Blood evidence handled by the investigation team

Bloody fingerprints

Mark Fuhrman, was a lead detective at the murder scene of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. At the crime scene Fuhrman recorded notes on evidence that he had noticed. On the gate leading to Nicole Brown’s house Fuhrman had noted a bloody fingerprint upon the brass handle. This was written within his own notes taken from the scene. However this fingerprint was not taken as evidence by Scene of Crime Officers. This was due to the lack of communication between the police and SOCO’s. When Philip Vannetter took over the role as lead detective, as Riske and Fuhrman were relieved from their duty, Fuhrman’s notes were not passed on Vannetter or to the Scene of Crime Officers until it was too late. Therefore as Fuhrman did not pass on this crucial information, no one was aware that there was a bloody fingerprint located upon the handle of the gate. Therefore when SOCO's arrived at the scene in order to collect evidence, they were not informed to collect this vital evidence, which led to the fingerprint not being used within the investigation. 

When a locksmith was called to the property in order to change the locks on Nicole Brown’s house, the locksmith noticed this fingerprint. However had assumed that Scene of Crime Officers had already collected this piece of evidence and therefore threw the lock away along with this vital fingerprint. As this bloody fingerprint could have potentially put O.J. Simpson at the scene of the crime, or a potential suspect at the crime scene, due to this evidence not being collected and logged by SOCO’s, no further action could be taken upon it.

"They brought over a locksmith to change the locks... That locksmith actually took that lock off, saw the bloody fingerprint, figured it had already been processed. He threw it away, put in a new lock."

Bloody shoe prints

Bloody shoe prints were found at the crime scene upon the path leading to the bodies of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. These shoe prints were collected from the scene by Scene of Crime Officer’s and entered in to the chain of custody. However no photographs of the shoe prints were taken by Scene of Crime Officers as they were informed not to do so as the scene needed to be cleared away as soon as possible due to the amount of media that arrived. Once the shoe print was logged in to the chain of custody it was then sent to the forensic laboratories. The shoe print was analysed by forensic scientists and results from the analysis shown traces of both of the victim’s blood. The model of the shoe also tracked to one of two factories from Italy. The size and the make of the shoe prints were identified as a size 12, Bruno Magli. This information was then passed to police officers who were investigating the case of the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. The information was also passed to both the prosecution and the defence teams, as O.J. Simpson was a size 12 at the time, this was seen as another piece of evidence to place Simpson at the scene of the crime. However the defence argued that although Simpson had a similar pair of shoes and was a size 12 shoe this was not enough evidence to state that Simpson was at the crime scene, only that those shoes were present.

Bloody socks

While investigating O.J. Simpson’s house for evidence, Scene of Crime Officers came across stains upon the foyer downstairs, these stains were tested for blood at 4:30pm. Within the next 20 minutes, Scene of Crime Officers found a pair of Simpson’s socks at the bottom of his bed and tested these socks for any traces of blood, taking the time to approximately 4:50pm went the second floor bathroom was examined for blood. A presumptive test for blood was carried out by SOCO’s at O.J. Simpson’s house. However the recorded time for the photographs taken of the bedroom was 4:15pm, therefore while officers and SOCO’s were present within Simpson’s house, 15 minutes were unaccounted for before Scene of Crime Officers entered Simpson’s bedroom.

The bloody pair of socks was entered and logged in to the chain of custody by Scene of Crime Officers who was present at O.J. Simpson’s house collecting evidence. This evidence was then transferred to forensic laboratories for further testing by forensic scientists. A month later the socks were examined by forensic analysts, the blood that was found upon the socks was found as the blood from the victim, Nicole Brown. 

Missing Blood

The day after the murder of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, blood was taken from O.J. Simpson in order to compare his blood to blood that was collected from the crime scene. Lead Detective Phillip Vannetter organised with nurse Thano Peratis, who was employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, to draw blood from Simpson. The vial of Simpsons blood was placed in to an unsealed enveloped and was given to Vannetter. Vannetter should have entered this piece of evidence in to the chain of custody straight away and documented how much blood was Simpson was taken. However, Vannetter kept hold of Simpson’s blood until several hours later handing in to LAPD SOCO Dennis Fung to enter it in to the chain of custody. Yet as Vanntter did not record the amount of blood that Peratis drew from Simpson, Fung did not record this amount either as he too was unaware of the amount of blood that was within the vial. Once Fung had entered the vial of Simpson’s blood in to the chain of custody, along with other evidence taken from Simpsons house, the blood was transferred to the forensic laboratories to undergo analysis. When the vial of Simpson’s blood was examined by forensic scientists, the scientists recorded the amount of blood 6.5ml.

