Deciphering bloody imprints through chemical enhancement.

Obliterated bloody impressions are occasionally submitted to the crime laboratory, and potentially to the document examiner, for decipherment. Nondestructive methods often lead to inconclusive results in these circumstances. With this point in mind, the researchers explored a series of chemical reagents with the intent to enhance bloody imprints to a legible degree. The reagents selected for this comparison include rhodamine dye, luminol, and Coomassie Blue stain.