Underwater Forensics

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How Did He Do It?

In 1914, Margaret Lloyd died in her bath in Highgate, England. A relative of the victim of a similar drowning also previously married to Lloyd's widower, George Joseph Smith, spotted Lloyd's obituary and brought the matter to the police. An investigation uncovered Smith's criminal record, revealing that he had not only married Margaret Lloyd under an assumed name but had actually married three times, and each of his wives in turn had drowned in her bath. Despite the vanishingly small possibility that this had been coincidence, it seemed unlikely that someone could have assaulted the women in their bathtubs without a fierce struggle. Yet there had been no mark of violence on any of the bodies.

Smith was arrested, and a rising young pathologist, Bernard Spilsbury, supervised the exhumations of Smith's two previous wives for autopsy. Studying the first woman's remains, Spilsbury decided that "gooseflesh" on her skin indicated she had died suddenly, and her organs showed no defect or disease that might have killed her. Smith's attorney claimed she had experienced an epileptic fit, but Spilsbury was determined to prove something more nefarious had occurred.

He dismissed the possibility that the five-foot-seven woman could have suffered a fit in a five-foot-long tub that would have placed her head under water, but he wanted to demonstrate how she might have died by homicide without a sign of struggle. With Detective Inspector Arthur Neil Young, he devised an experiment to explore the possibilities.

Several women agreed to don bathing outfits, sit in a bathtub similar to the one in Smith's home, and allow Young to try to drown them. After repeated failures, the feat seemed impossible without an incredible struggle. But then the detective deduced the answer: Smith had killed them by suddenly raising their knees into the air, which pulled their heads down and rendered them helpless to the rush of water. In fact, as the procedure was performed in front of a jury, the female participant went unconscious at once and had to be revived. It was a convincing show, which paid off. Since Smith had benefited financially from all three deaths, his motive was clear. Within twenty minutes, the "Brides in the Bath Killer" was convicted. In 1915 he was hanged for it.

Since that time, investigations about deaths in water have come a long way.

Thanks to Katherine Ramsland and tru Tv

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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Underwater Forensics

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Underwater Crime Investigation

Aric Dutelle writes that the first documented dive teams trained specifically for forensic work were those of the Miami-Dade County Underwater Recovery Unit, established in 1960. Being on the ocean, this jurisdiction unsurprisingly dealt frequently with crime evidence tossed into the water. Dutelle notes that members of such teams must not only be skilled in diving but they're usually the ones who must photograph (if possible), document, fingerprint and recover evidence. A lot rides on their ability to perform a number of forensic functions competently underwater.

Dive teams should include divers trained in forensic recovery as well as line tenders familiar with the underwater environment who can establish solid communication via the diver's tether. It's important that team members trust each other, as underwater work, especially in "black water" where it's difficult to see, can be treacherous. If evidence such as a body is found, divers must map, diagram, and document its location and position. If possible, photos should be taken of remains in situ as soon as conditions permit.


A potential crime scene will include a "surface" and a "submerged" area. At the surface, investigators should look for the point of entry into the water, searching for potential evidence — clothing, footprints, or indications of a struggle. Only properly trained divers should investigate the submerged area. They might use sonar to locate both hazards and objects important to the investigation or they may simply feel their way through weeds and muck. In either event, the search should be conducted in an organized and systematic manner. For anything found, the divers can float markers on the surface. The divers should know the proper protocol for underwater photography in different conditions.

Andrea Zaferes and Walt Hendrick teach public safety diving and rescue via their organization, Team Lifeguard Systems (http://www.teamlgs.com), and consult on underwater death investigations (http://www.rip-tide.org) as a public service. Hendrick has been teaching since 1960, when he started an offshore rescue team in Puerto Rico. He founded Lifeguard Systems to further his efforts in bringing the proper techniques to people in public and military service. Andrea Zaferes joined his team in 1987 and is now vice president, and a trainer and program creator.

Zaferes taught diving with Dr. Lee Somers and Karl Huggins at the University of Michigan's Scientific Diving Program, serving as a diving safety officer for the American Museum of Natural History's Animal Behavior Research Department. She teaches around a thousand surface rescue and dive personnel annually, and has co-authored with Hendrick such publications as Surface Ice Rescue, Scuba Instructor Readiness Series, Field Neurological Evaluations, Public Safety Dive Operations, Blackwater Contingency, and Homicidal Drowning Investigator.

RipTide is part of Team Lifeguard Systems, offering assistance in the recovery of drowning victims and advising on the investigation of underwater homicides. RipTide also works to prevent drownings with education, as well as to document cases in which the cause of death was lack of preparation, improper procedure, suicide, accident, or homicide. RipTide then disseminates that information to investigative agencies to help improve procedures and avoid overlooking crucial evidence.

Having worked in over fifteen countries, Hendrick and Zaferes offer programs for everything from deaths in bathtubs to rescue under ice. Early in his career Hendrick was called into several supposed drownings that he believed to be homicides, so he helped develop techniques to ensure a proper investigation. On the TeamLGS Website, he notes that drowning is the eighth most common method of homicide, but he believes that were more drownings investigated for potential foul play, it would rank even higher. In the case child drownings, which are usually ruled accidental, he surmised that as many as 20% could be homicides.

This team also researches homicide victims dumped into water postmortem, such as Laci Peterson, and they've written guidelines for divers to manage such crime scenes with the least possible disturbance. They advocate procedures that mirror those for land-based incidents, emphasizing the importance of the many things too often overlooked during water recovery, such as questioning witnesses or taking proper measurements. Water is a tricky medium, but securing a conviction for a homicide demands appropriate evidence handling. Much can be missed if investigators fail to think through all the angles, and this is especially relevant for underwater crime scenes.

thanks to Katherine Ramsland and tru tv

Kathy Dowsett

www.kirkscubagear.com

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