Caught By a Hair

1990 in Telluride, Colorado, Eva Shoen's young daughter found her dead from a single gunshot
to her head. Her husband, Sam, came under suspicion, but he truly appeared to be the grieving, shocked
husband, a victim of random violence. The police were confident they would solve the case, because the
bullet taken from Eva's skull had the distinct markings of a particular type of pistol. However, the case
eventually found its way into the cold cases file. There just were no leads.
Three years later, the Telluride police received a call from a man in Arizona who believed that his
own brother, Frank Marquis, had been the perpetrator. Marquis had once confessed this crime, but an
attempt to trap him during a phone conversation failed. Nevertheless, when the gun was recovered, an
arrest seemed a sure thing. Unfortunately, Marquis had covered his tracks all too well—including
tampering with the barrel of the gun so that the bullet fired from it could not be matched. All they had on
him was a hearsay conversation.
However, tracing Marquis's movements indicated that he had indeed been in Telluride during that
weekend for a festival, and that he had a police record for rape. This was the man, the detectives felt, and
they had to find a way to get him. Putting pressure on Marquis' travel companion, they learned that at
some point along the road back, Marquis had tossed two bundles out the window of the car. They
suspected that this was the clothing he had worn to commit the crime. Still, it was a long and winding
road between Telluride and the point where Marquis had ended his journey some four hundred miles
away.
Detectives scoured the roadway until they narrowed the possibilities down to four places. As
luck had it, a construction crew had recently moved a pile of dirt, exposing a bundle of clothing that the
dirt had preserved. On the shirt was a single strand of hair, which was examined in the lab against a
sample taken from Eva Shoen. Forensic trace expert Joseph Snyder analyzed the color and structure, and
pronounced them a close match.
When the investigators told Marquis of their findings, he confessed. It was a bungled burglary,
he said, indicating his knowledge of the plea-bargaining system. Although the officers in charge of the
case believed that he had in fact planned to rape Eva Shoen and had killed her in the process, they knew
that this would be impossible to prove. Marquis got a sentence of twenty-four years for manslaughter.
Sometimes a single strand of hair will make all the difference between a case closing down and a
lead that opens it in an entirely new direction.
In homicide cases, hair is picked up at the scene and is generally collected from several different parts of
the body, including several areas of the scalp. Because different hairs on the same person can show many
variations, the larger the sample for analysis, the better. An average sample ranges from 24 to 50 pieces,
although those samples on which DNA can be done can be much smaller.
Hair analysis can indicate whether the source is human or animal, and also whether the source is a
member of a particular race. It can determine if the hair has been dyed, cut in a certain way or pulled out,
and where on the body it was located. In some cases, evidence of poisoning shows up in the hair. The
hair shaft with a follicle can also offer genetic determinations, such as blood type or DNA, and since the
external layer of the shaft resists decomposition, it's the kind of evidence that has real staying power.

Vernon J. Gerberth, in Practical Homicide Investigation, points out that hair (and fiber) evidence is useful
in

1. Helping to establish the scope of the crime scene

2. Placing a perpetrator at a scene
3. Connecting a suspect with a weapon
4. Supporting witness statements
5. Connecting crime scene areas (abduction, vehicle used, dump site)
Forensic analysis of hair centers on color and structure, determined through microscopic magnification. If
the hair has been pulled out, it should include the follicle, and that helps to see the hair's full length. The
shaft has three forensically relevant layers: the cuticle, cortex, and medulla. The cuticle has overlapping
external scales, which helps in species identification: Animals are different from humans. Within the
cuticle is the cortex, made up of spindle-shaped cells that contain the color pigment, and the way the
pigment is distributed helps to identify hairs from particular individuals. The center of the shaft is the
medulla, which is also valuable for species differentiation: An animal's medullary index (diameter relative
to the shaft's diameter) is larger than a human's. However, the medulla is often fragmented or interrupted,
and may differ from one hair to another on the same person.

Negroid hairs are kinky, with dense pigments, while Caucasian hairs are generally straight or wavy, with
finer pigmentation. Pigment distribution is also different between the two races. The hair of an infant or
young child tends to be finer than adult hair, but it is difficult to establish gender from hair samples. Hair
that has follicle tissue was probably pulled out, and that tissue offers the possibility of DNA analysis
through the PCR method (which recreates the DNA molecules).

In the 1950s, a technique called neutron activation analysis became a valuable forensic tool. A sample
such as hair is bombarded with neutrons while inside the core of a nuclear reactor. The neutrons collide
with the components of the trace elements and make them emit gamma radiation of a characteristic
energy level. That way, the scientist can measure every constituent part of the sample, no matter how
small. In a single hair, for example, fourteen different elements can be identified.

The first case to utilize neutron activation analysis was the 1958 murder of 16-year-old Gaetane Bouchard
in Canada. Her former boyfriend, John Vollman, lived across the border in Maine and he was seen with
her just before she was discovered dead. Flakes of paint from the place where they had been together
were matched to his car. Also, the victim's color of lipstick was found on candy in his glove
compartment. However, it was the strands of hair found clasped in the victim's hand that ultimately
convinced the jury. These were matched to Vollman via a ratio of sulpher radiation to phosporus, which
was closer to his ratio than hers.

As forensic science advances with computers and increasingly more accurate means of detecting the
component parts of small samples, trace evidence may soon play even more significant roles. As it is, the
more trace evidence an investigator can collect at a crime scene, the better the chances of making a case.

Although hair and fiber are currently the most frequently analyzed trace evidence, there are other types
that ought to be noted. A few have offered important clues for solving a crime.

Reference:
Ramsland, Katherine, (n.d.). Caught by a hair, TrueTV.com, Crime Library, retrieved April 18, 2008
from http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/trace/4.html

Reflection Questions:
1.) Is forensic hair analysis really that sophisticated or does it just bolster a good guess?
2.) How was the hair used in this case—did it convict the murderer?
3.) How can hair evidence be used in to convict someone in a crime?
4.) Is hair evidence reliable? Please explain
5.) Describe a situation where hair could be used successfully toward the conviction of a criminal.
6.) Describe a situation where using hair to convict a criminal might not be successful.