Sometimes, no matter how experienced and how hard investigators try, they’re simply unable to find a fingerprint.
They dust and they dust and they twirl and whirl and spin animal hair brushes and brushes made from stork feathers, and nylon. They use dark powers, white powders, powders of all colors of the rainbow and more. Iodine and SuperGlue. But NOTHING works!
It could be that the crook wore gloves. Or, it could be …
Fingerprints found and collected at crime scenes are eventually developed and hopefully lead the heroes of your stories to the perpetrator(s) of the crime du jour. But there’s a bit more to the process than merely using a brush, a bit of black powder, and a piece of clear tape. For example, did you know about …
Amido Black – protein enhancer for blood prints. Click this Link for details.
Gentian Violet is a skin cell stain for developing print on the sticky side of tape. Click this Link for details.
Ninhydrin – chemical for developing latent prints on porous surfaces, such a paper. Click this Link for details.
Physical Developer – chemical for developing latent prints on wet paper. Click this Link for details.
Powders are typically effective on smooth, non-porous surfaces.
Small Particle Reagent (SPR) – liquid powder solution effective on wet porous evidence). Click this Link for details.
Cyanoacrylate – Superglue fuming for all types of non-porous surfaces.
Dye Stains, such as MBD, are used to detect prints in conjunction with an ALS (Alternate Light Source) on non-porous evidence after using Cyanoacrylate (Superglue) fuming. Click this Link for details.
