Campagne, Opuscoli e infografiche

Last stop for the wolf killer

Forensic Veterinary Sciences for the fight against the illegal killing of animals

It seemed a morning similar to the others for those boys who were on their way to the bus stop to go to school, but an unexpected and terrible image made their eyes widen: hanging by the hind legs on the shelter was the corpse of a wolf from which a trickle of blood dripped and covered the seats as well (Figure 1).


Figure 1. Corpse of a wolf


One of them called the emergency number 112 and the foresters immediately arrived. They bordered the area of the shelter (the Crime Scene) with a tape that would have prevented access to strangers, they made all the photographic surveys necessary to "freeze" in the images all the elements that could have served to identify the traces left by those responsible for that heinous killing and to reconstruct the dynamics of what happened.

Then, and only later, they carefully untied the corpse from the roof of the shelter to put it in an airtight container suitable for the transport to a specialized diagnostic facility, namely the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale competent for the area, where it would have been established whether or not the wolf's death was truly caused by a criminal action punished by the Criminal Code (Book II Title IX bis of the Criminal Code, Article 544-bis: killing of animals).

The investigative approach had been flawless: all the procedures foreseen for in these cases had been followed (Fico R., Angelucci S. and Ciarrocca E., 2013): 

  1. to define the scene of the crime and prevent the access of outsiders who could have polluted it

  2. to document photographically all the elements present in the area, including the position of the corpse as it was found, the ropes with which it was hung and all that could have been used to identify the traces left by the offenders

  3. to collect and identify, in the most suitable way, all the possible "sources of evidence", keeping them in special containers in order to be able to transfer them to the specialized laboratories for subsequent analyses.

The Primary Crime Scene is where the crime is committed while the Secondary Crime Scene is where the body is found. As in this case they may not coincide: the wolf was killed in one place and then transported, to divert the investigation, to another place where it was later found. Both Crime Scenes, however, respond to the principle of Locard and both contain traces of the presence of the victim and the person responsible for the killing and transport.


From this moment the investigations would have followed two different and parallel paths:

  1. the collection of all "environmental" information: for example, the examination of the videos taken by cameras that were in the surrounding area of the Crime Scene (i.e. the shelter); the analysis of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or dedicated blogs) to find out if someone had bragged about the crime, and listening to people in some ways potentially useful in providing other elements for investigations

  2. the use of Forensic Veterinary Sciences which would have established whether the wolf had died for a cause referable to a crime and whether the findings collected on the scene of the crime, or in environments related to the possible perpetrators, there were elements that would make it possible to unequivocally prove the relationship between the victim, the suspect and the means to commit the crime.

The investigation activities are always based on what, with technical language, is called the "LOCARD principle", named after the French criminologist Edmond Locard, who coined the concept that: "every contact between the victim, the criminal and the environment in which the crime takes place leaves a trace". This means, in a nutshell, that the criminal will leave on the victim traces that can be traced back to him, the victim will leave on the aggressor traces that can be traced back to him and the Crime Scene will contain the traces of both. For example, if a poacher kills a deer, the bullet extracted from the animal’s body will trace the poacher’s weapon, on the clothes of the poacher will be present traces of blood or hair belonging to the deer killed and in the Crime Scene will be present both elements attributable to the deer killed (i.e. blood on the ground) and to the poacher (i.e. footprints of boots). All investigations into crimes against humans or animals are based on this principle.



Environmental investigations: the white van

The analysis of the footage taken by the active video cameras in the area surrounding the shelter had taken, at around four in the morning, a white van (Figure 2) heading along the road which would then take the bus that the students would wait at the shelter a few hours later. Missing from the footage, the van had reappeared after about a quarter of an hour in the opposite direction. Despite the low light of the streetlights, it was possible to read, even if barely, the plaque. It belonged to two characters who had previously expressed on Facebook their opposition to the arrival of the wolf in their territory.


Figure 2. White van


At this point, for the foresters there were sufficient evidences to ask the Prosecutor (the Public Prosecutor) for permission to search the truck owners' company.

At this point, for the foresters there were sufficient evidences to ask the Prosecutor (the Public Prosecutor) for permission to search the truck owners' company.

The scene was gruesome. Some rooms still carried traces of blood and remains of sheep slaughtered, perhaps illegal. There were tools stained with blood scattered everywhere, ropes and a pitchfork with the tips probably stained with blood (Figure 3).  


Figure 3. Pitchfork with the tips probably stained with blood


The white van was there, also with traces of clotted blood in the load compartment (Figure 4) and on part of the bodywork and full of unidentifiable animal hair (Figure 5).


Figure 4. Traces of clotted blood in the load compartment


Figure 5. Unidentifiable animal hair


For the foresters it would have been complicated, if not impossible, to prove that the van owners had killed the wolf and exhibited the body without requesting the assistance of the National Reference Centre for Veterinary Forensic Medicine of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Lazio and Tuscany, which has a Forensic Molecular Genetics Laboratory specialized in comparison analysis of animal DNA.

The investigators collected a large number of samples from all surfaces on which blood stains were visible, including the pitchfork and all the tufts of hair that seemed to belong to the wolf.

