PLANTING CLUES

Discover the extraordinary role of plants in modern forensics from their use as evidence in the trials of high profile murderers such as Ted Bundy to high value botanical trafficking and poaching We are all familliar with the role of blood spatters or fingerprints in solving crimes from stories in the media of DNA testing or other biological evidence being used as the clinching evidence to incriminate a killer This book lifts the lid on the equally important evidence from plants at a crime scene from the incriminating presence of freshwater plants in the lungs of a drowning victim to rare botanical poisons in the evening gin and tonic to exotic trafficked flowers and drugs In Planting Clues David Gibson explores how plants can help to solve crimes as well as how plant crimes are themselves solved He discusses the botanical evidence that proved important in bringing a number of high profile murderers such as Ian Huntley the 2002 Shoham Murders and Bruno Hauptman the 1932 Baby Lindbergh kidnapping to trial from leaf fragments and wood anatomy to pollen and spores Throughout he traces the evolution of forensic botany and shares the fascinating stories that advanced its progress