Forensic analysis of latent fingermarks by silver‐assisted LDI imaging MS on nonconductive surfaces

For over a century, the recovery of latent fingerprints (LFP) from crime scenes has been one of the most important and common methods in forensic investigation. LFP evidences are located and collected from several surfaces by law enforcement officers and fingerprint patterns are revealed and visualized by criminalistics experts using a variety of forensic enhancement techniques. In the last decade, analytical technologies have been developed to increase the amount of information recovered during an investigation by providing additional circumstantial evidences. Indeed, the residue transferred from the fingertip to a surface, called the fingermark, can provide additional chemical information related to the suspect. In this context, imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has proven to be a powerful tool for chemical identification of fingermark residues. In this special feature article, Pr. Pierre Chaurand and colleagues demonstrate the potential of silver‐assisted laser desorption ionization IMS for the analysis of fingermarks found on various non‐porous, semi‐porous and porous surfaces typically found at crime scenes. Dr. Chaurand is Professor of Chemistry at the Université de Montréal (Montreal, QC, Canada). His main research interests are centered on the development of IMS methods to enhance signal specificity and sensitivity.