Processing Styrofoam

[ekuadam]

What is everyone's preferred method when processing Styrofoam? I have heard some people treat it as semi-porous and they then superglue, Indanedione, Ninhydrin and then Rhodamine the item (which is what I have usually done in the past). I have heard that others only use powder. Still, others fall somewhere in between. Just wondering how anyone here handles it.

[Dr. Borracho]

I would normally use superglue followed by McDonnell's black mag powder. Yes, there are differences between mag powders. McDonnell's is probably the most expensive, but for my money, I wouldn't use anything but McDonnell's at any price. Herb McDonnell is the guy who invented magnetic fingerprint powder and the powder he developed is, hands down, the best. It has desiccants and a wider range of granule size, including finer microscopic powder, than anything else on the mag powder market.

[SConner]

Another vote for magna powder. I don't ever remember trying porous techniques such as DFO, ninhydrin, silver nitrate, or physical developer. My usual scheme for styrofoam was visual, FLS, CA, magna powder, dye stain.

[NRivera]

Ditto here. CA then mag powder.

If your boss weren't so cheap he'd get you a VMD which might be the better option.

On a serious side note, I'd be interested in hearing the experience of any FSIS users out there with Styrofoam and other weird surfaces.

[4n6Dave]

Where do you purchase McDonnell's powder?

[Dr. Borracho]

Where do you purchase McDonnell's powder?

Well, don't I feel perplexed. The agency I worked at some years ago used only MacDonell's powder (Let me correct myself, the proper spelling is MacDonell). Since I was not in purchasing, I do not know the company from which they bought our supplies.

I have spent the last hour searching google and current major suppliers and cannot find that powder anywhere. It was my understanding that Herb MacDonell or a company with direct affiliation to him manufactured the powder. But as he would be well into his 80s now, it may not be available anymore. It seems a few big companies have been buying up all the smaller, independent companies over the past couple of decades. Each now seems to manufacture and sell only their own proprietary powder.

Perhaps another reader would know how to obtain MacDonell's magnetic powder and wands. My apologies for not being able to provide that information.

[josher89]

Is this the same Herb MacDonell that was arrested in 2012 for child pornography and was sentenced to probation as well as being prohibited from being alone with children under the age of 18...the bloodstain pattern guy?

I had no idea he was making fingerprint powder.

[Dr. Borracho]

Yup, Josh. The same Herb MacDonell who invented blood spatter analysis also invented the magnetic wand and magnetic fingerprint powder. I couldn't find anything about him being a pedophile, but if you say so . . . . .

BTW, I did see his obit. He died about a week ago.

[josher89]

One of the gals I used to work with did her undergrad studies with Tom Bevel at the University of Central Oklahoma years ago. She took MacDonell's class up in New York once she was employed here. She told me about it around 2012 or so.

I found a blog post about it:

http://forensicfraud.blogspot.com/2013/ ... stain.html

and a link on Ed German's site:

http://onin.com/fp/wwwbd/messages/6/383 ... 1440716018

[Ernie Hamm]

I purchased one of the first MacDonell Magna Brush Kits from George F. Cake Company, Oakland, California in 1965 when I was a CID Agent at Presidio of San Francisco. It was ‘authenicated’ by Herb MacDonell in 1978/79 at the Army Crime Lab in Frankfurt when he was there teaching a blood stain class to laboratory serologists and I was in the Latent Section. There is a special manufacturing marking on the wand’s rod that, according to Herb, is only on the early versions.

The first kits had the wand and small jars of Magna Gray, Black, Jet Black and Silver powders. I still have most of the gray, jet black and silver and some of the black, because the powder was recoverable. Black was used more than the others and this resulted in some powder loss. I used the magna kit during my five investigator years and then entered the Army lab system and would use laboratory magnetic powder stock except on a few occasions.

On a side note, I also purchased two of the first Zephyr brushes at George F. Cake, one for black powder and one for white. I used these throughout my CID career, both in the field and the laboratory as well as later years in the FDLE laboratory. They are the best and now as soft as can be; impossible to damage a latent when processing with these brushes. Again, black was a preferred color as indicated by the black Zephyr bristles being about ½ inch shorter than the white brush.

BTW, Bill Jungbluth has article on processing styrofoam in ID News, 33:8 (1983) in which the cyan followed by powder is recommended.

[Bill Schade]

For those of us who remember him in his heyday.

https://amp.stargazette.com/amp/3482609002

[nugget]

Is this the same Herb MacDonell that was arrested in 2012 for child pornography and was sentenced to probation as well as being prohibited from being alone with children under the age of 18...the bloodstain pattern guy?

Yikes. This is disappointing.