Biological Traces Taken from the Missile, Firearms and Items Associated with Them a Source of DNA for Personal Identification

This article is based on the data obtained through the implementation of the research task entitled “Selection of forensic methods for individual identification of thermally degraded traces remaining in a minimal amount on a weapon or a projectile” financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland. The research conducted as part of the experiments was aimed at proving what are the practical possibilities of genetic identification of a human on the basis of biological traces secured from a shot projectile and from the assignment of various examples of firearms from which the shot was fired. These studies allowed for the selection of methods related to the acquisition and analysis of DNA as a source for establishing the identity of unknown people, whose material was thermally changed and was subject to other degradation factors. They constitute a preliminary report, but allow us to assume that the further continuation of the analyzes will significantly expand the knowledge in this field. The assumption of the research task was to introduce a greater number of weapons and many various obstacles on the flight path of the fired missile, but due to some difficulties, the research experiments were not extended, which significantly limited the possibility of obtaining a greater amount of information that could be used in practice during forensic examination. Nevertheless, the findings made optimistic about the prospect of continuing the analyzes, and with them, expanding knowledge in the area in question. After all, more and more perfect methods of securing biological traces occurring in subanalytical quantities (LCN), degraded in various ways, exposed to many unfavorable environmental and weather factors, coming from hard-to-reach and polluted surfaces, provide a great chance to learn and solve the hitherto unexplained issues. This, the use of highly developed trace concentration techniques and the introduction of more and more modern research genetically identifying material of human origin and facilitating other, not less important, determinations.