Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Alastair Ruffell, who is a Reader within the School of the Natural and Built Environment at Queen’s University, Belfast. One of Alastair’s areas of expertise is geoforensics, which he tells us all about in this interview.
Q1. What is geoforensics and how does forensic science relate to geography?
Traditionally, geoforensics was the application of Earth sciences to a legal investigation. So, I did not use the word ‘criminalistics’ there because that could mean environmental, humanitarian, or fraud, such as mining fraud. In recent times, however, geoforensics has been redefined, because you can split it into three areas that relate to geography. One area would be search, which involves looking for stuff in the landscape, such as missing people, buried items and things sunken in rivers or the oceans (which is all physical geography). The second element, the one we all know about, would be scenes, particularly crime scenes. And you are thinking, how does geography relate to crime scenes? Soil science, sampling and what you can do with soil or sediment samples are all geography. This brings us into the third element of geoforensics, which is sample. So, geoforensics involves search, scene, and sample. This is the current definition of geoforensics. But the first definition I gave you is still in there. Geoforensics always pertains to a legal enquiry. This means that other things like the environment come into play. These days, mining and metal fraud are huge because of the need for critical elements. For example, your phone is made of gold and lithium, which is dug up out of the ground. These elements are valuable. Anything with value is subject to criminal activity. Substitution and illegal mining operations are also subject to legal inquiry.
The second part to your question ‘how does forensic science relate to geography’ is best explained graphically (Figure 1).
This graphic comes from the Organisation of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science, which sounds very boring. It is intentionally boring because it is the US government’s advisory group on forensic science. But they do not call it that. Because that would gain too much attention. They have this diagram which divides forensic science into various areas such as, biological, chemical, and physical (Figure 1). These areas then branch off into more specialist areas. For example, DNA, fingerprint, and blood analysis comes under biological. Drug and explosives analysis comes under chemical. And voice pattern recognition as well as imagery and CCT analysis comes under physics. Geoforensics overlaps with lots of these areas because it uses elements from the three hard sciences: biology, chemistry, and physics. Some diagrams have forensic geology or geoforensics as a distinct discipline. Some do not. And that is because it is very specialist. It is quite niche. There is only a few hundred people who do this in the world. The high volume, high impact crimes, such as financial fraud, homicide, genocide, and sexual assault all involve the things we all know about: blood, DNA, fingerprints, and money. You can expect to find DNA at every crime scene or legal inquiry. But you cannot necessarily expect soil, mineral dust, or environmental pollution. That is why geoforensics is so niche.
Q2. What does the third year geoforensics module involve and what skills do students gain from it?
So, we split the module into search, scene, and sample. I like that because the students are familiar with scenes since it is all about landscapes. The level 3 geoforensics module is about redeveloping levels 1 and 2 landscape analysis but putting a different spin on it. The geoforensics module is not about how the landscapes operates but rather, how we use landscapes to find varied items, to understand where environmental pollution occurs or for terrain analysis in military warfare. So, the module builds on what students already know about landscapes by thinking about how they can be used in criminalistics or humanitarian operations. We have a little bit on crime scenes, which we do not have as many classes on, but we do more fieldwork. So, we have two field classes for that. We then focus on samples. So, we go to the lab and look at stuff from an elementary point of view to quite an advanced level. So those are the three elements we focus on, search, scene, and sample. And I have extra things to reinforce them along the way.
For example, I rely a lot on guest classes to break up the module a bit. This year, I am getting Dr Gabrielle Nugent-Stephens (who is a lecturer in Criminology at Ulster University), to do a class on state crimes. We also have Professor John Cassella, from the Atlantic Technological University in Sligo, who will teach the students about crime scene investigations. We will then have Geoff Knupher, from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains, to come in to do a talk. He is a great speaker, and he can say things I’m not allowed to say. He will show pictures of characters who went missing in the 1970s and boots poking out of peat bogs etc. Every year, we also have my former PhD student who comes in with his search dog called Nellie (Figure 2). I do not know what students get out of it but we always to do towards the end of term because it is great craic. The students always remember it. The student evaluations for this module every year say, yep, the module was great, Dr Ruffell was okay. But we love Nellie. We want more Nellie. When I do these evaluations every year, Nellie gets a five out of five score and I get a score of three or four out of five. Nellie would take no interest in you whatsoever. As a search dog, she has a job to complete, and she is solely focused on that.
