non-secretor

[mary ellen holmberg]

Michele used the term non-secretor in her testimony lesson in the Detail to mean a person who doesn't sweat. I thought it meant a person who doesn't secrete a tag like that found in blood or semen so it could be typed.

[sharon cook]

I think you're right Mary Ellen. I was taught that, too.

[mary ellen holmberg]

Thanks Sharon, one of my co-workers looked it up on line. On Merriam-Webster onLine Dictionary, it defines a non-secretor as "an individual of blood group A, B, or AB who does not secrete the antigens characteristic of these blood groups in bodily fluids". I knew I had read that somewhere in my training!

[Michele]

I agree with all of you, a non-secretor has to do with blood types.

A long time ago I read somewhere that someone used the term differently and I was a little surprised by the different usage. Over the years I was happy to see that it didn't come up very often.

Recently (within the last couple of months) I heard where someone testified to this in court. My typical response would be to search all my books to see where this came from but that would take a lot more time than it's worth. If anyone sees this in a book, I'd love to have the reference. It seems to be more prevalent with crime scene folks than LPE's.

My main point with this question was that LPE's need to be aware that some people are still testifying to this and we need to know that so that we can properly explain it if it comes up in one of your cases. I'd say it's unlikely that this will come up in one of your cases but that might not be true since it just came up in someone else’s case.