31/12/2021

Tamara Samsonova – The Wicked Woman

A brilliant female serial killer, who covered her crimes for quite a long time even after jotting down every detail of the murders in her journal. Well, that was Tamara Samsonova dubbed as the Granny ripper and the Baba Yaga. Tamara Mitrofanovna Samsonova was born on 5th February 1947, in the city of Uzhur. She was a Russian serial killer who is believed to have killed more than thirteen people. After graduating from Moscow State Linguistic University she moved to Petersburg, where she married Alexei Samsonov. In 1971 Tamara and her husband settled in their newly built aesthetic home at Dimitrov Street. She further joined a tourist facility to work as an assistant in the Grand Hotel Europe and gained around sixteen years of experience there. Crime Period of Tamara Samsonova Tamara’s crime span was between 2000-2015 in St. Petersburg. In the 2000s, her husband went missing. Post her complaint […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 4 min read
27/12/2021

Applications of Proteins in Daily Life

Proteins are large complex molecules that are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units of amino acids which are attached forming long chains. The sequence of these amino acids determines each protein’s unique 3-dimensional structure and its specific function. Amino acids are coded by combinations of three DNA building blocks which are nucleotides. They are large biomolecules and macromolecules that perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalyzing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, providing structure to cells and organisms, and transporting molecules from one location to another. Proteins differ from one another primarily in their sequence of amino acids, which is dictated by the nucleotide sequence of their genes, and which usually results in protein folding into a specific 3D structure that determines its activity. Most microorganisms and plants can biosynthesize all 20 standard amino acids, while animals (including humans) must obtain some of […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Biology 0 5 min read
26/12/2021

Importance of Proteins For the Body

Food holds the main portion of nutrition we acquire for our body. Hence consumption of the right amount of them is essential. As the generations passed, the healthy eating habits have reduced which resulted in people being more conscious about their health leading to different kinds of diets. However, these dietary habits might help in losing weight but at the same time makes the body deficient in essential nutrition. Proteins are the building blocks of life. They are polymers of amino acids linked via alpha peptide bonds. They can be represented as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures. But from a nutritional viewpoint, only primary proteins are considered. Similarly, although many compounds in the body can be chemically defined as amino acids, we are only concerned with the 20 canonical amino acids encoded in DNA, plus 5 others—ornithine, citrulline, γ-aminobutyrate, β-alanine, and taurine—that play quantitatively important roles in the body. […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Biology 0 5 min read
25/12/2021

Nutrients And Their Importance For Human Body

Nutrients are components that are essential to life and health providing the body with energy and components of repair and life support. The varieties of enriched components of nutrients can include proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals, and carbohydrates. Just like every other component in our body, not all the nutrients provide energy but are necessary for many other functions. Hence based on this, nutrients are divided into two broad categories; Macronutrients which are required by our body in large amounts, and micronutrients which are required by our body in small amounts. The consumption of dietary nutrients applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. They are incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excreted by these cells to create other essential components such as hairs, scales, feathers, or exoskeletons. Some nutrients are metabolically converted into smaller molecules in the process of releasing energy, such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and fermentation products which […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Biology 0 8 min read
24/12/2021

Essential Fats For Human Body | Functions of Fat In Body

Often considered unhealthy, fats are an important aspect of essential nutrients just like vitamins, carbohydrates, and proteins. Dietary fats are important for several health-related aspects and in the optimal functioning of the human body. They are not just a source of energy, they are the building blocks of the body that carry many fat soluble nutrients. It overall contributes to the growth and development of the body. The Good Fat Fat as the name suggests does produce an increasing amount of fat deposition in the body tissues if not consumed efficiently. There are certain essential fats required by the body in certain amounts, anything above that particular quantity or kind can result in deposition of adipose fat, high cholesterol, and many other diseases. Fat supplies essential fatty acids to our body. These are referred to as EFAs in short. The human body as it is cannot produce EFAs known as […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Biology 0 3 min read
23/12/2021

