She rested her gloved hands on the paper. “Then do what you have to do to get their prints to me. That way I can do a manual comparison to see if they touched this device.”
“That might be a problem,” Colin said. “They’re out in a campsite in the boonies on Shadow Lake property.”
“But we can do it,” Micha said quickly. “Ryan’s with them, and he’ll find a way to get samples from them. It’ll just take time we don’t really have to spare.”
“Sorry, I wish it were different, but without an official case number and an agency contract, we don’t have access.”
“Let me call Ryan right now,” Colin said. “To get things moving.”
He took out his phone and stepped toward the door.
“Did you have additional evidence?” Sierra asked. “I thought I heard something about a boot print.”
“We have pictures and a video of that.” Micha got out his phone and opened the photo app for her.
She narrowed her eyes and flipped through the photos, enlarging them and studying each one before handing the phone back to Micha. “Text those photos to me. We’re partnering with a university in the UK who’s doing 3D scans of footwear in hopes of creating an extensive database. We can quickly scan a suspect’s shoe or even a cast or photo of the footprint to see if it’s a match. It’s sort of like the way DNA is run through CODIS for a match.”
The Combined DNA Index System was another FBI managed database, only this one contained DNA instead of fingerprints.
“Speaking of DNA.” Micha swiped to the picture of blood on the wall. “We found blood at one of the suspect’s homes.”
She squinted at the photo. “Oh, wow, this blood isn’t from an ordinary injury. The spray pattern and blood tails would indicate a forceful puncture wound. Could be accidental or someone could have been attacked by another person.”
“Do you have any thoughts on which it might be?” Ava asked.
“I would find it odd to hurt yourself badly enough to create such spatter, but say you stabbed your hand or arm with a scissors or screwdriver and hit the right vein, itcouldhappen.”
“Sounds like you doubt it though,” Micha said.
“I do, but I don’t like to commit in a situation without more evidence.”
“In any event, I brought a sample for you to run for DNA.” Micha got out the zipper bag with the swab.
“How long has it been in that bag?”
“A couple of hours.”
“Good you got here when you did. Blood stored wet in plastic for more than two hours can have a contamination problem.” She studied the bag. “But letting it sit out to dry when you all were on the move could’ve caused an even bigger contamination issue, so I think you made the right call.”
“Thanks for understanding,” he said.
She took out the swab and laid it on the paper. “I can get this to Emory to run the DNA, but we’ll have the same issue as the prints in that we won’t be able to compare to CODIS without proper authorization.”
“But we could do the same thing with comparing to the suspects?” Ava asked.
“If you get me samples, yes.” Sierra wrote on a small paper bag.
“What about the prints we collect,” Ava asked. “Can they be used for DNA?”
Sierra looked up. “Yes, but it would be better to have a separate sample. I have to collect the DNA from the prints first, and you always risk ruining the print.”
Micha spun to look at his teammate. “You hear that, Colin?”
“Heard it and on it,” he said.
Sierra took off her gloves and pulled a laptop close to her with an evidence log and receipt on the screen. “I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.”
“I get it,” Micha said. “We’re very appreciative of anything you can do.”
