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BITE MARK EVIDENCE

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  p590-592

2026-09-07

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BITE MARK EVIDENCE

Ted Bundy was executed in an electric chair by the State of Florida on January 24, 1989. He had confessed to 30 homicides that he committed between 1974 and 1978 in seven states. His crime spree included two escapes from Colorado jails and three murders before he was captured in Florida in 1978. During his final crime spree, he attacked Lisa Levy in a sorority house at Florida State University. During the attack, he bit her deeply in her left buttock. At his trial for the murder of Lisa Levy and another student, bite mark evidence was introduced that matched the bite mark in Levy’s body with impressions taken of Bundy’s teeth. The match was made by forensic odontologists Richard Souviron and Lowell Levine. This was the first, and certainly the most famous case where bite marks played a major role in putting the defendant at the crime scene in such a graphic way. Bite marks can be left in virtually any pliable material. There was a case in the 1970s where a home invader became hungry and took a large bit out of a piece of cheese that was in the refrigerator. He left the cheese behind and was later convicted, partially on the match made of the bite mark in the cheese. Human skin can be a good medium for accepting and holding bite marks although the healing process and the elasticity of human tissue means that the bite mark may only be visible for a period of time. Traditionally, bite mark evidence, especially bite marks in skin are analyzed in a two-dimensional fashion. Because the penetration into the surface may not be too deep and, until recently three-dimensional techniques had not been developed, it is the surface characteristics of the bite mark and the dental impression that are generally used for comparison. Figure 22.9 shows a well-formed bite mark in a small baby’s arm. Known bite marks are generally obtained by use of an impression of the teeth in dental stone or a similar medium. The material used for the impression must be fine grained so that small details in the surface of the teeth will show up. Figure 1 is a dental impression of a set of teeth. In recent years, as bite marks have been increasingly used as identification evidence in crimes of violence, questions have arisen concerning the underlying principle that bite marks in skin and other surfaces are unique and can be individualized to dental impressions. The NAS Forensic Science Report highlighted this in their discussion of impression evidence in general. They expressed the concern that there was insufficient validation research that would support a claim of individuality in bite mark evidence as they did with other types of impression evidence. One promising development in the analysis of bite mark evidence is the use of three-dimensional impressions and bite marks. In cases where there is sufficient depth to the bite mark, the comparison with dental impressions can include the three-dimensional structure of the teeth in addition to the biting surface. Figure 2 shows a three-dimensional bite mark impression. Figure 3 shows how three-dimensional bite marks are compared.

FIGURE 1 A bite mark in the arm of an infant child.

FIGURE 2 Bite mark castings in dental stone.

FIGURE 3 A three-dimensional bite mark casting.