[Recovery of blood traces with scenesafe FAST tape]

For complete and conclusive DNA profiling a sufficient amount of DNA must be available. For that, biological traces are recovered from crime scenes using special trace recovery material. The current method to collect biological traces for DNA analysis is to wipe them off with cotton swabs. However, for a few years the use of adhesive tapes has also been described for the recovery of evidence. In 2009, an adhesive tape was launched which was specially developed for the collection of biological traces. This product called Scenesafe FAST Tape (SSF) was investigated in this work to give recommendations for its use in evidence recovery. The results of this work show that the DNA can be extracted from the SSF very well. However, the tapes seem less suitable for direct use at the crime scene, as they are not flexible enough for adaptation to different crime scene conditions and the risk of contamination is higher than when collecting evidence with cotton swabs. Neither SSF nor cotton swabs are optimal for all requirements. The best method to recover biological evidence is still dependent on the surface material and the circumstances at the crime scene.