Forensic Scientists to Develop DNA results in 4 hours

The Laboratory of Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine of Montreal is one of the oldest and most famous in the world in its field. We present the teachers and graduates of McGill who work and who, through their scientific skills, help the police to put criminals behind bars. At a party, when asked what she does in life, Anny Sauvageau knows what reaction will generate response. "The eyes light up," she said, when we discover what she spends her days.

There are likely to continue past then hours answering questions raised by his work. And if she does not want to talk to snippets on the subject, "... I just say I work for the government, without specifying.

Anny Sauvageau is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at McGill, but this is not what arouses the curiosity of strangers. That puts the spotlight, his performance of a forensic pathologist at the Laboratory of Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine (LSJML) of Montreal. "It's interesting to work in a prestigious area," she said. It receives much attention.

If you believe the ratings of TV shows, the general public has an insatiable curiosity for the ins and outs of forensic science. Millions of viewers are passionate about every week for the adventures of the detectives featured on the show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its spin-offs, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY.

"Nowadays, television is much better at exploiting the scientific side of our work. Twenty years ago, forensic science that was presenting was totally unrealistic, "says biologist judicial Vahe Sarafian (BSc'72, PhD'92), a fellow at Anny Sauvageau LSJML. "Today is a little too realistic. Some of these programs reveal the secrets, reveal things that should not leave the forensic environment. "

Anny Sauvageau agrees. "Sometimes it's as if the TV gave us a good recipe for committing crime. "

This does not mean that Hollywood is right on the line. Last spring, the McGill Alumni Association has organized a panel discussion on the forensic. Anny Sauvageau, who was among the experts invited to this event held sold out, are noted with some irony that there is little chance of finding a legal expert "featuring Marilyn hairstyle and heels needles "on a crime scene. In fact, most professionals working in the forensic laboratory in Montreal never approach the lesser crime scene.

"You remember Quincy? "Asks Sarafian, alluding to the character of a TV show that held the antenna for years. Jack Klugman played the role to a medical examiner who regularly went out of his lab to go murderers intimidate and force them to confess their crimes. "Quincy took charge of everything from A to Z. This is a classic example of what does not. In the CSI, the investigators who visit the crime scene rely on their intuitions and interrogate suspects. We do not do that. He added Sauvageau: "The characters of CSI are in 24 hours which often requires several months in real life. "

Forensic experts admit that the bizarre case portrayed in movies or TV shows are not always so different from those they meet at LSJML. People are dying of all sorts of unusual ways. This question has been the starting point for research Sauvageau and many of the articles it published in scientific journals dealing with death coming out of the ordinary. There was, for example, if the schizophrenic who committed suicide by choking on toilet paper or the type reported death from "accidental autoerotic asphyxia" after a disastrous attempt sexual experience -Marine who was badly done, the respirator of his diving apparatus, homemade, having malfunctioned.

"This is certainly not a routine job," said Sauvageau. You never know what kind will be your next case. And he should never be off the mark. "We must be meticulous. We only have one chance to make an initial autopsy. Much evidence can be lost forever if we do not do it properly. "

During the panel discussion organized by the McGill Alumni Association, also attended by Vahe Sarafian and Robert Dorion (DDS'72), professor of dentistry at McGill, Sauvageau presented a series of slides that have confirmed the strangeness cases she and her colleagues face.

One of the slides referred to the case of a young woman whose corpse was found half naked in a snowbank after a bitter break with her boyfriend. Easy to jump to conclusions, but his body bore no marks of violence.

"Things are not always what they seem, warns Sauvageau. It is important that forensic scientists approach their work without preconceived ideas about what they find. In examining the heart cells of the young woman, Sauvageau discovered signs of a rare disease that can make someone pass from life to death in no time - a disease that can be triggered by alcohol consumption and exposure to cold. After a night of drinking, the young woman had gone to pee in the snow last gesture she asked before losing consciousness and dying.

Robert Dorion, director of forensic dentistry services at LSJML, has also experienced cases memorable. The expert who puts his skills to the police for over 30 years has received the Exceptional Service in the Public Interest Award from the FBI for its efforts. The case he described as "probably the highlight of my career has not led to a conviction. It has helped lift a woman in prison wrongly accused.