Top 8 Cold Cases in America That Remains Unsolved Till Date

A case becomes “Cold” when all probative investigative leads available to the primary investigators are exhausted and the case remains open and unsolved for years. USA has more than 2,50,000 unsolved cases, a number that increases by about 6,000 each year, according to the FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report data. Currently, we cannot estimate the total number of unsolved cases in terms of all types of crime. However, some of America’s famous Cold cases are: The Hall Mills Murder The Black Dahlia Case JonBenet Ramsey Case The Zodiac Killer D.B. Cooper Case Anthrax Scare Tylenol Tamperings Jack the Ripper Case of disembodied feet Death of Edgar Allen Poe Brown and Goldman Double Murder Case The Women of Ciudad Juarez There are a lot more cold cases that cannot be discussed simultaneously. However, in this article, I have discussed some of the famous cold cases of USA, which even after numerous efforts […]

Anuksha Amrita Top 5 0 8 min read
17/12/2021

Darbara Singh: Indian Serial Killer Who Assaulted & Killed Children

Khadur Sahib road is a small town situated in the golden state of India, Punjab. On 18th April 2004, nine-year-old girls Diksha and Asha went missing. Diksha along with her cousin Asha was last seen playing with the rest of the children near their home at Khador Sahib road. When the other kids were asked about their whereabouts, they did not seem to know anything, other than a man taking both of them with a promise of buying them a shuttlecock and racket. The children belonged to a migrant worker’s family. A few weeks later, a dog sniffs out a decomposing human body next to the Sahib road bridge! Pedestrians were shocked and immediately informed the police. What awaited the police was not just one decomposing body, but three decomposing bodies of children. On further examination, it was revealed that the bodies belonged to Satish(male), Gudiya(female), and Diksha. Just like […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 4 min read
15/12/2021

High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC)

High performance Thin layer chromatography(HPTLC) is a sophisticated form of Thin layer chromatography. It provides superior separation efficiency. The concept of HPTLC includes validated methods for qualitative and quantitative analysis and fulfills all requirements to be used in the fully-fledged environment. It is also known as planar or flatbed chromatography. A particular advantage of this technique is that it can be combined with mass spectrometric approaches, thus allowing detailed structural characterization of carbohydrate and ceramide moieties. Furthermore, HPTLC can be easily used in the context of so-called overlay techniques Principle of HPTLC HPTLC possesses a similar principle to that of Thin-layer chromatography(TLC) which is principle of adsorption chromatography. The solvent used in the mobile phase flows due to capillary action and the component moves according to their affinity towards adsorbent and eluent. The component with more affinity towards the stationary phase travels faster and the component with less affinity towards […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Chemistry 0 4 min read
14/12/2021

Boston Strangler Case Solved After 50 Years Using DNA Analysis

Mary Sullivan, a 19-year-old who lived in Beacon Hill apartment across Tony Charles street in Boston was found raped and murdered at the apartments around 1967. She was tied into the rails of her bed cot and was raped brutally. A few days after this incident, Jane Mariam who lived two blocks across Mary, experienced a break-in at her house, followed by an attempt to rape. However, after Jane was tied up in the same way as that of Mary the perpetrator felt a pang of sudden guilt hovering him up. He apologized and left the scene. This led to the arrest of Albert De Salvo, who was held responsible for more than 11 murder and rape cases that kept happening for weeks in the city of Boston titled as the ‘Boston Strangler Case‘. In 1962, a widowed woman was found dead at her apartment lying naked. She was brutally […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 4 min read
14/12/2021

Quantification of DNA From Forensic Exhibits

Deoxyribose nucleic acid(DNA) as we know holds the blueprint of every individual’s character and traits. When it comes to forensic science, DNA is worth a million gold for the scientists who analyze the sample. Multiple criminal and civil cases across the globe were solved due to this miraculous invention.  Edmond Locard gave Locard’s principle of exchange in forensics stating every contact leaves a trace. When culprits leave the crime scene, they tend to shed evidence without their knowledge. Now, this could include their bodily cells or any kind of body fluids. These samples hold a huge amount of DNA traces. This biological material can also end up being contaminated if not properly collected and packed from the crime scene. Sources of DNA DNA can be extracted mostly from biological evidence. However, few physical evidence like fabrics or any kind of surface could hold this biological evidence or even direct touch […]

