Monitoring of simulated clandestine graves of victims using UAVs, GPR, electrical tomography and conductivity over 4-8 years post-burial to aid forensic search investigators in Colombia, South America.

Autor: Molina CM; Facultad de Ingeniería Ambiental y Civil, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia. Electronic address: martin.molina@uan.edu.co., Wisniewski KD; School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Keele University, Keele, Staffs ST5 5BG, United Kingdom., Salamanca A; Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dadas por Desaparecidas Unidad, Colombia., Saumett M; GeoSense, Cra. No. 127-48 Oficina 1007, Bogotá, Colombia., Rojas C; Subsuelo 3d, Cra. 12a #77a45, Bogotá, Colombia., Gómez H; Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dadas por Desaparecidas Unidad, Colombia., Baena A; Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia., Pringle JK; School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Keele University, Keele, Staffs ST5 5BG, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Forensic science international [Forensic Sci Int] 2024 Feb; Vol. 355, pp. 111919. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 09.
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111919
Abstrakt: In Colombia there are estimated to be over 121,000 missing people and victims of forced disappearances. Forensic investigators therefore need assistance in determining optimal detection techniques for buried victims, to give victims' families closure and for the wider community to see that justice is being served. Previous research has created 12 controlled simulated clandestine graves of typical Colombian murder victim scenarios at 0.5 m - 1.2 m depths in savannah and rainforest sites in Colombia. The 0-3 years of geophysical monitoring results of were published, with this paper reporting on 4-8 years monitoring of both UAV drone results and geophysical data. The UAV results from the year 8 survey, published for first time from Colombia, showed that the simulated graves could still be located using NDVI and NIR multi-spectral data, but not using optical or other multi-spectral data. The 0-3 years of geophysical data found the simulated clandestine graves could be detected with electrical resistivity and GPR methods, with the 4-8 year surveys evidencing that they could still be detected using bulk ground conductivity surveys, GPR horizontal time slice datasets and 2D ERT profiles. Research implications suggest initial use of UAV remote sensing technology to pinpoint likely search areas, before subsequent ground reconnaissance, geophysical surveys and their interpretation, before intrusive investigation methods are employed for detecting missing and disappeared persons in Colombia.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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