Last year, microscopically small traces of diatoms from Lake Neusiedl pointed the investigators to a suspected murderer who is said to have drowned his victim in a drainage canal near Mörbisch in Burgenland. Because the traces of algae were finally found on the banknotes that the alleged perpetrator (29) had stolen from the 22-year-old. In the meantime, the 29-year-old from Lower Austria has already been found guilty.
When it comes to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack in criminal cases, the 43 forensic technicians at the Federal Criminal Police Office in Vienna come into action. As in Burgenland, their findings can be used to solve serious criminal offences. The experts carried out 39,000 examinations in the previous year, as Interior Minister Gerhard Karner summed up yesterday. This number is the average of the past five years.
The technical professionals at the Federal Criminal Police Office cover the specialist areas of chemistry, traces of weapons and moulds, documents and manuscripts, biology and microscopy as well as investigating the causes of fire and explosions. Of the approximately 39,000 analyzes carried out, around 24,500 were drug analyses. In addition, 900 firearms were examined and 5,300 handwriting and document examinations were carried out. The forensic technology experts analyzed the causes of fires and explosions 105 times.
A “figurehead”
“The work of our investigators is significantly supported by the forensic expertise,” said the minister. This part of police work has steadily increased in importance over the past few decades, and the Viennese forensic technicians have become “an international figurehead,” emphasizes Karner. The experts were also used in highly sensational cases in 2021, e.g. B. in the forensic investigations after the terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020.
Drug lab revealed
Last year, the technicians also contributed to the fact that a secret drug laboratory was uncovered in the Weinviertel, in which more than 100 kilograms of narcotic drugs had been produced.
In the case of the Viennese “Bierwirt”, who shot his ex-partner, the expertise of the forensic technicians was also in demand. They provided evidence that traces of gunshot from the murder weapon adhered to the perpetrator’s hands and clothing. For a long time, he had claimed that he couldn’t remember the alleged murder properly because of his massive consumption of alcohol and drugs.
The experts from the Federal Criminal Police Office were also involved in investigating the cause of the fire after the devastating forest fire in Höllental in Hirschwang an der Rax in Lower Austria. In addition, with their help, a large-scale illegal arms trade could be cleared up.
The Covid-19 measures also affected the work of the Federal Criminal Police Office in the previous year. Due to the travel restrictions, there has been a decrease in the number of checks carried out on passports and other travel documents for authenticity.
This also led to a decrease in burglary offenses, which resulted in fewer forensic investigations in the previous year.
Source: Nachrichten
