mystery ( kind of ) solved!?
"Cops hope to link soil found at the reservoir to Bruckner's van"
so they have his van (we know they examined it forensically a few months/ a year ago...), soil from his van, and photos all relating to MM jmo
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann think they have a good chance of proving Christian Bruckner's VW camper van was at the reservoir
www.mirror.co.uk
Aha. I’ve been mulling over this possibility lately, after the pictures and discussions about the holes and soil sampling. It seemed quite plausible that the investigators are searching for a site matching existing soil evidence acquired from CB’s vehicles, clothes or property. Which might then lead to a search zone and warrant to search for forensic evidence. As has been discussed here.
I wonder if Portugal has digital maps of the country’s soil types which LE has access to?
Other countries have developed these virtual maps/databases of soil systems to support land management stakeholders including agriculture and mineral resources. They can contain datasets of literally hundreds of soil profiles, across very specific locations. Down to metres as opposed to kilometres, it would seem.
In general (ie not specifically regarding this case) it is theoretically possible that LE could refer to these systems to rule out large tracts of land for searches (according to links). It’s an interesting subject. Apologies if it has already been discussed on earlier threads.
Meanwhile the drought continues and I see water restrictions have been instigated in the Algarve. The reservoirs are expected to be at minimum levels in the coming months, perhaps they will give up their ghosts.
Anyway, some links/excerpts including the KB case in Scotland, where this soil database approach was utilised.
“The INFOSOLO legacy database is the first effort to develop a soil information system in Portugal, suitable to compile soil data produced in the country, and to support stakeholders and land managers in decision-making. The current version includes soil data from a set of 9934 horizons/layers studied in 3461 soil profiles across the country between 1966 and 2014.
https://data.isric.org/geonetwork/srv/api/records/25d0cf4d-1865-4d2a-be32-40a1b2483936
“De Caritat said predictive provenancing using existing digital soil maps has never been put forward before in a forensic application and offers an “effective desktop method of ruling out vast areas of territory for forensic search” as soon as a soil analysis is available. The research builds on
an earlier paper he coauthored in which the method reduced the search area for soil samples by up to 90%.”
Predictive Forensics Helps Determine Where Soil Samples Came From - Eos
“A few years ago, scientists might only have been be able to say that someone had walked in an area the size of a square mile whereas today— thanks to Lorna’s work—it’s down to a few feet. In Scotland, scientists are using increasingly sophisticated technology to create virtual maps of the country’s 300,000 (and counting) different soil characteristics”.
Meet the soil detective solving Britain's coldest cases - Reader's Digest
Adelaidean -- Making soil talk: New forensics discipline helps solve major crime
Plants have helped detectives catch murderers including serial killer Ted Bundy
“Scientists at the National Centre for Forensic Studies at the University of Canberra have taken the first steps in developing a new method of identifying the movements of criminals using chemical analysis of soil and dust found on equipment, clothing and cars. The locating system allows police or security services to match soil remnants found on personal items to regional soil samples, to either implicate or eliminate presence at a crime scene.
…
“We've done the first trials to see if geochemical analysis could narrow down a search area. We took a 260 km2 area of North Canberra and divided it into cells (squares) of 1 km x 1 km, and sampled the soil in each cell. We were then given 3 samples from within the survey area, and asked to identify which grid cells they came from. This was a 'blind' experiment, in other words we did not know where the samples came from until the end of the experiment. For comparison, Manhattan Island is around 60 km2, so that shows that we looked at a pretty big area," Dr. Patrice de Caritat, lead author of the
open access study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, said.
“Using these methods, they were able to eliminate 60% of the territory under investigation.
…
"Much of forensics is about elimination, so being able to rule out 60% of an area is a substantial contribution toward successfully locating a sample. You can reduce the time, risk and investment of the ongoing investigation. The more parameters we look at, the more accurate the system is. We have reached 90% detection in some cases, although we think that would involve too many factors for real-world crime detection."
“The team also notes the great potential of
environmental DNA in tracking the provenance of soil samples. Derived from plants growing or animals living in the upper layers of a soil profile, traces of preserved DNA can help to pinpoint the provenance of samples besides chemical and mineralogical analysis.
“In the past, investigators were limited in the number of soil samples they can collect in the field and process. However, using special software, modern computer networks, and relying on existing databases, with samples derived from mineral exploration, agriculture, environmental monitoring, or land use development, researchers now can compare multiple samples of unknown origin with many data points covering larger areas.
"This shows that our systems work, and that we have a potential new tool for criminal and intelligence investigations. It's the next stage which is potentially most interesting. Most developed countries have
existing soil databases, used for such things as mineral exploration or land use decision support. We're plugging our methods into these databases to see if we can locate samples from the database information, rather than needing to collect samples specifically for each investigation."
New Method To Identify Dirt Helps Track Criminals
Predictive Forensics Helps Determine Where Soil Samples Came From - Eos
How soil expert helped police catch evil killer of Glasgow student