Vaporized gold helping solve crimes in Pinellas County

Vaporized gold dust used to solve crimes

Kailey Tracy reports.

LARGO, Fla. - The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is using vaporized gold to help investigators solve crimes.

Very small pieces of metal are put into a machine called a Vacuum Metal Deposition Chamber or VMD for short. Gold is the most popular. It helps investigators find fingerprints they can’t see with the naked eye.

Image 1 of 2

▼

"We place metal, different kinds of metals, it could be gold, silver, copper, into boats, heat them up thermally until they turn into a gas, if you will, and they adhere to the background of the evidence that we either magnet or suspend with different wires and fishing wire, that kind of thing. So, all of those metals travel upward, and then we finish out with zinc because it helps with contrast for the background," PCSO Forensic Science Specialist Heather Temple said.

The vaporized metal makes the prints visible, helping investigators find a possible suspect.

What they're saying:

"It's vital. It's an expensive piece of equipment, so not a lot of agencies in Florida actually have this," Temple said. "We're able to solve crime, so, that makes it invaluable," she said.

Other agencies in Florida and even from other states sometimes bring evidence to process. The VMD can process almost anything, except items that are wet or pressurized. Specialist Temple said they use it a lot for bullet casings. The evidence can be new or old.

"Here is the test print so that I know the process worked correctly," Temple said while demonstrating how the equipment works. "So, on my test print I know that there is a print there because I put it there myself. So, I use that as my guide as processing so that if there are no prints on evidence, that's because they weren't there to begin with," she said.

Dig deeper:

The PCSO got its first VMD in 2000. It was one of only six law enforcement agencies then to have one. Then, they got a new one in 2016 to replace it. Its size, though, had limitations. Its chamber is 18 inches by 18 inches. So, the agency used a grant from the National Institute of Justice this year to get a walk-in freezer-sized VMD.

READ: Volunteers needed to plant 12,000 sea oats on Anna Maria Island after busy hurricane season

Temple said only nine percent of sheriff’s offices in Florida have the technology.

"I came from a smaller agency that definitely didn't even have it in their dreams to have something like this. So, to have the ability and the disposal to say, ‘I believe in this evidence and I think that we can go further. So, if I use other techniques, and I'm not able to get the result that I'm looking for. It looks like there may be ridge detail and I want to continue going in my sequential order,’ then having that at my fingertips is definitely something that not many people can say that they have," Temple said.

Specialist Temple says they can still process evidence put into the VMD in traditional ways, like with powder, but using the VMD makes sure they don’t leave any stone unturned.

CLICK HERE:>>> Follow FOX 13 on YouTube

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kailey Tracy.

WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: