Small, clingy and nearly impossible to clean up. The attributes of glitter that drive moms, dads and teachers mad are the same characteristics investigators and forensic scientists hail. As far as trace evidence goes, glitter is one of the hardest for perpetrators to eliminate at a crime scene.
Ed Jones is a retired forensic scientist from the Ventura (California) sheriff’s crime lab and the proud owner of one of the largest collections of glitter in the world, with more than 1,000 unique samples. Jones became fascinated by glitter through a self-described addiction of the microscope.
“Glitter is so fun to look at under the microscope because it's manmade. You can make it in all these visually exciting forms, which you really don't see with the naked eye but under the microscope they become apparent,” Jones says.
While it may sound like just a hobby, Jones’ glitter collection has helped solve a murder. In a case almost 20 years ago, the victim had red glitter in her hair – the result of being at a 4th of July party earlier in the evening. While the suspect tried to clean his vehicle after the crime, he—unsurprisingly—was not able to remove all the glitter. Using just a high-powered microscope, Jones was able to match the glitter from the victim to the glitter from the suspect’s vehicle.
“I actually found glitter on her, the scalp actually peels off of the skull in that form of degradation. I was looking through the scalp under the microscope when I was picking off the glitter there and I picked out 10 glitter particles out of her hair with the forceps under the microscope and used those for comparison against the stuff from the tape lift from his truck,” Jones said.
While Jones is now retired from the Ventura sheriff’s office, his glitter collection is alive and well, waiting to contribute to the next “glitter case”.