Forensic Science


Feature Writer: Karen Lotter
Karen Lotter, Ros Sarkin

Forensic Science deals with both life and with death. DNA, Cloning and Stem Cell Research fall into this category. So do all the details of a crime scene like ballistics, fiber analysis, forensic dentistry, toolmarks, poisoning, wounds, forensic sculpture, accident investigation and many more.

Wherever we go and whatever we do we always leave traces behind. No matter how microscopic, they can be detected through the growing and always evolving discipline of Forensic Science - the tool that brings criminals to book and solves many mysteries.

TV Shows like CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Bones, Without a Trace, Forensic Files and the Court TV channel have certainly done a lot for forensic science, some say positive, other disagree. In fact they have created, what is referred to as the CSI Effect.

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Fingerprint Identification aka Dactyloscopy, clipart
feature articles
Karen Lotter

What is Forensic Psychiatry?

In: Forensic Science (general)

Forensic Psychiatry is a combination of the law and psychiatric practice that deals with issues like criminal responsibility. more...

What is Forensic Ballistics?

In: Forensic Science (general)

Firearms Identification is a forensic science often referred to as ballistics. Forensic ballistics identifies firearm usage in crimes. more...

Disputed Bite Mark Evidence

In: Crime Scene Processing

Ray Krone and Ricky Amolsch are two men who were wrongfully convicted of terrible crimes involving human bite mark evidence. Both were later released. more...

The Capture of Ted Bundy

In: Crime Scene Processing

Ted Bundy confessed to taking 30 lives after a decade of denials. He wasn't caught until he left an odd bite mark on the buttock of Lisa Levy. more...

Taking a Look at Human Bite Marks

In: Crime Scene Processing

How reliable is forensic bite mark analysis? Everyone knows that a bite mark on Lisa Levy ended Ted Bundy's crime spree, but many convictions are now getting overturned. more...

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feature blog
Karen Lotter

Apr 12, 2008

Trial of Serial Killer Ted Bundy

True Crime Writer Anne Rule knew in her heart that her former friend Ted Bundy was a serial killer, but the bite mark evidence convinced her.


I’m not quite sure what started me on bite marks maybe one of the true crime programs I enjoy watching in TV – we get the Crime and Investigation Channel here in South Africa so I am intimately familiar with serial killers and a host of forensic science topics from watching reruns of the programs.

I guess it was one of the serial killer programs that focused on Ted Bundy. In this one True Crime writer Anne Rule was talking about the time when she and Ted Bundy were friends.

While a university student in Seattle, Bundy worked all kinds of odd jobs including as a night-shift volunteer at Seattle's Suicide Hot Line. That was where he met and worked with former Seattle policewoman and fledgling crime writer Ann Rule. Who later wrote the most famous biography of Bundy and his crimes, The Stranger Beside Me.

In an interview with Katherine Ramsland, Rule says that she knew that Bundy was a serial killer but s tiny shed of doubt remained and that the bite mark evidence during the trial, which she covered as a reporter, remained the hardest for her:

"To be absolutely sure about his guilt," Rule remembers, "I needed to see direct physical evidence, and there it was, no question. It made me sick to my stomach. I went down to the hall to the ladies' room and threw up. Yet he still maintained this suave, friendly look. It was a bad day for me."

The Stranger Beside Me launched her career.

Being an Anne Rule fan and a writer I wondered at the incredible coincidence of a serial killer and a true crime writer becoming friends before their paths would take them in such opposite, yet similar directions.

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