As I mentioned earlier, we have two fieldtrips, one of which is a training exercise at the Queen’s PEC (Figure 3). This exercise is show and tell basically. It includes search, scene, and kind of sample. But it is all geared up to go on an actual fieldtrip to an historic crime scene, where the students work in groups. They are given a particular part of the escape route, that they must do a full report on. The students need to work as a team, map it all out, take images using the iPads and write annotations. One report is on a ditch, one on a gate, one on a stream, one on a barbwire fence and one on a forest. You might be thinking, well that is very boring. And yep, maybe so. But I do not care if the report is on a barbwire fence or on a blade of grass. The assignment is about how well the students work together, do the research, and write up the report. Because that is an employability skill that they will need in the future. It is not just a report. It must be a professional level report. I also get the students to do an exam, which I suppose, is less of an employability skill. But I still need to test the students' knowledge and understanding of the module. There is no perfect means of assessment. I waver between them from year to year. But I think the groupwork assignment is valuable. When you apply for a job, your referee will be asked about your ability to work within a team. You can be the most brilliant, academic student under the sun. But if you can only sit in a room on your own and do stuff- that is not how the modern world runs. A lot of people loath that and want to sit in a room on their own and work by themselves. There is a place for them. It does work. But it works for just a small number of people. Unfortunately, most people in the workforce must work together and you need to learn how to tolerate people you do not like and understand that other people are not going to like you. You cannot do anything about it. But you must do your best to have a good relationship with people and I think that the groupwork experience in this geoforensics module builds you up for that.
I am very proud of the geoforensics module because we have a carbon neutral fieldtrip. We all travel to Helen’s Bay by train and then walk to the crime scene. The crime scene is in a very delightful place near Clandeboye Estate, not where you would envision a crime scene taking place at all. The crime involved a UDA gangster from East Belfast, who was a major drug dealer. He lived off the Clandeboye Avenue near Crawfordsburn Country Park with barricaded gates. All the locals presumed he was a Police Officer, or a Judge or someone like that with high security. So, when the man was shot, it was a real shock to the local community. It would have been a classic geoforensics case if the man were buried. But he was not. He was just left shot. But the murderers then escaped on foot because it all went wrong. They went across all these fields, leaving bits of evidence in the landscape. It is a great case. Not great that a man died. But it is great for the students’ learning.
So yes, that is how the module runs. Three-part split into search, scene, and sample. Guest classes, a training fieldtrip, an actual fieldtrip, groupwork, an exam and a lot of reading. There are compulsory readings each week that students must do. There is no excuse. I ask the class to discuss the readings because I feel that students can teach each other just as much as I can teach them. In fact, I am not a teacher for this module. I am just a facilitator. That is the biggest struggle of the geoforensics module I think- giving the students the confidence to say what they think. I do not know why they are not confident to do it. There is nothing particularly difficult about any of it. There are no tricks. I think it must be due to the environment that students have gotten used to at university. They think, oh, Alastair is the expert in this. He is here to inform us. That is not true. I learn more from the students each year than they do from me. Every now and again, a group of students do some research and find something out that I was totally unaware of. Sometimes I even write to the students, asking how they found a particular theory out. Students also get a bit frustrated with me because they ask what the correct answer is. But there is no one correct answer. The correct answer is something that is informed, backed up with evidence and well structured. It is the same with all university modules. The content of your answer is not so important as the method by which you developed it. It is the same as when you were in school, and your maths teacher told you to always show your working out. I do not necessarily care about your final answer, I care about how you got to this answer. Your answer could be completely wrong but if the method is correct and backed up, at least you can follow it.
I had a former student, who did geography at QUB, to get a degree. He wanted to be a manager. Rather than doing a management degree, he enjoyed geography, so he decided to study that instead. Years later I met him when he was working as the manager of Sainsbury’s in Sprucefield. You might think, aw geography student ended up just being a manager. But he earns double what I get. You can spot his car in the Sainsbury’s car park. It is a BMW 7 Series. I met him in the supermarket one day and he told me that out of all the geography modules, geoforensics taught him the most. He said to me that if there is a smashed jar of jam on the floor, someone must write a report, explaining how it got there, what hazards it created, could have it been stored more safely, was it a costumer’s fault or was an employee negligent? There needs to be an inquiry, and someone must write a report on it. It must be a legally robust report on effectively, a forensic case. Something happened, why did it happen and what are the repercussions? It is just a smashed jar of jam. But if some kid treads on that, gets a cut, which then gets infected and the child must have their foot amputated, it becomes serious. This former student told me that the biggest problem he faces are legal inquires. Everyday Sainsbury’s are subject to some sort of legal challenge. He told me that without an awareness of the legal system, he would be terrified. But he said you do not get terrified, you get precise.