When Peratis testified at a preliminary hearing he stated the amount of blood that he had drawn from Simpson was between 7.9ml and 8.1ml. As the recorded amount from forensic scientists when the blood reached the laboratories was 6.5ml this means that around 1.5ml of blood went ‘missing’. However as Vanntter did not enter Simpsons vial of blood in to the chain of custody when the blood was drawn from Simpson and also Fung did not know the amount of blood that was within the vial, this allowed for speculation to occur of when and how the blood went ‘missing’. Due to this vital piece of evidence being mishandled by the police members involved within the investigation as the correct procedures were not followed to enter the vial of Simpsons blood in to the chain of custody straight away. This meant the hours the vial of blood was carried around could not be accounted for.

Blood found in Simpsons Ford Bronco

Within Simpsons Ford Bronco, a small amount of blood was found on the outside handle of the driver’s side of the vehicle. Smeared blood was also found located in different areas such as the console, door, steering wheel and upon the carpet. Scene of Crime Officers collected swabs of blood from different areas of the vehicle, these swabs where placed in to a sealed bag. However only one swab should have been placed in to a plastic bag when collecting the evidence, yet as more than one swab was placed within the plastic bag, this allowed for cross-contaminated to take place and therefore this blood evidence was seen as unreliable. Blood swabs were entered in to the chain of custody and were sent to forensic laboratories to undergo DNA tests upon the blood and other analysis to check that what SOCO claimed to be blood was in fact blood evidence. However when the blood swabs arrived at the laboratory, more swabs had arrived compared to the number that was recorded within the audit trail. As not all the blood swabs were entered in to the audit trail this meant that the forensic analysis and scientists could not determine whether these swabs were reliable, as there had not been securely entered in to the audit trail this meant that no one could determine whether any of the blood swabs had been tampered with during the time the evidence was collected at the crime scene and transferred to the labs.

When Scene of Crime Officer Dennis Fung was sent out to collect evidence from Simpsons Ford Bronco on 14^th June 1994, Fung personally collected evidence from the console within the vehicle. After Fung along with other Scene of Crime Officers, had collected blood from the Bronco three more personal inspected the vehicle in order to check no more blood was present within the Ford Bronco. All three agreed that they could not see any more blood present within the vehicle. However on 26^th August 1994, the Ford Bronco was inspected again. Blood was found present upon the console which was inspected and blood was collected by SOCO Dennis Fung. During the time from when Fund collected evidence from the Bronco on 14^th June to 26^th August were blood was found within the Bronco, the vehicle was kept at an unsecured storage facility which meant unauthorised personal had access to the vehicle to look for souvenirs, however this also grew the suspicion of ‘planted evidence’.  As the Ford Bronco was another vital piece of evidence top the investigation of the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, this vehicle should have been kept in a secure unit to ensure that only authorised personal entered the vehicle to prevent any contamination from occurring with the vehicle and also to prevent anyone from planting evidence.

When collecting blood evidence from inside the ford bronco, members of the investigation team who had already been present at the murder scene of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, had not worn the correct PPE. Therefore this meant that when members of the investigation team such as Mark Fuhrman entered the Ford Bronco, having already stepped in a pool of Nicole Brown’s blood at the crime scene, could have transferred her blood from his shoe on to the carpet within Simpsons Bronco. Other members of the investigation team may have also transferred blood evidence from the murder scene to the Ford Bronco if parts of the clothing had any blood stains from the murder scene and when investigating the Ford Bronco, transferred the blood of the victims from their clothing to the vehicle. Before entering the vehicle the members of the investigation team should have worn the appropriate PPE to make sure no evidence from the murder scene was transferred to the ford bronco evidence. However as PPE was not worn by investigators this could not be ruled out.