Twenty years ago on April 18, 1996 Shannon Sanderson was murdered by a gentleman named Gerald Powers. It all started early that night when Shannon went to spend the evening gambling down in Tunica, Mississippi alone because earlier that night she got into an argument with her husband, Robert Sanderson. Shannon won $5,000 playing blackjack then cashed out shortly after and was escorted to her car by a security guard. She arrived at her house around 4:45 am when a man came up and abducted her. Her father in-law and her next door neighbors heard dogs barking and went to see what was happening. Her father in-law heard a man's voice and thought it was her husband, however, the neighbor heard a scream and a thud and saw a man drive away in a car.
Gerald Powers was the prime suspect in the murder when his wife called the police and told them her husband might have been involved. Later on, she confessed that her husband told her that he had kidnapped, robbed, and killed Shannon. Powers’ wife had also told the police where he
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disposed of the gun, her purse, and where he hid the jewelry. When the jewelry was found, it was wrapped in pink plastic wrap and the police were able to match this pink plastic wrap to the same pink plastic wrap found in Gerald Powers’ home. This piece of evidence was crucial is tying Powers to Shannon's murder.
In order to compare the pink plastic wrap that held Shannon's jewelry and the pink saran wrap that was found in Powers home, they had to use Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy or FT-IR. What FT-IR does is it uses infrared radiation to pass through a sample and before the infrared radiation passes all the way through some of it is absorbed into the object, and the rest passes through. The spectrum that makes it through the sample shows the transmission and molecular absorption while producing a molecular fingerprint of the sample. The molecular fingerprint of the sample is unique, more like DNA than a fingerprint as no two molecular fingerprints are the same. There are three details FT-IR can provide for people, including identification of unknown materials, determine the quality or consistency of a sample, and determine the amount of components there are in a
mixture. FT-IR has been used for over seventy years in laboratories to help analyze unknown materials. Infrared spectroscopy started as chemical infrared spectroscopy in the 1880s. In the early 1940s, it was an undeveloped science but later became widely used. In 1949 Peter Fellgett created the first Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrum using an interferometer that measures light from celestial bodies. When first developed, only research groups with very large computers and a large staff were willing to wait 12 hours to convert an interferogram into a spectrum using FT-IR spectroscopy. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that microcomputers were capable of doing the Fourier Transformation and were available commercially. As time went on, the cost of the technology decreased and more and more people were able to obtain and improve the technology. The first case to use FT-IR spectroscopy was in 1989 for the case of Robert E. Lee V. State of Indiana. The Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy was used in this case to help convict a man of murder. FT-IR was used on four garbage bags, two bags from the crime scene and two bags from the suspect’s home. The two bags found at the scene were wrapped partially around a body in a grave yard. When the FT-IR spectroscopy was used to determine if the bags came from the same place, it was conclusive that they had. The analyst concluded that the bags had matched in color, type, texture, layer structure, and chemical composition. The FT-IR concluded the bags absolutely could not have come from different manufacturing plants and that they were all made within a few hours of each other. This was key in helping convict a man of murdering Ellen Marks and burying her in a grave right by her very own house. This was a major advance because after this case, many other cases began to use FT-IR as a very reliable source of science. Today, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy is so widely used and heavily relied upon by authority and scientists that it is hard to imagine what would be happening if it did not exist. When FT-IR spectroscopy first came around it would take around 10-12 minutes to get readings from the machine. This does not seem like a very long time but it was very time costly when there was so many samples that scientists had to go through every day and hopefully come to the same conclusion as the authorities did. So expedite the process of FT-IR spectroscopy, an interferometer was invented. What this device does is it takes one infrared beam and sends it through a beam splitter employed by the interferometer and separates it into two separate beams. This is very important because one of these beams reflects off of a stationary mirror and the other reflects off of a mirror that is constantly moving only a few millimeters away from the splitter. When these beams leave the interferometer they interfere with each other resulting in an interferogram that is very unique at every data point. This helps the process of FT-IR spectroscopy move very quickly and be fully complete within a matter of a few minutes. The process of FT-IR spectroscopy is fairly simple and has only five steps. Step one is when infrared radiation energy is released from a black-body source, it travels through an aperture that controls the energy amount sent through the sample and then to the detector. Step two is when the infrared beam goes into the interferometer and becomes encoded from the beam splitter and exits to go through the sample. Step three is when the beam is sent through the sample and either passes right through it or gets absorbed by it. The spectrum that passes through the sample makes up the molecular fingerprint of the sample. Step four is when the spectrums that have passed through the sample and are passed through the detector to be measured a final time. After the spectrum is measured it is sent to the computer where the Fourier Transformation happens. When it is all interpreted, the final spectrum is presented for the scientist to understand. When two samples are put through FT-IR spectroscopy and they are from the same place the final spectrum will be identical. If the two samples are not from the same place the final spectrum will be different because no two molecular fingerprints are the same when using FT-IR spectroscopy. The black-body source where the infrared energy is emitted from is a very unique piece of equipment. What it’s used for is calibrating infrared thermometers and dictating the amount of energy that is passed on to the sample. A black-body has high emissivity so it radiates little heat which is a good thing because that means it is not prone to errors due to interface from radiation. To get the best results possible, the black-body source and the infrared sensor should have the same emissivity. An interferometer is where the infrared energy that comes from the black-body source goes. When the infrared beam goes into the interferometer it passes through a beam splitter that splits the infrared beam into two beams. After this happens one of the beams is reflected off of a stationary mirror, while the second beam is reflected off a mirror that is constantly moving within a few millimeters of the beam splitter. The moving mirror is very important because when the infrared beam reflects off of the mirror it meets back up with the first beam and creates these unique data points that are extremely important in creating a molecular fingerprint for the sample. The sample compartment is the next place this beam heads. By the time the infrared beam hits the sample the whole spectrum of 2000 plus colors and their unique data points are ready to either pass through the sample or be absorbed by the sample. For example if there is a sample of yellow paper it will most likely absorb blues and the others will mostly either reflect off of the sample or pass right through it. Each sample will have its own unique spectrum, and unless it came from the same object no two spectrums are alike. For example if there was testing done on a blank sheet of printer paper from a home computer and testing done on a blank sheet of computer paper from a library the spectrum results will not match even though they are both sheets of printer paper. The detector is where all the spectrums that pass through the sample will go to be measured. What the detector does is measure each individual spectrum and transmits those measurements to the computer. The computer is where the Fourier Transformation takes place. The computer analyzes everything sent from the detector and puts it in the form of a spectrum graph that individuals can understand. The future of Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy is bright. One very important thing scientists are using FT-IR Spectroscopy for is detecting cancerous cells. There are five areas in which FT-IR Spectroscopy can be used to find cancer in the human body. The first is being able to distinguish the differences in normal tissue and diseased tissues in organs, such as the liver, cervix, colon, and breast. It’s hoped to be used in observing abnormal cell growth and multiplying in tissue segments and distinguishing what patterns the abnormal cells travel. It will also be able to distinguish the difference between normal and abnormal cell-cell scrapings from the smaller organs such as the prostate, body fluids, and thyroid. FT-IR Spectroscopy may as well be able to tell the difference between other pathologic conditions with similar clinic appearance and cancer. The last thing that this type of spectroscopy will hopefully be able to accomplish is to monitor the effects in anticancer therapy, chemotherapy for leukemia, and tumor grading in lymphoid tumors.
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