CRIMINAL MIND > FORENSICS & INVESTIGATION

LA Forensics: The Actor's Secret

Fingerprints from a Latex Glove

Back at the LAPD lab, criminalists looked for a way to tie Reeves directly to the murder. They matched his prints to those found on three beer mugs and a kitchen cabinet door. But they’d have to get more. The match may look damning, but a defense attorney would point out that it meant Reeves was in the apartment but not the killer. The knife didn’t yield any prints; the killer likely used the glove when stabbing Finch. And the blood on the knife belonged to Finch.

Testing the Bloody Glove

Forensic print specialist Dolores Youngblood was determined to see if she could get a print off the glove. She didn't find anything on the outside, so she turned it inside out. Traditional black powder wouldn't work on the inside surface of the glove, so Youngblood tried a different approach. She suspended the glove from a string inside a Plexiglas chamber and placed four drops of superglue in a cup. Then the chamber was heated so that the glue fumes circulated. They would form a type of plastic coating on the glove and reveal any imperfections, such as a fingerprint.

Glove was suspended for test.

"When it shows up, it's a whitish color," Youngblood said. "On this particular glove it had to be photographed in order to see the print. It was the right thumb on the inside of the latex glove."

Youngblood said she had never heard of anyone obtaining a print from a glove before. It was the lynchpin.

A print is obtained from the glove.

Finch's autopsy didn't yield any further clues pointing to Reeves. The medical examiner found that two stab wounds to the heart, each about five inches deep. Finch was also stabbed three times in the neck, had two bruises on his leg and a chipped front tooth.

A violent and senseless crime.