ARSENIC IN HAIR BY INAA - A MAJOR RECENT MURDER CASE

In the fall of 1990, Blanche Kiser Moore was tried in the state of North Carolina for the murder, by arsenic poisoning, of a former boyfriend of hers (RCR), found guilty of first-degree murder by the jury, and sentenced to death. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), with gamma-ray spectrometry, was carried out on sectioned hair samples from six possible poisoning victims of hers, by the authors, and the results presented at the trial by VPG. Details of the sample preparations, the numerical results obtained, and their interpretation are presented. Also presented are difficulties involved in such analysis, and discussion of the fast-neutron interferences caused by Se and Br.