenses, el mejoramiento de técnicas y el desarrollo de nuevas metodologías para ser aplicadas en la ubicación de fosas clandestinas. El objetivo de esta contribución es presentar avances en las técnicas de prospección para distintos tipos y formas de ocultamiento de enterramientos clandestinos de personas, con énfasis en la utilización del georradar. La utilización de la tecnología GPR en la detección de anomalías correspondientes a distintos métodos de enterramientos ilegales y principalmente de ocultamiento de los mismos (obras, pisos, depósitos de cantos rodados, pozos de agua y residuos, cal, vegetación, etc.), es recomendada porque aumenta substancialmente la posibilidad de hallazgo. Se consideran de interés los resultados obtenidos en los distintos casos de prospección con georradar presentados, por la analogía o similitud que tienen con casos reales de distintos tipos de enterramientos y ocultamiento de fosas clandestinas.Palabras clave: Enterramiento clandestino de personas; desaparecido; métodos geofísicos. ADVANCES OF FORENSIC GEOLOGY IN ARGENTINA: SEARCH WITH NON-INVASIVE METHODS FOR VICTIMS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE ABSTRACTThe forced disappearance of people has been a historical practice at world level specialized in the disposal and hiding of bodies using different methods and depths of burial. Latin America has not been the exception to this appalling practice, since victims of forced disappearance are recorded in several countries. About 21,000 people have been forcibly disappeared in Colombia at present and in the Argentine Republic it is estimated that between 9,000 and 30,000 people were also disappeared in the same way between 1976 and 1983 during a de facto government called "military dictatorship". Since 1983, despite the period of successive democratic governments 210 involuntary disappeared people have been recorded until 2014. This situation in Argentina demands, in an imperative way, the training and specialization of forensic geologists, the improvement of techniques, and the development of new methodologies to be app...

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“…The aim of this study was to investigate the rate and pattern of decomposition associated with shallow, clandestine burials in the local soil and environmental conditions. Pig cadavers were used as proxy for human bodies as is commonly done in such studies (e.g., Schultz, 2008;Molina et al, 2015). Although geophysical monitoring did not originally form part of the taphonomic research plan, it was decided to run a time-lapse GPR monitoring experiment in parallel with the taphonomic study and as part of a research collaboration between UP and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Controlled Monitoring Study of Simulated Clandestine Graves Using 3D Ground Penetrating Radar

Schoor¹,

Nienaber²,

Marais-Werner³

2015

Near Surface Geoscience 2015 - 21st European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics

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A controlled 3D GPR monitoring study over simulated clandestine graves was conducted near Pretoria, South Africa, in which the detectability of graves as a function of post-burial interval was assessed, as this is of particular interest to local forensic investigators. It was demonstrated that the site-specific environmental parameter (a clay-rich loamy soil with poor drainage) and heavy seasonal rainfall (as confirmed by GPR-derived soil moisture estimates) drastically compromised the long-term grave detectability, especially when adopting a 3D depth slice analyses approach. It is also seen that the disturbed burial zone is the major contributor to the total grave anomaly rather than the buried body due to the combination of environmental parameters and the absence of buried artefacts. This paper also advocates the combined use of different data representations (2D and 3D) to increase the likelihood of detecting subtle grave anomalies.

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

Cited by 29 publications

References 61 publications

The Search for “Fred”: An Unusual Vertical Burial Case,

The Search for “Fred”: An Unusual Vertical Burial Case,

Avances De La Geología Forense en Argentina: Búsqueda Con Métodos No Invasivos De Personas Víctimas De Desaparición Forzada

A Controlled Monitoring Study of Simulated Clandestine Graves Using 3D Ground Penetrating Radar

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