Meanwhile, the necropsy for forensic purposes, performed according to the guidelines published under the aegis of the Ministry of Health (Paciello O. & Fico R., 2018) had ascertained that the wolf had been poisoned and killed, while he was in agony, with one pointed instrument, perhaps the pitchfork found in the company, and therefore it was now certain that a crime had been committed against a species protected by the state. At this point the investigations could proceed.

A team of foresters brought the findings collected in the company, including a piece of muscle from the wolf taken at the end of the necroscopy, to the Forensic Molecular Genetics Laboratory of the Reference Centre for the DNA match, in Grosseto, Tuscany Region.


The Forensic Veterinary Sciences: the comparison between the DNA present on the finds collected in the company and the DNA of the killed wolf

The DNA for analysis, in particular to demonstrate with a statistically significant probability the identity of two genetic profiles extracted from environmental findings and from the body of an individual, human or animal, must be as intact as possible; the more fragmented the molecule is, the less likely it is that two genetic profiles can be superimposed.

Although the DNA molecule is quite resistant, sudden changes in temperature, exposure to the sun, contact with detergents or strongly oxidizing substances can break it up into fragments so small as to make it impossible to analyse even if subjected to various cycles of amplification through the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique.

The foresters had collected as many samples as possible given the presence of many finds potentially related to the killing and transport of the wolf by van. In these cases, it is better to abound than to risk leaving out some artefact that would then have been lost.

EVERYTHING THAT IS IGNORED, LEFT OUT AND NOT TAKEN FROM THE CRIME SCENE IS DEFINITELY LOST!

However, this would have loaded the laboratory with particularly long and complex work.

The extraction, amplification and analysis of some mitochondrial DNA loci through the use of specific STR panels (Short Tandem Repeats), developed by the Forensic Molecular Genetics Laboratory of the Reference Centre, unfortunately highlighted that a large part of the finds consisting of hairs and traces of blood, the clothes of the suspects and the pitchfork found in the company, the Primary Crime Scene, belonged to the Ovis aries species. All but one (Garofalo L. et al. 2019)

In fact, a blood stain on the van’s loading bay step had enough DNA to establish that the blood belonged, unlike the others, to a specimen of Canis lupus.


The DNA found in the van was from the wolf hanging from the bus shelter?

The DNA extracted, fortunately, was in sufficient quantity to define, through the comparison of the STR sequences, the individual genotype to be compared with the genotype of the wolf subjected to autopsy.

The Laboratory of Molecular Genetics Forensics of the National Reference Center collects for years all genotypes of dog and wolf that are examined at the headquarters and the peripheral sections of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana; there is, therefore, a database of genetic profiles that allows a solid statistical analysis to be carried out, especially in cases of illegal killing of animals in which DNA match is required (comparison of two individual genetic profiles).


The two genetic profiles matched!

The DNA extracted from the blood stain on the van’s step was apparently that of the wolf killed and hanging from the bus shelter. However, it was necessary to establish, with specific statistical analysis, whether this coincidence was due to chance or not.

The test, carried out through the use of a specific software, showed that the probability that the identity of the two individual genetic profiles, that obtained from the blood stain on the van and that obtained from the muscle of the wolf killed, was due to chance; given the population of wolves in Italy is estimated at about 2,000 specimens (Galaverni M. et al., 2016), it was approximately 1: 700,000.

In other words, it was 700,000 times more likely that the two genetic profiles actually belonged to the same individual, than the possibility that this result was due to chance (Garofalo L. et al. 2019).

On the basis of this result, those responsible for that heinous crime were brought to trial and sentenced

 This case is a good example of how the use of Veterinary Forensic Sciences can concretely contribute to the suppression and prevention of crimes against animals.

It contributes to repression because it makes it possible to punish those responsible, but also and above all to prevention, because it makes it clear to the public and to potential criminals that it is possible to identify them and therefore to impose the criminal sanctions provided for by current laws.


References

  1. Fico R., Angelucci S., Ciarrocca E. “Manuale delle attività investigative per i reati contro la Fauna”. 2013. Ente Parco Nazionale della Majella 2013. CODICE ISBN 9788890290039

  2. Galaverni M., Caniglia R., Fabbri E., Milanesi P., Randi E., “One, no one, or one hundred thousand: how many wolves are there currently in Italy?”. Mammal Res., vol.61, no.1, pp13-24. 2016. Doi:10.1007/s13364-015-0247-8

  3. Garofalo L., Fanelli R., Mariacher A., Ciarrocca E., Fico R., Lorenzini R. Last stop for the wolf killers: forensic analysis puzzles out a fierce crime against wildlife. 11th International Symposium on Wild Fauna. Viterbo, 25-29 settembre 2019.
    doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35330.22729

  4. https://www.lav.it/news/lupo-impiccato-rimini-condanna

  5. Paciello O. & Fico R. a cura di, “Linee Guida Nazionali per le Autopsie a Scopo Forense in Medicina Veterinaria. 2019. ISBN 9788894453010.

 

Rosario Fico, Lorena Di Benedetto, Francesca Maccagnan, Giulia Rosa
Centro di Referenza Nazionale per la Medicina Forense Veterinaria
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana

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