Development of submerged and successive latent fingerprints: a comparative study

Background: The use of water to destroy evidences in criminal cases is common. It is uncommon to believe the usefulness of evidences recovered underwater in terms of its forensic significance regarding personal identification especially by the investigating officers, who are responsible to collect and analyse the evidences. In this study, two main factors were considered which may impact the condition of fingerprint evidences: firstly, the time duration for which the evidence remains submerged in water (0.5 h, 24 h, 48 h, 120 h), and secondly, the succession or the number of prints given by the same finger one after the other (5 subsequent prints). Results: The result of this study revealed the successful development of latent fingerprint using Robin blue and silver magnetic powders on 8 different non-porous surfaces. Conclusion: The developed prints provide significant individual characteristics; hence, the evidentiary value of the objects found submerged in water should not be undervalued.