Richard Ramirez Analysis

Dubbed the Valley Intruder or Night Stalker, Ricardo Leyva Munoz Ramirez famously known as Richard Ramirez, struck fear through the bones of many during his serial killing spree in the mid-eighties. Ramirez killed at least fourteen people in his spree while raping and torturing many more. His criminal beginnings turned to violence in June of 1984 with his first known slaying of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow. Vincow was sexually assaulted, stabbed and ultimately killed in her home. Authorities had not yet caught Ramirez after this brutal homicide, therefore he was free to continue his spree on countless more helpless victims. Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons like guns, knives, rope, handcuffs, a tire iron, machete and a hammer on his victims.

The Richard Ramirez "Night Stalker" case was one of the first major cases to use automated fingerprinting technology (Frese, 2011). Today, the fingerprinting database gives various probable identifications, then a trained fingerprint expert must compare the prints to find a likely identification. Considering that Ramirez's prints were found on the mirror of a stolen vehicle we can conclude that his fingerprints were two-dimensional, therefore the prints are termed as latent or residue prints. The authorities at the crime scene power-dusted his prints considering that is the best physical method for collecting fingerprints. Once analyzed using the ACE-V (analysis, comparison, evaluation and verification) method, the fingerprint expert was able to identify them as belonging to Ramirez. The ACE-V method is cited as being a scientific method in the comparison and identification of fingerprints. Meaning, that this method is the protocol all forensic scientists follow to conclude to accurate and consistent results making this procedure extremely important for this significant piece of evidence that identified

Among them were things like distinguishing slash wounds in five murders across the victim's necks, similar handcuff marks on various victims' wrists and blunt force head trauma to half of the victims (Chen, 1989.) Shoe prints were also left at the scene of two murders, the shoe prints had to be either a visible print, plastic print or latent print. Examiners use several methods in the collection of shoe prints depending on the type of impression that is left at the scene of the crime. For collections in soil, which was where the print was found in the Ramirez case, casting is the most commonly used collection method for analyzation. The evaluation and comparison of impression evidence is usually performed by a trained footwear and tire mark examiner (NFSTC, 2013). The shoe prints were later identified to be a match to one another and ultimately belonged to Ramirez. All of these details didn't emerge or emanate together until after Ramirez was caught. After Ramirez's arrest, authorities say his fingerprints were matched with prints found at serval of the crime scenes. Finger print comparison and identification is done by a trained forensic scientist, additionally computerized systems are used to search fingerprint databases for potential print matches. Fingerprint analysis is conducted using the ACE-V method to make a determination on the print and is done in