The scene of the incident doesn’t look like an altered one. The pick-up has heaps of glass outside the passenger door; this points to the probability that the window to the passenger window was broken on the scene. The pick-up doesn’t seem to be a four wheel drive since only the rear wheels have dug into the ground. The rear wheel having burnt off the rim; there is a possibility that the driver lost control of the pick-up and plunged into the fence, but the rear wheels continued to turn. The position of the lady at the passenger seat is on the right side of the driver; this is a left-hand drive pick-up. We are looking at a possible case of murder involving two victims, a middle-aged man in his early thirties and a woman (Miller & Braswell, 2010). The driver, the male victim, is holding a pistol on his left hand and has a single bullet wound to the temple area of his head. This victim doesn’t have much blood on his body; there is a likelihood that he succumbed to internal bleeding in the head.
The fact that this victim has a single wound on the left side of the temple area of his head suggests that either the victim was attacked by a different weapon which wasn’t too long to exit through to the other side of his head; or that if it was a bullet, then it is still lodged in the skull of the victim. However, the presence of a ring and burns points towards a bullet. It’s is possible that the bullet is still dislodged in his skull. We should, therefore, try and extract the bullet from the victim's head and do further investigations to relate it to the firearms from which it was fired (Karagiozis & Sgaglio, 2015). The scalp of this victim is pulled back away from the hole as indicated by the muzzle imprints. This happens when gas expands under the skin causing the skin to press back against the gun. The muzzle imprints point towards a shot fired when the muzzle of the gun is in contact with the victim’s scalp. The use of airguns in this incidence must be ruled out, contact wounds from airguns usually do not have features like muzzle imprints. The projectile caused tearing of the skin; this happens because the scalp is tightly flexed on the skull; therefore gas discharge during the short expands when in the region between the skin and the skull causing ballooning of the skin. The skin was torn because it stretched beyond its elasticity limit. The level of the tear, however, normally depends on the caliber of weapon and the amount of gas produced. Further investigations on the level of the tear in a forensic lab will give us a clue on the type of firearms we are looking for. The circular impression around the hole points towards a shot fired at near contact range or at contact (Vacca, 2005). There is a lack of external evidence like powder stippling and abrasion on the skin, this further confirms my earlier thought that the shot was fired at contact, however, the contact must have been hard contact with the gun firmly pressed on the victim’s scalp. The absence of any material on the external part of the wound means that all the material were directed into the wound. The ring around the edge of the hole with an appearance of being burned could have resulted from powder grains from the gun causing abrasion on the skin; they are not burns (Miller & Braswell, 2010).
The presence of a pistol and tiny drops of blood spatter on the victim’s left-hand means that it is either the victim fired a close-range shot that led to the blood spatter on his hands or that the victim shot himself. Bearing in mind that this male victim is the driver, his right hand must have been on the steering wheel before he lost control of the pick-up. However, relating the presence of blood spatter on his left hand, a pistol on his left and the bullet wound being on the left side of the temple part of his head, there is also a possibility that the victim shot himself in the head (Karagiozis & Sgaglio, 2015.
The female victim seated on the right-hand side of the driver, male victim, has a small hole on the left side of her head, this must be an entrance hole as was the case with the previous victim. Outside the passenger door which is on the lady’s side, a heap of broken glass from the window is seen, this points to the possibility that whatever caused the breakage of this window must have come from inside the pick-up for the glass particles to fall outside the pick-up (Vacca, 2005). The small hole on the left side of the lady’s head is perfectly round; this suggests that the bullet was from short range. Deposited around the wound is also a sooty residue, this is powder tattooing and results from a shot fired at an intermediate range. The shot was fired off contact with the victim’s body but from a range sufficient enough for the powder grains to be deposited on the victim’s skin. She has a lot of blood on her upper body; this means that she must have succumbed to external bleeding (Miller & Braswell, 2010). This victim is not wearing a wedding band while her male counterpart had a wedding band. There is, therefore, a possibility that the two victims were not a married couple, we are therefore looking at a case of a divorced couple, a clandestine relationship or people who are just mere friends.
The female has the visor mirror before her pulled down to enable her to see herself in the mirror, on her lap she has a Blistex tube in her lap, this points to the possibility that she was shot unaware as she might have been applying the beauty cream on her lips while looking at the visor mirror (Vacca, 2005). This scene also points a possibility that the two victims did not have an official relationship and might have been in a relatively calm mood before the incident happened. With the heap of class outside the right-hand passenger door, we rule out the possibility that female victim was shot before the vehicle finally lost control and plunged into the fence.
This female victim was obviously shot from the inside of the pick-up. She has a hole on the left side of her head. The driver’s window had no breakage, which means that the bullet wasn’t fired from his left side. Bearing in mind that the male victim had a hole on the temple section of his head and that there is no evidence pointing towards the bullet that shot him coming from outside, we might also consider the possibility that present in the pick-up was a third party (Vacca, 2005). If we were to assess all possible outcome that would have existed if this third party was the killer, first there is a high possibility that the male victim would have been shot from the right side. Even if the assumed third party was left handed, the shot on the male victim could have been at the back of his head or his neck; we, therefore, rule out the possibility that there was a third party in the car.
Having ruled out the possibility of a third party in the pick-up, we might consider the possibility that the male victim of the incident killed the female victim. As mentioned earlier, the wound on the male victim’s head existing on the left hand suggest that he must have been short from the left side (Karagiozis & Sgaglio, 2015. It must, however, be a contact short. I would, therefore, think of it that this incident was a case of murder and suicide.
With that position, it seems that the male victim murdered the female one. Having said that all possible indicators point to the fact that the female victim died were shot at the scene, first of all, it seems that they male victim had intentions to kill the female victim (Karagiozis & Sgaglio, 2015. He kept the firearm on his left side of either the pocket or hid it on his left side; he probably didn’t want her female counterpart to see it. Secondly, the driver must have shot the lady first then shot himself. If he had shot himself first, probably the lady would have become curios and even escaped. The possible situation here is that the driver was trying to commit suicide by killing himself and the lady through causing an accident, he, therefore, attempted to do that by intentionally veering of the road and plunging the pick-up into a fence (Miller & Braswell, 2010). However, after trying this and failing, he removes the gun and shoots the lady. With all indicators pointing towards a hand contact wound, it seems the male victim was tensed, scared and held the firearm firmly in contact with his head and pulled the trigger. This resulted in blood spatter on his left hand.
References
Miller, L. S., & Braswell, M. C. (2010). Crime scene investigation. Elsevier Science.
Karagiozis, M. F., & Sgaglio, R. (2005). Forensic Investigation Handbook: An Introduction to the Collection, Preservation, Analysis, and Presentation of Evidence. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Vacca, J. R. (2005). Computer Forensics: Computer Crime Scene Investigation (Networking Series) (Networking Series). Charles River Media, Inc.