Adra Balagopal Forensic Biology 0 9 min read
12/12/2021

Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode: South African Serial Killer & Rapist

Donnybrook, a tiny village in South Africa rich with its tribal cultures and traditions where one such tradition includes faction fights. The two Nigerian tribal groups that shifted to this village were rivals. It was quite common for the villagers to witness both the parties fighting which would eventually turn into a physical fight. They were periodic hunters too. They killed animals and some of them off the record claim that they killed humans too back in ancient times. Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode was born in the year 1974 to this village under a tribal family. He grew up witnessing his family fight ferociously with the enemy tribe. He even learned how to use modernized guns during the fight. His father taught him all sorts of defense artworks along with a detailed course on how to kill a human clean. Never did he know that his son would turn into an […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 3 min read
11/12/2021

Top 5 Cases Solved Using Biological Evidence in the United States

Any material obtained from a crime scene or any place associated with a particular crime, victim, or suspect that is biological in nature is considered biological evidence. It can include hair strands, fibers, any plant or animal materials such as tissues, or even body fluids like blood, semen, and saliva. Evidence, once encountered, is sent for further analysis to the Forensic laboratory following a proper chain of custody. Biological pieces of evidence are usually sent to the Forensic Biology or serology division.  The typical crime scene scenarios that appear to people are from web series or movies. However, the real situation is quite different. Analysis of evidence does not produce results from superfast machines as seen in the fictional movie world, especially if it is an analysis of a DNA print. Biological evidence can be considered to have pretty much first preference in the chain of evidence, however, analysis of […]

Adra Balagopal Top 5 0 4 min read
10/12/2021

Randall Woodfield: American Footballer Turned Serial Killer

Behind every crime or criminal lies a story of distressing childhood and toxic parenting. Well not in every case is this statement true! One such classic example is the case study of Randall Woodfield. Woodfield was born on 26th December 1950 in Oregon, USA. Being born to a socially well-respected rich family, he was the third eldest child. He grew up to become a very prominent football player and he played for the college as well as further on for Green Bay Packers. Among his peers and teachers, he was known to be the most obedient and well-behaved child. Sexually Dysfunctional Behaviours Leading To Crime During his teens, Woodfield started portraying sexually dysfunctional behaviors such as exposing himself in front of a group of teenage girls. He was arrested for the same but was released soon considering it as a petty crime of indecency. However, this incident was kept hidden […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 3 min read
09/12/2021

Umesh Reddy: A Rapist and Killer Who Terrorized The Streets of Karnataka

Umesh Reddy was born in 1969, in Basappa Malige village under Chitradurga district of Karnataka, India. Being the only child of the family Reddy dreamt of becoming police one day. He worked hard for the same and finally got selected in Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) and was posted in Jammu Kashmir on a duty as a guard at the house of a commandant. Criminal in the Undercover In the year 1998, a boy aged around twelve reached the Peenya police station in Bangalore. His mother was brutally raped and murdered by a man who ran away the moment he was done with his crime. The boy while returning home saw him run away and caught a glimpse of his face. When he reached towards his mother she was dead already. The crime scene had the woman’s body covered with one single saree, the rest of her clothes including undergarments was […]

Adra Balagopal Case Studies 0 3 min read
09/12/2021

How Life Becomes Miserable For Rape Victims?

In 1973, the NCRB first published data on rape: 2,919 rape cases were registered at police stations across India that year. By 2010 the figure grew to 20,262. In 2020, the total number of rape cases reported in India has amounted to over 28 thousand.   This figure just not depicts the rate of this heinous crime happening around us but also the horror that is being created for women around us who are already battling a patriarchal society. Nevertheless, these are just the number of cases that are present on the record. Imagine the number of such cases that are not being informed or registered. The news and facts related to such crimes create so much fear in the minds of female fraternity just by mere listening or reading. Then, what will be the effect of such a crime on the victim herself in every facet, whether physical, mental, psychological, or […]

Anuksha Amrita Blog 0 5 min read