One single footprint means an outstanding amount of data.
Direction of travel, the type or even brand of footwear, the approximate moment the track has been made, the genre and approximate age/height and weight of the owner, the potential presence of rucksacks, bags and heavy objects like weapons.
Forensics consider the sole like the DNA. By cuts, erosions, overstress the sole, in fact, catchs each movement. By deciphering it, you will have back
- habits
- temporary or permanent disabilities
- unique features
- and so on.
From a trackline which includes left foot and right foot you can also calculate the gait of a person, which can reveal a lot on:
- intentions
- feelings (relax, panic, anxiety..)
- direction of travel
These details are clues and they provide you additional aids which may help you to even forecast the intentions of the offender.
Let’s get more in detail to see how footwear evidence was fundamental in three crime scene scenarios.
The Yosemite Murders
July 21st 1999
Big Meadow, El Portal District
Yosemite National Park
Joie Armstrong, a 26 y.o. naturalist, worked at that time in the Cedar Lodge area, inside Yosemite Park.
That day she met Carl Stayne, who worked there as handyman.
Stating to what he declared in court “[…] as soon as he realized that the girl was alone, something in him snapped and he couldn’t help himself.[…]”
Stayner assaulted Joie with a knife and forced her into his car after he tied her up.
The young woman actually jumped out of the vehicle from the window and she started to run away. Stayner reached her with a slash in her throat that quite beheaded her.
There were many clues of the violence offence all around the scene.
When Stayner skipped work the day after the homicide, the police focused their investigations on his figure.
The dirt road in front of the Green House where Joie’s rapid seizure took place happened to be an excellent track trap.
This term stands for the ideal terrain in order to identify and follow entire tracks and signs.
When Ranger Mark Fincher began to carry out the first investigations following the tracks, the area, fortunately, had only been minimally disturbed.
Fincher could count on about ten years of training and expertise in Tracking.
He had also taken part in many searches for missing persons in the Yosemite park.
After accurately examining the area, Fincher came to the his onclusions.
A vehicle with different tires on the front and rear wheels had passed in front of the house and parked in front of the bridge (impassable at the time).
One person had come down and crossed the bridge a short distance before returning to the vehicle. Precisely, the person had descended towards the stream below the bridge.
The person had then walked on the road east past the house and then entered the house.
Partial impressions of the same track were found on the sand between the axles of the front gangway, indicating that the person had entered the house.
A different sequence of tracks was found between the porch and the back of Joie’s truck, evidently with the fact that someone had loaded material into the camper.
Fincher’s deductions stated that the two people had crossed each other between Joie’s truck and where the other vehicle was parked.
(Excerpted from the Fincher report) “In some places the right foot of the track # 2 and the left foot of the track # 1 were only thirty centimeters apart”. This led me to believe that the person to whom the track n. 2 held or touched the person to whom the track n. 1. “
This was reinforced by the fact that inside the whole area one track never overlapped the other, as one would expect if the tracks had been made at different times.
However, the tracks were too close, so they didn’t be consistent with two individuals walking at a normal distance. Additionally, on the passenger door, on the side of the vehicle, the footprints showed slips or were superimposed on each other sideways.
A trace of the right foot had slipped so far from the vehicle that it actuallu left a ridge of soil around 2 inches high.
“This would be consistent with someone moving something heavy into the vehicle.”
The excellent work done by Fincher on the tracks he found and analyzed and the related report were not only detailed but decisive for the capture of Stayner.
He eventually plead guilty
About The Author
Article by Kyt Lyn Walken. Official Representative and Instructor for Hull’s Tracking School and Certified Conservation Ranger for the NGO Conservation Rangers Operations Worldwide. Kyt will be in the UK running a workshop 18 – 20 February, 2022 Telford, Shropshire (U.K.) “The Art of Tracking Class” with FERAL YAMYAM BUSHCRAFT School.
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