Blood Evidence Case Study

Blood evidence found at a crime scene can provide information that may solve the case. It is mandatory to correctly document, collect, and preserve the blood. If the blood is handled incorrectly it can weaken or destroy the evidence in a case. When blood evidence is collected and preserved correctly it is the most powerful application to eliminate a person as a potential suspect in a crime.The proper way to collect liquid blood is by picking it up on a gauze pad or other clean sterile cotton cloth and allow it to air dry at room temperature. Then to preserve the blood it should be refrigerated or frozen as soon as possible. Communication is a major key to process blood evidence between a crime scene's first responding officer, the case detective, the crime scene investigator, the forensic scientist analyzing the evidence, and the assistant district attorney handling the case. In the last twenty years the technology of blood evidence has advanced. ln the early seventies, crime

labs relied on blood grouping system to characterize bloodstains. Then in the 1990's, most crime labs relied on DNA analysis to characterize bloodstains.
A popular case involving liquid blood was in the early morning hours of Good Friday, April 13, 1979, authorities reported that Michael Rodriguez stabbed his wife Patti 108 times.

He disposed of his shirt, pants and most of his clothing from that night. But not his leather jacket. His jacket was one of his favorite possessions, so he didn’t throw it out. He made his friend clean it. When detectives interviewed him, they asked for his jacket. Michael had a piece of clothing with Patti’s blood on it which gave the State Police reason to arrest 59 year old Michael. Two other police sources found that traces of his wife’s blood were detected on the leather jacket through DNA testing that did not exist 34 years ago. Which was argued by Rodriguez´s defense attorney in front of the jury that key evidence related to this case was mishandled by police, because they kept bloody garments and a leather jacket Michael Rodriguez had been wearing close to each other, while the evidence was being

processed.
After thirty years a State Police Senior Investigator reopened the case, he helped the prosecutor by finding people to talk against Rodriguez. Statements were said that the husband and wife were at a bar before they went to a nearby cemetery. Police Chief said “Rodriguez was one of the main people we were interested in from Day One ... people were very reluctant to speak up 34 years ago but have now been willing to talk,” who was the officer who wanted to reopen the case. A friend of Patti Rodriguez, told authorities that she once saw Rodriguez stab his wife in the leg with a pocket knife. “Patti and I were both pregnant, and it was the summer of 1974. We were wearing shorts. Michael and Patti were sitting on the steps of a store on South Park Avenue, and I walked up to them. I saw him pick up his hand and punch down on her thigh. He did it so fast, I thought it was just his fist. It was with his right hand onto her left thigh.¨ Rodriguez was sentenced to 25 to life for the slaying of his wife. It was said that there needed to be motive to stab someone 108 times, the motive was found as a document showing that Patricia Rodriguez’s two children were removed from her home Feb. 23, 1979, during an investigation into allegations that they were being neglected. It also showed that a Family Court judge ordered them returned to their mother March 16, 1979.