Erin Kimmerle
Assistant Professor

• Blood Pattern Analysis Flyer (PDF)

This course of instruction is designed for crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, detectives investigators, members of the criminal justice legal system as well as forensic science students interested in the application of bloodstain pattern analysis at crime scenes. The course is intended to develop a fundamental knowledge of the discipline of bloodstain pattern analysis. The course will illustrate to the student basic principles of bloodstain pattern analysis and the practical application of this discipline to actual casework. The course is not intended to create an "instant" expert. Experience with actual casework in conjunction with the successful completion of basic and advanced courses in bloodstain pattern analysis are highly recommended.

This basic bloodstain pattern analysis course consists of 40 hours of instruction with lectures and laboratory experiments. The student will conduct a series of bloodstain experiments in small groups with pig blood and maintain a laboratory work book that will document their work. Additional handout material will be provided. The course content will adhere to the guidelines set forth by the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts. A final examination will be given and certificates of successful completion of the course requirements awarded. In addition to handout materials including the laboratory manual, the students will be provided with a copy of the text book, Principles of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis – Theory and Practice authored by Stuart H. James, Paul E. Kish and T.

• Forensic Digital Training Flyer (PDF)

In cooperation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, we are proud to offer bi-annual professional training on forensic imaging techniques for professional law enforcement, including age progression, photo restoration, superimposition, and reconstruction.

For more information contact:
Erin Kimmerle (kimmerle@cas.usf.edu), or Glenn Miller (gmiller@ncmec.org) Forensic Imaging Specialist, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

• Outdoor Crime Scene Flyer (PDF)

Building upon the University of South Florida’s excellence in the social, biological, geological, and earth sciences; our interdisciplinary team applies science to legal and forensic issues such as missing persons. Through cutting-edge method development, evaluations of technology, and the quantification of local variants in estimating the post-mortem interval, investigations are underway in the areas of decomposition rates of tissues and fibers; comparative techniques for locating, mapping, and exhuming remains from various contexts including surface and sub-surface clandestine burials; the accuracy of geophysical technologies used to locate clandestine graves, and the analysis of soil chemistry to estimate decomposition rates to estimate the post-mortem interval.

The purpose of this short course is to provide law enforcement, crime scene technicians, and others involved with medico-legal death investigations with practical hands-on training for investigating and excavating crime scenes containing human remains. Special emphasis is placed on archaeological, geophysical, and geospatial technologies such as mapping and GIS/GPS, aerial imaging, and GPR. This course will integrate field investigations with laboratory analysis of evidence related to archaeology, anthropology, taphonomy, entomology and time since death estimation (decomposition studies). Using model corpses, mock crime scenes are simulated. Participants survey and formulate the site and search and locate clandestine graves.