Someone asked WHAT would be swabbed at a crimescene.
To the best of my knowledge, and keeping in mind what we already know from the police about their crimescene work at the Abaroa house ( I refuse to call it a home any longer), moistened and perhaps some dry large Q- tip like sterile medical swabs are used to collect wet and dried biological material. They would have used luminol or another reagent to find fluids with a protein base ( blood, saliva, urine, semen, you name it, if it is a body fluid, it will luminesce). So would their pets' vomit, fecal material in minute quantities, and vomit.
Same for the baby's.
Then they would take their swab tube, and using the swab, collect a single small sample or specimen of the biological material.
Each swabbing would be from a very small area. Each would be labeled as to where found and photos would accompany the swab to pinpoint location. Each would be sealed with a special seal and would follow a physical chain of custody which cannot be broken from time of collection to time entered into the state lab.
I think they probably paid close attention to every room in the house, especially one which might be rather far from the room where the assault with a deadly weapon took place- the kitchen. Knives from the kitchen were a major focus. Multiple stab wounds sometimes mean that multiple knives were used. If a knife handle broke, then the perp. would have had to get another knife from a source at hand, transferring blood in the process.
Sometimes, the investigators are working blindly. In other words, they cannot see blood or a fluid substance, but know that due to splatter patterns and the force of gravity, there may be something hidden. I would expect this is the case in at least some of the truck swabbings.. perhaps in the crevices of the foot pedals, the recesses of the door handles, inside the stitching pattern on the seat or seats, under the dashboard and on the steering wheel, inside door panels, and definitely under and around where the knife was found in the truck.
" Trace material" often is too minute to show up except under microscopes and then DNA is extracted and tested.
What they are looking for is Janet's blood in places it should not be, in places where it cannot be easily explained. Since she lived in the house and presumably used the truck, it gets tricky and the age of the blood and where found becomes an issue.
They may also be looking for her blood co-mingled with another person's at the crimescene, because I would expect that she put up a struggle. Whether or not A suspect had any defensive wounds is another matter. I don't know.
In addition to swabbings, they should also have vacuumed the truck, the carpet of each room of the house, especially the guest bedroom where she was killed, Kaiden's room and the bathrooms. They would be looking for hairs and fibers which are " stray".. just like in the Gricar disappearance, several cigarette ashes were found on the floormat. Michael Baden says not unusual, probably tracked in on a shoe because they were so minute. We track things around on our shoes and sometimes in our hair and clothing after close contact with others.
They should have also done the standard fingerprinting of Janet's fingers and palm prints, Raven's, and maybe Kaiden's, not sure.
We KNOW they did extensive testing to the outdoors as well. There's something about those quarters, I think. They may also have found blood on grass around the creek.
Janet's autopsy would tell the investigators a great deal; one of the greatest things would hopefully be an accurate time of death. Her hands would be bagged at the crimescene. At autopsy, each fingernail would be clipped with a separate sterile nail clipper and scrapings would be done to test for foreign skin, blood or fibers under her nails greater than normal for what usually resides under our nails.
About the lack of underwear collected at the crimescene from Raven: I did see multiple men's underwear listed as being removed from the house as well as socks and shoes. I am not sure if the clothing he was wearing was listed separately, will have to go back and look, but if it was, and no underwear briefs, boxers, or temple garments are listed, then I would theorize that he was undie-less. Indicative of someone dressing in a hurry, perhaps?
This is a very basic summary of what is done at a crimescene.
