Feb 25, 2024 21:30:00

How did a nuclear weapons laboratory contribute to solving serial murder cases?

At

the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, USA, which was established in 1952 for the purpose of research and development of nuclear weapons, fusion experiments are being conducted day and night. Foreign media Undark Magazine explains that LLNL played an important role in solving serial murder cases that occurred in the 1990s.

How a Nuclear Weapons Lab Helped Crack a Serial-Killer Case
https://undark.org/2024/02/09/wilo-serial-killer-nuclear-lab/

Efren Saldivar , who started working as a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center in California in 1989, was sometimes assigned to care for terminally ill patients at the time of the incident.

In 1998, it was reported that Saldivar had ``helped patients die early.'' According to the report, a colleague of Saldivar's made a complaint to Glendale Adventist Medical Center that he had a 'magic syringe.'

Following the reports, local police summoned Saldivar for questioning. During questioning by police, Saldivar confessed to dozens of murders between 1989 and 1997. Saldivar testified that he 'poisoned his patients by overdosing them with pancuronium bromide and suxamethonium chloride , which are used as muscle relaxants.' Saldivar was arrested shortly thereafter.

However, it is extremely difficult to find physical evidence to corroborate Saldivar's confession, and if no physical evidence is found, the police will have to release Saldivar due to insufficient evidence.

Therefore, investigators speculated that ``pancuronium bromide and suxamethonium chloride may be found in the deceased victim's body.'' However, it has been extremely difficult to find volatile chemicals such as pancuronium bromide and suxamethonium chloride in the bodies of victims long after they have died.

Investigators

sought help from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, which introduced them to LLNL. In addition to conducting research on nuclear weapons, LLNL conducts research on chemical and biological weapons, radioactive materials, nuclear materials, explosives, and materials that may arise in the event of a terrorist attack or an accident at a hazardous waste disposal site, in the interest of national security. Forensic research is also being conducted.

These research departments at LLNL are also known as the ' Last Laboratory ,' and sometimes play a role in the investigation of special cases.

For analysis by LLNL, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office exhumed the bodies of 20 people believed to have been killed by Saldivar. Suxamethonium chloride, which Saldivar is said to have used as a poison, generally has the property of relaxing muscles when taken in excess, but it quickly turns into a general compound. Therefore, LLNL surmised that it is unlikely that suxamethonium chloride would be found in the victim's body many years after death.

So LLNL turned to pancuronium bromide and developed a new method to homogenize the tissue sample by mixing it with a buffer solution and stirring it evenly in the solution for analysis.

After a series of chromatographic and spectroscopy tests, pancuronium bromide was found in six of the 20 samples. ``We were very surprised when we discovered a compound that appeared to be pancuronium bromide,'' said Brian Andresen, a forensic scientist at LLNL.

Based on the evidence discovered by LLNL, Saldivar was sentenced to life in prison without parole on April 5, 2001. At trial, the prosecution did not seek the death penalty against Saldivar. The reasons for this are the uncertainty caused by conducting the investigation using new scientific protocols, and the defendant's desire to avoid the possibility of an appeal that would prolong the trial and increase court costs.