Forensic Technology Unveiled:
How Medical Devices Solve the Mysteries of Murder

If you’re like me, your secret indulgence late at night, after everything has settled down and you’ve gathered a few snacks from the kitchen, maybe a blanket to hide behind for when you’re scared, is a good crime documentary.

Maybe you like the challenge of guessing who the killer is, or feel like you could have been a detective in another life. Or maybe you just like things that are scary and go bump in the night.

Whether you have watched a murder mystery on Netflix or real trial coverage on the news, we’ve been accustomed to the usual criminal and the methods used to solve the case. The killer believes they’ve covered their tracks, gone undetected and accomplished the perfect crime.

But somehow DNA evidence - a single hair in the fibers of clothing, a small drop of blood on the carpet, or half a fingerprint left on the handle – pinpoints the killer and leads to a satisfying arrest. Of course we know this is not how all cases are solved. But what about the cases where there was no witness, seemingly no trace of evidence to identify the killer?

– My spin on Law and Order

Now this is where the medical device industry comes into play. Our first story on tonight’s episode of “Forensic Technology Unveiled: How Medical Devices Solve the Mysteries of Murder” is the case of Jasmine Fiore.

Cue serious, intense music

It was a seemingly normal, hot day in San Diego, California on August 15, 2009. That is, for everyone besides Jasmine Fiore, a 28-year-old Playboy model. Jasmine would not get to enjoy that hot summer day in 2009, because Jasmine was found in a suitcase, left in an alley near the hotel she was shown staying at on security footage.

Authorities did not know this was Jasmine Fiore however, because Jasmine’s killer did their best to prevent identification of her body. Jasmine had no fingertips or teeth when her body was found, as the killer removed them all. Regardless, the body was moved to the morgue, and investigation into this Jane Doe began.

With no common way to identify the victim, days passed with no leads. Nothing to utilize to find the suspect, or notify the victim’s family. It was not until investigators had the idea of checking the victim’s breast implants. Maybe they could provide the answers law enforcement had been looking for. Thankfully, the breast implants had not been damaged enough that the serial number of the implants could not be identified.

Shockingly, breast implants can withstand hundreds of pounds of pressure, up to three times your body weight. These serial numbers were ran, and ultimately used to identify the Jane Doe as Jasmine Fiore. As someone who works in the Quality and Regulatory aspect of medical devices, serial numbers and lot codes are key for regulatory compliance, tracking these medical devices from production to patient. These series of numbers assist with complaints, for medical device reporting, nonconformances and more. But did we ever think these would be used to solve murders?

Oh, and for you crime junkies still reading this article, it was Jasmine’s husband that committed her murder. Which, if you’ve seen as many documentaries as me, is not surprising, as almost 30% of homicide victims are killed by someone they knew other than family members.

What I failed to mention earlier is that tonight’s episode of “Forensic Technology Unveiled: How Medical Devices Solve the Mysteries of Murder”, is a double feature. Tonight, we are not only discussing how something as small a serial number can solve a murder but how medical devices that store data can solve crime as well. So if you’re not shaking from fear yet, buckle up as I present Part II.~Cue serious, intense music once again

For this story, we take a hop across the pond to Australia. In October 2000, Australian authorities found the body of 72-year-old David Crawford, the cause of murder clearly apparent by axe wounds scattered across his head and face. Like all medical examiners, Robert Kelsall barely touched the body at the scene, not wanting to interfere and to leave as much to the police as possible. It wasn’t until the next day, when Robert removed David Crawford’s pajamas and found a pocket-watch sized object under the skin of his chest that they found the key to unlocking the murder.

That object, turned out to be Crawford’s pacemaker, installed just two months prior to him taking his last breath5. Before Dr. Kelsall had the idea to check the data stored by the pace maker, he could only give the time of death within a three-hour range. But after checking the electrical activity recorded within the pacemaker, authorities were able to determine the minute the victim was woken in the night by a disturbance and when he was attacked, the spike of adrenaline causing peaks and waves of activity, followed by nothingness as Crawford’s heart stopped beating.

The 19-year-old suspect in Crawford’s case had a seemingly sturdy alibi, but one thing was for certain, the data recorded by Crawford’s pacemaker provided a clear picture of the night’s timeline, ultimately leading to the arrest and imprisonment of Ivan Jones who was sentenced to 20 years for his crime. The best fact about this case, is that if the review of Crawford’s electrical activity was conducted just an hour later, all the data would have been lost, overwritten in the cycle of information captured by the pacemaker’s limited memory.

At the conclusion of tonight’s episode, I will leave you with this. The medical device industry is so important. This industry assists in improving the confidence, health and well-being of the people that receive these medical devices. But their impact beyond death shall not be dismissed. In the cases of Jasmine Fiore and David Crawford, their implants assisted in the identification of their killers and brought their family a small sense of peace for crimes that made no sense. May more crimes be solved by these devices.