Who is Saltair Sally?
Who is Saltair Sally?
Nikole Kristina “Niki” Bakoles, previously known as “Saltair Sally”, (August 23, 1980 – c. March 16, 2000) was a young woman from Washington state who had gone missing in Utah and was later found deceased in Utah. She was identified using “stable isotope analysis”.
How is isotopes used in forensic cases?
For several years, forensic scientists have been able to use isotopes found in human hair as markers that can indicate a region of the country where a person was living because many water supplies have unique isotopic signatures that are captured in hair.
How stable isotopes analysis can help in criminal investigation?
Crime scene investigation For example, stable isotope analysis is used to identify drug trafficking routes, to determine whether explosives are of a common origin, as well as locating the country of origin for a given explosive. Stable isotope analysis is also used to trace counterfeit pharmaceuticals and food fraud.
What do nitrogen isotopes tell us?
Nitrogen isotopes indicate the trophic level position of organisms (reflective of the time the tissue samples were taken). There is a larger enrichment component with δ15N because its retention is higher than that of 14N. This can be seen by analyzing the waste of organisms.
What happened Saltair Sally?
SALT LAKE CITY — Earlier this month, police identified the remains of a woman known as “Saltair Sally” as Nikole Bakoles. Her bones were found near the Great Salt Lake in 2000. Bakoles, who is from Washington state, was reported missing to Midvale police in 2003 — three years after the bones were found.
Where was Saltair Sally found?
Great Salt Lake
In October 2000, while walking along the shores of the “Great Salt Lake” near Salt Lake City, two hunters made a gruesome discovery. In a plastic bag, they found a white sock, a shirt, a few bones and a human skull to which long blond hair was attached.
What is the best definition of an isotope?
1 : any of two or more species of atoms of a chemical element with the same atomic number and nearly identical chemical behavior but with differing atomic mass or mass number and different physical properties. 2 : nuclide.
What are the three main kinds of isotope tissue samples that are collected from the human body?
Prior studies evaluating animal ecology using stable isotopes have relied on the use of three broad types of samples: (1) Primary samples (i.e., muscle, hair, feces) collected from live animals or animals with a known time of death; (2) Found samples (i.e., salvaged road kill, scat, hair or feathers) with an unknown …
What can isotopes be used for?
Stable isotopes can be used by measuring their amounts and proportions in samples, for example in water samples. Naturally-occurring stable isotopes of water and other substances are used to trace the origin, history, sources, sinks and interactions in water, carbon and nitrogen cycles.
Where was Saltair Sally’s remains found?
How does isotope ratio mass spectrometry work?
Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) leverages magnetic sector mass spectrometry to enable high-precision measurement of the stable isotope content of a sample. Typical measurements target hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen analyses—although elements with masses up to and including sulfur can be measured.
What isotopes are unstable?
Unstable isotopes are atoms that have unstable nuclei. These are radioactive isotopes. Therefore, they are also called radioactive isotopes. Some elements such as Uranium has only radioactive isotopes.
What do isotopes do in radioactivity?
Different isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei but differing numbers of neutrons. Radioisotopes are radioactive isotopes of an element. They can also be defined as atoms that contain an unstable combination of neutrons and protons, or excess energy in their nucleus.