Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg

07/08/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/09/2024 01:46

BTU expertise for a cold case analysis of a 40 year old criminal case

BTU expertise for a cold case analysis of a 40-year-old criminal case

As part of the International Cold Case Analysis Project (ICCAP), this unsolved case is now being "reopened" using modern investigative methods. A film team is conducting research for the arteRE series and interviewing experts from the Lower Saxony Police Academy, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences and BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.

Students on the Forensic Sciences and Engineering Master's study programme are involved.

More than 40 years ago, a burnt-out car with a dead man in the trunk was found in a forest near a small town in Lower Saxony. The criminal case involving the man from Scotland gave the investigating officers a number of questions that could not be answered under the circumstances at the time. The death remained unsolved.

Former Director of Criminal Investigation Karsten Bettels is head of the International Cold Case Analysis Project (ICCAP), which was initiated in 2020. He teaches at the police academy in Lower Saxony and uses real cold cases to teach students approaches and techniques of criminal investigation. While in the past the focus was on investigation methods with a different technical standard, today new analytical procedures and the possibilities of digitalization can be used. This is also the case in this case, which will be the subject of an episode of arteRE: to be broadcast in fall 2024. The ICCAP has been running since the end of 2023 under the umbrella of the European Center for Missing Children, Amber Alert Europe.

To find out more about the interplay between modern crime scene analyses, simulations of crime sequences and the experts' conclusions, a film team led by Claudia Bäckmann came to Cottbus on June 27, 2024 to the Brandenburg University of Technology. During a seminar with students, a panel of experts and during the fire analysis in the laboratory, the footage that will be part of the broadcast was recorded.

The basis for promising investigative work under new, modern conditions is the cooperation between partner institutions. In the case of the dead man in the burnt-out vehicle, for example, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, led by Karsten Bettels, with Michele-Nadine Wagner and Robin Keppler, is working closely with Prof. Thomas Fischer and Sylvia Friedrich, a student from the current year of the Forensic Sciences study program at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. While Mittweida specializes in digital forensics, the BTU focuses on laboratory analyses and scientific considerations. Two 3D models were created based on the case files and witness statements from 1983: one of the discovery/crime scene, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the course of the crime. A model of the fire and cooling behavior provides indications of a possible time of the crime.

In a panel of experts, the project participants discuss the findings resulting from the new considerations. In the further course of the project, the two modeling approaches are to be combined in order to initiate a targeted search for evidence at the crime scene - also taking into account the investigation results of other working groups in the project.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Fischer, Head of the Central Analytics Laboratory (ZAL) at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, says:"If the project enables police measures to be resumed and the perpetrator(s) to be identified, we are preparing to introduce expert reports on the vehicle fire into the proceedings."

The Forensic Sciences and Engineering study programme has been running at BTU for 13 years. Since this year, it has been part of a network of international universities in which researchers and students reinvestigate long-past, unsolved criminal cases with the help of modern technical possibilities. Cold traces are analyzed, reconstructed and interpreted in the laboratory and on the computer. One of the main aims of the study programme is to provide students with in-depth knowledge of forensic science. This is done in particular with regard to practice-relevant scientific, engineering and legal issues in investigative and criminal proceedings. Students are enabled to independently acquire new knowledge and skills in the field of forensic science even after their final degree. Seminars in the areas of forensic crime scene work, law and quality assurance as well as the teaching of methodological skills in forensic analysis complete the degree program. Applications for the two-semester Master's degree are possible until August 31, 2024.

In addition, the "Criminalistics" module has been offered in the General Studies (FÜS) program at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg since 2022, which has met with great interest among students from a wide range of disciplines.

Contact

Dirk Marx, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), coordinator of the "Forensic Sciences and Engineering" study programme and initiator of the Forensic TransLAB, T +49 (0) 355 693139, E dirk.marx(at)b-tu.de, https://www.b-tu.de/forensic-sciences-ms

Contact us

Prof. PD Dr. rer. nat. habil. Thomas Fischer
Zentrales Analytisches Labor (ZAL)
T +49 (0) 355 69-2840
thomas.fischer(at)b-tu.de

Press contact

Susett Tanneberger
Kommunikation und Marketing
T +49 (0) 355 69-3126
susett.tanneberger(at)b-tu.de
[Link] The film team recording the discussion in the expert panel (Photo: BTU, Isabelle Grätz)
[Link] Evaluation of the models (from right to left) Robin Keppler (Mittweida University of Applied Sciences), Prof. Thomas Fischer (BTU), Karsten Bettels (ICCAP). Photo: BTU, Isabelle Grätz
[Link] Director of Criminal Investigation Karsten Bettels in the focus of the camera (Photo: BTU, Isabelle Grätz)
[Link] Expert discussion with camera accompaniment (Photo: BTU, Isabelle Grätz)
[Link] As part of the criminology seminar, students were given an insight into investigative work today and in the past (Photo: BTU, Isabelle Grätz)
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