Q3. How and when did you get into the world of geoforensics?
It was a pure accident really. The Geology Department at QUB, that I was a lecturer in, closed in 2001. A lot of the staff were coming close to retirement and few students were coming forward to study geology. I was then given this job as a geography lecturer instead. However, some of the other remaining geologists were posted elsewhere, like in Archaeology. We were all encouraged to develop certain areas of research. Various things in geography interested me such as rivers and stone weathering. But I will admit, I am not a geographer. I am a geologist. Forensic geology had always been there since the 1970s. But interest grew over time, globally and especially in the UK. There was a scientific meeting in the early 2000s in London about geoforensics and more publications regarding it came out. So, I started to naturally fall into it. There was also a lack of support in doing mainstream geology. I had no colleagues to collaborate with. I still had a lab, but I needed to get the funding for the lab by myself. So, geology was more difficult to do. I could have kept teaching in geography and researching geology. But it seems very senseless to try and do something where you have little support to do it. So naturally, I started gravitating to things where I had more support, geoforensics being one of them.
Q4. What sort of organisations do you work with on the geoforensic cases?
I work with all sorts of organisations who ask for our help. In an article that I often critique, a journalist wrote that ‘geoforensics is all about helping the police.’ I have a great issue with that quote. Because that is not what geoforensics is about at all. That might be people’s perception of what it is. But it is not just that. Geoforensics is about legal inquiries and legal inquiries do not always come from the police. They can come from any walk of life, especially humanitarian or environmental legal inquires. Criminal prosecutions are not always the result of legal inquires. For example, a legal inquiry could be for closure, truth, and reconciliation, financial, personal, or environmental justice.
Q5. Are there any fascinating cases that you have worked on that you can tell us a bit about?
Oh, there are hundreds of them. I like the stories that have a happy ending. There are few cases that prey on my mind still because I was not expecting them, and I was not trained correctly for them. Some of these cases were distressing, but I knew what was going to happen. When I go to the morgue, I am prepared that I know what is going to be inside the morgue. You cannot really be surprised. There have been times where I’ve been asked to come along and help, and it was pretty full on. A lot of search and rescue personnel or body recovery teams. But equally, there are some other cases that can be delightful and have great end results.
The ones that are nice to work on, even if someone did get killed, are the World War Two aeroplane crashes, which I would not have gotten involved with if it were not for the forensic world. I have done about five or six of these cases, starting with the Donegal Spitfire case, which has the best story. These aeroplane crashes are full on forensic searches. They are difficult because they are so old but easy at the same time, because they include huge lumps of metal and should be easy enough to find. Some are. Some are not. The Donegal Spitfire is a great case because of the character who flew the plane, called Ronald ‘Bud’ Wolfe. The spitfire went wrong, he bailed out and the plane crashed into a peat bog on a mountain. He caused a lot of political repercussions because he landed in, what was then called the Free State (now called the Irish Republic). So, he was then interned and escaped. He got shipped to the far East for the rest of the war. He later flew in the Vietnam and Korean War. We found his crashed plane in Donegal. Only after we found his plane, was when his two daughters came forward. One of whom, knew he flew in the war but did not know anything about it. She actually became a USAF Pilot herself, knowing that her dad was a Pilot as well. But she knew none of the stories. We had an open exhibition at the Tower Museum up in Derry about this case. The two daughters gave a speech about their dad. There were about a hundred people there. And there was not a dry eye in the audience. It was so emotional hearing stories about this guy and what it meant to them to learn all about their father. It was wonderful.
I have worked on a few other cases where we have memorials. For example, I was asked to survey the Fermanagh and Tyrone Hospital in Omagh when it was being redeveloped because they were worried there were some burials in the ground, from around the time of the Irish Famine. They thought they were going to be two to three burials where they were redeveloping. But it turned out to be a mass grave. The Health and Social Care Trust then decided to build a memorial garden around this area. People thought it would be more appropriate than exuding and reinterring all the bodies. It is quite a delightful spot. The memorial garden is right outside the canteen and in the summer, people go out and sit there. It is very peaceful and an appropriate use of the spot. The graves would have otherwise just gone forgotten. So, geoforensics often involves finding stuff buried in the ground for, hopefully, some good reason. Whether that be, closure, a memorial, or an understanding of our history.
