The crucial role of Forensic Botany in the solution of judicial cases

Abstract

A few years ago, two subjects disappeared and were found lifeless in the surrounding countryside. Understanding the causes of their death was particularly complex for the state of conservation of the human remains. A multi-disciplinary approach allowed experts in botany and geology to identify some algae traces on victims’ belongings. Observations of microalgae, in association with other geological and botanical evidence, allowed investigators to geolocate the passage of one of the victims and to exclude that the victims’ belongings were submerged under water. The present investigation proved how a traditional microscopic approach, based on the identification of associations of morpho-types of microalgae, could be decisive for linking the presence of one of the victims to specific sites of the territory where the body was found lifeless.