Get ready for Listening to the Dead Season 2: Cause of Death! More crimes, more forensics, more revelations. Subscribe now and don't miss episode one on 24th February 2021. 

Fibre analysis is one most important resources in forensic science. The discovery of fibres evidence is essential when determining what an attacker or killer was wearing at the time of an incident. 

In this bonus episode, Lynda and Cass are joined by former President of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, Dr Ann Priston. A leading expert in forensic fibre analysis, Dr Priston visits Lynda at her home to discuss how exhaustive fibre analysis has helped to solve some of the most infamous and difficult cases.

This bonus episode is the last in the first season of Listening to the Dead in which Lynda and Cass have investigated seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

Subscribe now!

 

Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

Dr Priston currently works with the charity Inside Justice, investigating alleged miscarriages of justice. You can learn more about their work here:

https://www.insidejustice.co.uk/about-inside-justice/advisory-panel.php

Perhaps the most well-known of all the forensic sciences, portrayed in books and films for years, it's the pathologists job to establish cause of death. But what is the real-life experience of a pathologist like: can they really give time of death so quickly; what can they really tell about cause of death from a body at the scene and in the mortuary; and are they really on first name terms with detectives? 

This episode Lynda and Cass are joined by veteran pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton who reveals how pathologists bring together many of the other forms forensic evidence to inform their conclusions. 

 

This is the sixth of a seven part series during which Lynda and Cass investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

 Subscribe now!

 

 Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

You can read more about Dr Stuart Hamilton and his work at the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit at the University of Leicester here: https://www.forensic-access.co.uk/our-people/expert-witnesses/dr-stuart-hamilton/

 

 This podcast was made by Bonnier Books UK

 Director: Jon Watt

 Assistant Director: Laura Makela

 Producer: Chris Attaway

 Theme music: Game Over by Magic in the Other

 Interview music: Sweeney by Mike Relm 

One of the newest and fastest evolving forensic disciplines, this science of extracting evidence from digital devices has become a central part of police investigations. From phones to Fitbits, from laptops to smart speakers, digital devices are ubiquitous in our lives and that means that we all leave a trail – a digital footprint – that forensics can follow.

 

Join Lynda, Cass and industry expert Dr Jan Collie as they discuss the dark web, digital profiling and Jan's experiences analysing the digital devices of terrorists, paedophiles and murderers – just don't forget to change your passwords!

 

Over seven episodes, Lynda and Cass will investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

In this episode, Lynda and Cass explore the science of forensic entomology – the study of how insects and bugs interact with a cadaver. At times it sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it’s a vital part of many police investigations, giving clues as to time of death and whether a body might have been moved.

 

As Cass meets Dr Martin Hall in his lab at the Natural History Museum and gets hands-on with some maggots, Lynda recalls her first encounter with entomology at a murder scene. 

 

From extracting evidential DNA from insects that have drunk blood, to blow flies acting as sniffer dogs to help locate a corpse, forensic entomology is one of the most exciting, fast-moving and fascinating forensic disciplines. 

 

Over seven episodes, Lynda and Cass will investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

 Subscribe now!

 

 Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

You can read more about Martin’s work at the NHM here: www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/martin-hall.html

 

 

 Credits

 This podcast was made by Bonnier Books UK

 Director: Jon Watt

 Assistant Director: Laura Makela

 Producer: Chris Attaway

 Theme music: Game Over by Magic in the Other

 Interview music: Sweeney by Mike Relm 

In 1986 the world of forensics changed forever when a British scientist discovered that patterns in some regions of a person’s DNA could be used to distinguish one individual from another. 

For a CSI like Cass Sutherland, it meant changing his whole approach to investigating a crime scene and learning how this new evidence should be interpreted. 

For an author like Lynda La Plante, it changed crime writing more than anything else in her long career. 

For bloody pattern analysis expert Dr Peter Smith, it meant retraining in a whole new skill: using different tools to find bodily fluids, identifying new types of evidence and ultimately understanding how DNA could be made to stand up in court. 

In this episode, Lynda and Cass unravel the scientific breakthrough that changed criminal investigation forever. 

Over seven episodes, Lynda and Cass will investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

Subscribe now!

 

 Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

 Credits

 This podcast was made by Bonnier Books UK

 Director: Jon Watt

 Assistant Director: Laura Makela

 Producer: Chris Attaway

 Theme music: Game Over by Magic in the Other

 Interview music: Sweeney by Mike Relm 

In this episode, Lynda and Cass turn their attention to the forensic investigation of fire with Dr Peter Mansi. A former fireman and colleague of Cass’, Peter is now an internationally renowned fire investigator who has worked on some of the most infamous cases or arson and accidental fire, including the recent tragedy at Grenfell. 

Peter reveals to Lynda and Cass how he goes about investigating a fire, from reconstructing rooms to study fire behaviour, to tracking an ignition source and reading the smoke signals. 

 

As Lynda says: ‘It’s almost as if the fire becomes a living thing – a killer to be hunted.’ 

Over seven episodes, Lynda and Cass will investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

  

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

Subscribe now!

 

 Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

You can read more about Peter’s work here: https://www.fireinvestigationsuk.com.

 

 

 Credits

 This podcast was made by Bonnier Books UK

 Director: Jon Watt

 Assistant Director: Laura Makela

 Producer: Chris Attaway

 Theme music: Game Over by Magic in the Other

 Interview music: Sweeney by Mike Relm 

Lynda and Cass kick off their new podcast series by exploring the fascinating world of forensic botany and ecology with leading expert Professor Patricia Wiltshire. 

The team discuss how plant regrowth can be used to track a killer’s path months after a crime was committed and the infamous Soham murders – a case that Patricia's botanical evidence helped to crack and a trail that Lynda attended.

Over seven episodes, Lynda and Cass will investigate seven branches of forensics: discussing their own experiences, talking with experts, hearing how real life crime scenes are worked, exploring the latest innovations and demonstrating how CSI fact is even more thrilling than CSI fiction.

 

If you want to know what criminal investigation is like in real life, then get ready for a podcast that puts YOU at the crime scene. 

Subscribe now!

Discover more at: www.lyndalaplante.com/listening-to-the-dead/

Patricia Wilshire's new book Traces - The Memoir of the forensic scientist is out now in audiobook, ebook and paperback.

Director: Jon Watt

Assistant Director: Laura Makela

Producer: Chris Attaway

Theme music: Game Over by Magic in the Other

Interview music: Sweeney by Mike Relm 

Introducing the new Listening to the Dead podcast with Lynda La Plante and CSI Cass Sutherland!

First episode out on 27th February. 

Subscribe now!