Forensic science has become an ever-growing field that has proven its importance over recent years. However, with forensic science being a relatively new field there is still much undiscovered. One aspect that has had less research conducted is the relevance of old evidence stored in labs. Many labs across America deal with excessive backlog and improper storage conditions. These conditions result in evidence to be held in these labs for years on end. An issue in forensic labs is that evidence is stored without proper identification of when it was collected. An example of this is blood collected from crime scenes without proper documentation. This blood then sits in a lab freezer for years on end. In this research, old undated blood samples from Saint Louis University’s Forensic Chemistry Lab were used to determine if Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy can be helpful in evaluating how these samples hold up over time. The old blood samples were compared to fresh blood samples via absorbance rates. The absorbance rates measure how much light passes through the sample. It was predicted that the older oxygenated samples would have higher absorbance rates compared to new fresh samples. By comparing absorbance rates between the old and new samples, this can help determine if blood hemoglobin disassociation can be used to examine how old samples are that are stored in crime labs. 

Ava would like to thank her family and friends for their continued support and interest in her research and in her forensic career. Their endless love and support for her interest in forensics has helped her become she person she is today. She would also like to thank Erik Hall for being the most influential as her forensic science faculty mentor throughout her time at Saint Louis University. She also would like to thank Abby Hericks and Dr. Melinda McPherson for their continued support throughout this research as a team.