Examination of persistence of bloodstains on various wood surfaces by luminol test

Abstract

Bloodstains are important physical evidences. Normally bloodstains were found in crime scene. The objective of this research was to examine the persistence of bloodstains on various wood surfaces by luminol in different conditions. The substrates chosen in this study were rubber wood, pine wood and teak wood. In this experiment, 50 µL of blood samples were applied onto those surfaces. Then, those samples with bloodstains were kept at three different conditions including indoors in the darkness, outdoors under sunshine and indoors controlled temperature of 25˚C for 4 weeks. The samples were tested by luminol testing every week.  The results found that the bloodstains on all samples studied could be clearly detected even in the 4^th week. The findings of this study showed the capability of the luminol test to detect bloodstains on various types of wood surfaces and might be used to detect bloodstains on wood surfaces in authentic forensic samples.