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By: Madison Mikulec
Last Updated: 12/10/23
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Blood Spatter Plays a Significant role in the Kohberger Case: Here’s How
Blood Spatter Plays a Significant role in the Kohberger Case: Here’s How
An image of Bryan Kohberger before his trial in October of 2023- Image courtesy of Zack Wilkinson and The Moscow-Pullman Daily News
On November 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were brutally murdered in an off-campus house near the University of Idaho. Two additional roommates managed to survive the deadly attack.
Bryan Kohberger, the prime suspect in the case, was arrested last month and was charged with four counts of first-degree murder. In his upcoming trial, it is believed that blood spatter will be used as one of the main forms of evidence in the proceedings.
"Bloodstain pattern analysis is one of the many fields that has been 'glorified' by television - images of blood spattered up a wall are far more gripping than watching a scientist in a laboratory. But what is a reality of blood pattern analysis?" - DNA Expert wittness Helen Roebuck
However, how can blood spatter be a key factor in determining the case's outcome? What makes blood spatter analysis so special and why is it used so often?
Imagine a scenario where you see a giant puddle after a long rainy day. You have your rain boots on, so you decide to go stomp and play in the puddle since you have the time. As you’re stomping, you may notice small and angled splotches of water on the dry ground directed toward the puddle.
Those small splotches are what forensic scientists typically look at, except for the fact that they analyze blood instead of water droplets.
Blood spatter, in most cases, can tell a story. It acts like a photograph, holding onto the memories of what occurred at the crime scene. Forensic scientists can pick apart that photograph, even to the point where they can indicate exactly where a stabbing or a gunshot took place.
For gunshots, forensic scientists can analyze the blood patterns on the deceased individual’s hands. The patterns on those hands can even indicate clues in cases that involve suicide. Also, they can determine the initial position of the hands through this method.
To scientists, the shape of the stain and the size are important to determining the origin point, or where the impact took place. These stains often have consistent patterns and are usually angled in high-impact cases. Blood stains that drip off something, let’s say a wound, will have a quite different pattern than a blood stain that came from a gunshot. They will often have a very circular pattern.
An image relating to digital forensics - Image courtesy of Adobe Stock
You might be asking, what does this all mean? What does this have to do with the Kohberger case? Well, blood spatter analysis has been reliable for many years, including now.
The improvements of technology have made lasting impacts on the forensic science community. For example, digital image analysis on blood stain patterns is a process that has become more objective, and scientists are able to classify the patterns just from the enhanced image by using different software.
What this all means is this. The evidence on blood stain analysis rumored to be used in the Kohberger trial is likely reliable and accurate. There are few concerns with the admissibility of blood spatter in today’s world since information from the analysis is most often reliable.
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