User Conference: “Worst Latent hit in PrintQuest” Contest

SPEX Forensics First Annual Best “Worst Latent hit in PrintQuest” Contest.

This year we held our first contest.  We were looking for the Best “Worst latent to hit in PrintQuest.”  We have heard horror stories from our user’s for years.  They would have a latent of such poor quality that they would enter it into PrintQuest thinking all hope was lost and then beyond all belief, the latent actually hit.  We had wanted to start a contest among our Users and this year we did.

So the call went out to our Users to look through their Confirmed IDs to find the “Worst Latent” they could find. Now keep in mind, when SPEX Forensics speaks of “Hits” we mean CONFIRMED IDENTIFICATIONS.  Those matches made by PrintQuest AND confirmed by a User. During our Annual PrintQuest User Conference this past May, we displayed the matched sets that were entered into the contest.  We asked the Users in attendance to vote on a first round to narrow the field to 3 finalists and then on the last day of the conference the Users voted for the winner.

And the winner of the Inaugural SPEX Forensics Annual Best “Worst Latent hit in PrintQuest” Contest is…

Renee Minella of the City-County Bureau of Identification, Raleigh, NC.

These are the charted and uncharted versions of the “Worst Latent Hit” of 2011.  Note that the match took place in Joint 2.  Based on what Renee saw from the latent, she entered it as both a finger and a palm.  Because the latent came from Joint 2, it hit as a palm.  Subsequently, Renee confirmed the identification which lead to the arrest of a suspect.  Ultimately, the suspect pled guilty to Larceny charges and Habitual Felon Status.  He received a 90-117 month prison sentence.

The two images below are of the uncharted and charted match.  In each image the latent is on the left and the ten-print is on the right.  Click on either image for a larger version.