Forensic Geology applied to criminal investigation: A case report

Abstract

The present research was devoted to the geological study of two forensic samples of geological evidence collected on the belongings of a victim of gun shooting, found in a rural area of the countryside in southern Italy. Geological analyses on these granular samples were requested in order to ascertain the possible provenance of the evidence. The results of mineralogical, sedimentological, and micropalaeontological investigation on the clasts/grains indicated that the geological evidence presumably originated from an area where outcrops of sedimentary, metamorphic, and volcanic rocks were present. The petrographic characters of the clasts made up of metamorphic rocks were compatible with the crystalline basements of the Calabria-Peloritani Arc (southern Italy). An important constraint in the specimens was the presence of very peculiar grains of volcanic rocks compatible with those of pyroclastic products of the Mount Etna. Another important constraint was represented by the finding of benthic foraminifers, released by a marly-clayey aggregate. These foraminifera are common in grey-blue clays passing laterally to the calcareous sands cropping out in the Messina province along the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian coasts. In conclusion, the studied geological evidence, notwithstanding one of the samples was of mixed origin, could geographically derive from an area of the Calabria-Peloritani Arc. In particular the material found in one of the samples could derive from an area not too far from the coast and where Etna volcano ashes could also arrive and deposit.