Trace Evidence

Forensic science explained by someone who did it

Anupama Raghunathan2 episodes2 min of audio100 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Oct 8, 20260:5136 plays Preview

Colin Pitchfork and the First DNA Manhunt, Leicestershire 1987

DNA profiling was first used in a criminal case to clear an innocent suspect and then to find the right man. Anupama explains how Alec Jeffreys' technique works and what the first mass screening invol…

S1 · E1Aug 25, 20260:4764 plays Members

The Fingerprint That Was Wrong: Madrid 2004 and the Limits of Matching

After the Madrid train bombings the FBI matched a partial print to an Oregon lawyer who had never left the country. Anupama explains how fingerprint comparison works and how three examiners got it wro…

About the show

Trace Evidence is a plain-language guide to how forensic science actually works, hosted by Anupama Raghunathan, who spent eleven years as a fingerprint and trace examiner at a state forensic laboratory in Hyderabad. Each weekly episode of about 30 minutes takes one technique, fingerprints, DNA profiling, bloodstain patterns, digital forensics, document examination, and explains what it can prove, what it cannot, and the historical case where it was first used or first went wrong. Anupama is honest about the limits of her own field and about the examiner bias that courts have had to confront. The format is a solo explainer with a short listener question segment at the end. It is for true-crime listeners who keep hearing the word forensics and want to know what is behind it, and for students thinking about the profession.

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