Finding Sniper Shooting Evidence With Tech

Oct. 30 -- With the capture of suspected serial snipers John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, federal and local investigators appear to have stopped the terror that plagued residents of the Washington D.C.-area this month.

But now comes the other critical part for law enforcement agents: Providing the hard evidence that prosecutors will need to convict both suspects in a court of law.

And according to criminal investigation experts, the federal crime labs at the ATF, FBI, and Secret Service will be using a mix of high-tech tricks and proven analysis techniques to help cement the case against Muhammad and Malvo.

"When you talk about state of the art [forensic] equipment, the labs are in good shape to look at the biologic and document evidence [in this case]," says Lawrence Kobilinsky, a professor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "The tools are all there."

Going Ballistic

A key part, obviously, has been the ballistic evidence — the few shell casings and bullet fragments recovered from the multiple crime scenes and victims.

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"Ballistic investigation has been around for many years, but the capability has gotten better over the years," says Robert Castelli, a professor of criminal justice at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., and at John Jay. "There are great gains from a technology standpoint. Just in the ability to have greater magnification in comparative microscopes is tremendous."

By examining recovered bullets and casing for similar markings, investigators were able to determine early on that most of the shooting cases were related to the same .223-caliber weapon. More importantly, investigators say they have been able to match that recovered ballistic evidence to the Bushmaster XM-15 rifle that was discovered in the suspects' car on their capture.

But ballistics evidence is also helping investigators tie Muhammad and Malvo to other shootings as well.

Identifying Other Cases

Two other weapons recovered in the suspects' car have been positively identified with other shootings in Tacoma, Wash., where Muhammad was known to have lived. One of the weapons, a .45-caliber handgun, was used to kill Keenya Cook, the niece of a former employee at Muhammad's auto repair shop.