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Vacuum Metal Deposition “Vacuum Metal Deposition, in a relationship with the San Diego Police Department, has cracked a four year old unsolved homicide case.” .A new technology has arrived into the United States. This technology uses state of the art processes similar to those used in the semi--conductor industry. This thin film evaporation technique is able to detect the minute traces of fingerprint residue. The process is very sensitive and is able to recover fingerprints from any smooth non--porous surface even if the latent print has aged over twenty years. This process has aided the San Diego Police Department in the ability to solve the first in 192 cases that have been reopened since the start of this Southern California service company.
Recently, the San Diego Police Department created a task force to reexamine all unsolved homicide cases from the past several decades. In its examination, based on the evidence that was collected in these 600 cases, they have reopened 192 unsolved cases. In a partnership that includes the Homicide Departments Detective Sergeant, the Supervisor of Latent Prints and the company, Vacuum Metal Deposition, evidence is examined for the effective use of the VMD process.
In the first of these cases, evidence was processed from a case of a four year old homicide that previously had no suspects. The evidence was several trash bags. These bags were heavily contaminated with the victim's blood and concrete dust that covered the entire surface. Prior attempts using Superglue Fuming failed to establish any ridge detail.
After processing the bags in the Vacuum Metal Deposition system, several prints were developed along with an entire palm print. The recovered prints were then photographed and scanned into the computer for identification. A match was found. The suspect was arrested, and along with other evidence, was later found guilty by jury on all counts including special circumstances.
Vacuum Metal Deposition provided the break in this case that allowed the Detectives and the District Attorneys' office to solve and prosecute this case. Sentencing is scheduled in the next several weeks. In this case, the length of time from processing to prosecution was 60 days.
Vacuum Metal Deposition is owned and operated by Steve Todd. The process
is performed out of the Costa Mesa Police Department. [Information added February 14, 2007: Steve Todd's current contact information is 714-322-2555 or steve.todd@ifi-test.com.]
This article was originally published in “THE PRINT” |