Forensic Paint Analysis
How can paint tell a story??
 Able to associate an individual or
vehicle with a crime scene
 Hit and Run cases—dried paint/paint smears
transfers to clothing or vehicle upon impact
 Burglaries—paint can be transferred onto
tools used to break into things
 Can identify color, year, make, model of
a car by paint recovered at an accident
The vehicle
involved in a
hit-and-run of
a bicyclist who
later died left
white paint
chips at the
scene.
Composition
Paint is composed
of a binder,
pigments, and
different additives
Most paint is
applied in layers
Paint Layers on Vehicles
1. Electrocoat primer—applied to
steel body of car, provides
corrosion resistance, pigmented
gray-black
2. Primer Surfacer—smooths out
and hides seams or
imperfections (different
pigments)
3. Basecoat—color coat; different
additives add different effects
(pearl luster, metallic look)
4. Clear coat—unpigmented layer,
improves gloss, durability, and
appearance
How do we examine paint??
 Microscope
 Compare questioned
sample with control
(known) sample side by
side
 Determine type of paint,
 Look at surface texture,
color, and color layer
sequence
 Layers—each layer of
recovered sample is
compared with
corresponding layer of
the control sample
Forensic scientist using a microscope
to compare paint chips from a car
involved in an accident with known
samples of paint
Picture of paint comparison from hit and run
Malcolm Fairley
“The Fox”
 1970s British Serial rapist
 Detectives found yellow paint specks on a tree at one of
the crime scenes
 Paint analyzed—comes from a Austin Allegro car
 Narrowed suspects—detective drove up at Malcolm’s
house, found him cleaning a yellow Allegro
 Examined car—found scratches on paint that matched
paint flakes to the crime scene
 Using this and other pieces of evidence, Malcolm was
tried, convicted and sentence to 6 life sentences for
rape, assault, and burglary
Gary Ridgeway
“Green River Killer”
 1970s and 80s—truck painter who killed in Seattle
area
 Killed between 50-90 women and dumped in
Green River
 Gary was suspected but never arrested
 Killing stop and case goes cold
 2001—case is reanalyzed; paint on victims
clothing matched to highly specialized paint used
at Kenworth truck plant where Gary worked
 2002—using paint analysis as well as DNA analysis
Gary is found convicted of 48 counts of murder
and was sentenced to 48 life sentences