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would you like to test chainsaw blood spatter?
from argus leader
Chain saw test was key to case, a forensics first
Josh Verges • jverges@argusleader.com • January 10, 2009
When Sioux Falls police examined the basement where they suspected Darlene VanderGiesen was dismembered with a chain saw two years ago, they were surprised to find that the room was not as gruesome as they'd expected.
But an unusual experiment involving the carcass of a pig helped explain the scene, and eventually helped prosecutors to win a conviction in the high-profile murder case.
Now, that experiment will be the subject of national discussion in the forensics community.
"People were saying, 'Geez, I can't believe she was cut up in this coal room because there's not much spatter around," Minnehaha County Coroner Dr. Brad Randall said.
The walls in the basement, hastily covered by blue paint, hid tiny flecks of the missing woman's bone and tissue. The chain saw dismemberment of a 200-pound woman, investigators figured, would have left a bigger mess in the small space.
Randall decided to find out for himself.
Randall and Jessica Lichty, forensic chemist at the city crime lab, drove to Kaylor Meat Locker, where Randall bought a pig similar in size to a human.
They brought with them a 1.5 horsepower chain saw, a replica of the one Daphne Wright purchased for $53 at a local hardware store Feb. 3, 2007 - two days after VanderGiesen's disappearance.
Randall and Lichty conducted the experiment at the meat locker and at the Law Enforcement Center, shooting video and still photographs as they took turns sawing through the carcass. To their surprise, the blood spatter was minimal and mostly passed through the saw's discharge chute.
"There really wasn't as much material as you'd expect," Randall said.
At Wright's murder trial the following April, prosecutors used the experiment results to advance their theory about who killed VanderGiesen and what she did to get the body out of the house.
In a peer-reviewed article last summer in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Randall and Lichty will share what they learned with the forensic world. And Lichty is scheduled to present "Blood and Tissue Spatter Associated With Chainsaw Dismemberment" next month at the American Academy of Forensic Scientists annual meeting in Denver.
Randall said he pursued the experiment for a couple reasons: He couldn't find another published article on chain saw dismemberment spatter, and "just to find out what was going to happen."
He said it was "not a particularly big piece" of the prosecution's case. But the images left a lasting impression in the minds of jurors.
"I can still picture them in those photos with the blood on their white suits," said Erin Frost-Elshami, foreperson on the jury which sent Wright to prison for life.
She said prosecutor Dave Nelson and various police officers described the scene in that coal room, but it didn't come to life until Randall took the witness stand.
He and Nelson used close-up photos to compare the saw marks on the pig carcass to those on VanderGiesen's dismembered body.
"To see that, you think, 'Wow, somebody did exactly what they said to that woman in that room,' " Frost-Elshami said.
Prosecutors also wanted to show jurors video of the experiment, but Circuit Judge Brad Zell refused.
"The problem with the video is you get to see the chain saw as it was sending particles flying everywhere," Zell said.
It wasn't especially gory, but the judge feared it could have made some jurors ill if they remembered who the animal represents. Zell said the photographs and Randall's testimony made for compelling evidence.
"I thought it was very effective testimony," he said.
Reach Josh Verges at 331-2335.
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Originally Posted by Morning Glory
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