Impact case study database

Supporting searches for UK missing persons

In 2016-17, England and Wales police forces recorded 102,404 missing people, a proportion of whom will have been murdered (NCA, 2019 report). In this context, Pringle and Heaton are part of the Search Technologies Research Team (START), a police and academic collaboration that improves police search effectiveness ( 5.1). Pringle has provided expert support to the last three National Search Advisers at the NCA, each seconded from Regional Police for five years, searching for 350 UK missing persons ( 5.2). KAEG has raised police awareness and knowledge through publications in the Police Professional practitioner magazine, and workshop training with UK Police crime scene investigation managers and officers in 2014, 2016 and 2018 ( 5.2). Research findings ( 3.1, 3.4) have informed police search training at the National College of Policing ( 5.2). Evidenced-based research and details concerning geoforensic challenges were also presented at the 2018 House of Lords Forensic Science enquiry ( 5.3).

Pringle’s expertise has informed decisions about the appropriateness of geophysical techniques/equipment for searches, and accurate interpretation of forensic search datasets collected, essential for key decision making and operational success ( 5.2). Since October 2014, KAEG has directly contributed to 16 UK missing persons cases undertaken by the NCA and Police Forces, providing operational advice and conducting geophysical surveys ( 5.4). This has saved UK Forces £141,291.31 of police time ( 5.4). Many cases, with intelligence or witnesses’ reports of bodies buried, were closed with either human remains found, or the absence of human remains confirmed. One involved searching for a missing person in North Wales, where a geophysical survey was undertaken within a rural area and a body discovered and identified ( 3.5).

Supporting searches for international missing persons

Internationally, KAEG has given expert advice on 12 cases, conducting geophysics searches for missing persons in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Pakistan, Romania, USA, UAE and Vietnam ( 5.4). Search strategies ( 3.5) have located victims killed in natural disasters, genocides and murders ( 5.4). For example, in April 2014, the Cienfuegos family contacted an international geoforensics research team, involving Pringle, requesting help to locate their grandfather’s grave, shot and buried in the Lena mountains, northern Spain, during the civil war. The team conducted GPR surveys of two witness-identified sites, discovering 26 victims buried in a mass grave. Closure was provided for affected communities, including the Cienfuegos family, whose grandfather’s remains were found ( 5.5). The team has also advised Columbian authorities in searching for 240 people killed by a landslide in Mocoa, Colombia, in 2017, and assisted the International Commission on Missing Persons (Colombia Programme) to locate 51,000 missing persons ( 5.4).

Supporting searches for archaeological targets

KAEG expertise has been innovatively applied during Crossrail excavations, discovering a 15^th Century Black Death plague cemetery ( 3.6). This work, filmed for a Channel 4 documentary entitled ‘Return of the Black death: Secret History’ ( 5.6), used multi-technique geophysical detection, characterising the site and evidencing individual burials, challenging medieval testimonies of mass grave burials for plague victims ( 3.6). This was reported in the national and international press, reaching an audience of over 7.5 million, including BBC, Daily Mail, the Sun, the Times, Der Spiegel, and specialist magazines ( 5.7). KAEG also investigated World War II archaeological sites, including allied and axis prisoner of war camp tunnel escapes, and British Resistance Auxiliary Unit bunkers; these were also reported by the BBC and Telegraph ( 5.7).

Supporting legal enforcement to protect the environment

KAEG has supported policing of environmental crimes by conducting geophysics investigations to garner prosecution evidence ( 5.8). Search strategies have been applied in legal cases where waste was illegally buried, and badger setts tampered with.

A Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) environmental statistics report stated that between 2016-2018, 306 illegal waste sites required remediation, costing taxpayers £500,000. In this context, KAEG located two coastal buried waste dumps in Newtownards in 2016. Geoforensic evidence assisted the successful prosecution and determined sentence severity ( 3.4). The guilty defendant had to pay £250,000 clean-up costs, with the fine calculated using waste volumes and submergence under the water, as identified by KAEG. Proof of resultant marine pollution enabled a higher court sentence ( 5.8).

Badger persecution is a UK Wildlife Crime Priority, with 50% of incidents recorded by Scottish Badgers and Badger Trust related to badger sett interference. KAEG has worked with rural and wildlife crime officers (Staffordshire Police) to investigate deliberate badger sett tampering. GPR survey investigations, led by Wisniewski, found five of twelve badger sett tunnel entrances blocked; the resulting scientific report provided important evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service to charge the perpetrator ( 5.9, 5.10).