Priority Action Report

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Subcommittee

Physics\Pattern Scientific Area Committee

Peter Valentin, PhD

February 14, 2017
Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

• The Bloodstain Pattern Analysis 

Subcommittee will focus on standards 

and guidelines related to the scientific 

detection and analysis of bloodstain 

patterns present at crime scenes and on 

associated evidence.

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Subcommittee Leadership

Position Name Organization Term Email

Chair Toby L. 

Wolson, M.S.

Noslow Forensic 

Consultations, LLC

2019 toby.wolson@gmail.com

Vice Chair Jeff Gurvis National Forensic 

Support Laboratory

2018 Jeff.gurvis@nfslab.com

Executive 

Secretary

Holly Latham Kansas Bureau of 

Investigation

2019 bloodstainanalyst@live.

com

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*3 year terms started October 1, 2016
Subcommittee Members

# Name Organization Term Email

1 Kim Clements, MSFS D.C. Consolidated Forensic Laboratory 2017 kimberly.clements@dc.gov

2 Peter De Forest, DCrim Retired Professor/Consultant 2018 prdeforest@gmail.com

3 Tom J. Griffin Bevel, Gardner & Associates 2017 grifclue@comcast.net

4 Cristina Gonzalez Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department 2019 ccgonzal@lasd.org

5 Leah Innocci Wyoming State Crime Laboratory 2019 Innocci1@gmail.com

6 Kenneth Martin, MS Bevel, Gardner & Associates 2019 kf.martin@verizon.net

7 Stephen Michielsen, PhD North Carolina State University 2018 smichie@ncsu.edu

8 Jeremiah Morris Johnson County Sheriff’s Office 2017 jeremiah.morris@jocogov.org

9 Elizabeth Pierri, MSFS Naval Criminal Investigative Service 2017 elizabeth.pierri@ncis.navy.mil

10 Elizabeth Richards, PhD USAF Office of Special Investigations 2017 elizabeth.richards@us.af.mil

11 Jason S. Simser, PhD MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension 2019 jason.simser@state.mn.us

12 LeeAnn Singley, MS Grayson Singley Associates 2018 lsingleygsa@msn.com

13 Gabriele Suboch, PhD Northcentral University 2019 forensics25@hotmail.com

14 Peter Valentin, PhD University of New Haven 2017 pvalentin@newhaven.edu

15 Haonan Wang, PhD Colorado State University 2018 wanghn@stat.colorado.edu

16 Gary Wilgus Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation 2017 gary.wilgus@ohioattorneygeneral.gov

17 Kevin Winer Kansas City Police Department 2018 kevin.winer@kcpd.org 4
Past Subcommittee Members

# Name Organization Term Email

1 Almon Brown S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SELD)

2 James O. Pex, MS International Forensic Experts, LLC

3 Ralph R. Ristenbatt, III The Pennsylvania State University

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BPA SUBCOMMITTEE AFFILIATES

• The BPA Subcommittee currently has 50+ BPA experts that 

have volunteered to be affiliates. They represent 6 countries, 

public, private, academia, law enforcement, crime scene 

investigations, crime laboratory, and judicial sectors.

• Addition of affiliates to task groups is based on the needs of the 

task group and the specific BPA expertise of the affiliate.

• To become an OSAC affiliate, it is recommended that you 

complete an OSAC application at 

https://www.nist.gov/forensics/osac-application.cfm.

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AAFS Standards Board (ASB) 

The OSAC BPA Subcommittee will be using the AAFS 

Standards Board (ASB) as the Standards Development 

Organization (SDO) for completed documents. The ASB has 

three types of documents.

• Standards (S)

• Technical Report (TR)

• Best Practice Recommendations (BPR)

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Terminology Task Group 

Priority Level: High

• OSAC identified terminology as a priority.

• The task group has reviewed and updating the BPA 

terminology that was developed by the Scientific 

Working Group on Bloodstain Pattern Analysis 

(SWGStain) and has started working on several new 

documents.

Task Group Name: Terminology

Task Group Chair Name: Jeremiah Morris

Task Group Chair Contact Information: 

jeremiah.morris@jocogov.org

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Work Product

Title Origin of 

Document(s) Suggested OSAC Process

BPA Terminology SWGStain ASB: Technical report

Development of Conclusion Statements for 

Bloodstain Pattern Identifications

OSAC ASB: Technical report

Development of Conclusion Statements for 

Bloodstain Pattern Reconstructions

OSAC ASB: Technical report

Development of BPA Taxonomy OSAC ASB: Technical report

Terminology Task Group

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Terminology Task Group

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Work Product Update:

• The BPA terminology document was reformatted for submission to the 

ASB and has been submitted to the Physics\Pattern Scientific Area 

Committee (P\P SAC) for review and comment.

• The task group has developed conclusion statements for bloodstain 

pattern identifications. The conclusion statements have been uploaded 

to KAVI for review and have been discussed during several virtual 

meetings of the subcommittee.

• The task group is working on developing conclusion statements for BPA 

reconstructions.

• The task group is developing BPA taxonomy for use in classification of 

bloodstain patterns.
Reports and Validation Task Group

Priority Level: High

• The task group has reviewed and updated the report 

writing and validation guidelines that were originally 

developed by SWGStain.

Task Group Name: Reports and Validation

Task Group Chair Name: Tom Griffin

Task Group Chair Contact Information: 

grifclue@comcast.net

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Work Product

Title Origin of 

Document(s) Suggested OSAC Process

Guidelines for Report Writing in Bloodstain 

Pattern Analysis

SWGStain ASB: Best practice 

recommendation

Guidelines for the Validation of New Procedures 

in Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

SWGStain ASB: Standard

Reports and Validation Task Group

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Reports and Validation Task Group

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Update: 

• The Report writing document was reformatted for submission to 

the ASB and has been submitted to the P\P SAC for review and 

comment.

• The task group has completed review and update of the validation 

document. The document has been uploaded to KAVI for review 

and will be discussed by the entire BPA subcommittee at a future 

virtual meeting.
Training and Education Task Group

Priority Level: High

• The task group has reviewed and updated the SWGStain 

guidelines for the minimum training and educational requirements 

of a bloodstain pattern analyst.

• The task group will be developing guidelines for a BPA 

certification program as its next document. 

Task Group Name: Training and Education

Task Group Chair Name: Kenneth Martin

Task Group Chair Contact Information: 

kf.martin@verizon.net

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Work Product

Title Origin of 

Document(s) Suggested OSAC Process

Guidelines for the Minimum Education and 

Training Requirements For Bloodstain Pattern 

Analysts

SWGStain ASB: Standard

Guidelines for a BPA Certification Program New ASB: Standard

Training and Education Task Group

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Training and Education Task Group

Work Product Update:

• The training and education document is being 

reformatted for submission to the ASB and will be put up 

for a final vote by the subcommittee upon completion. 

The projected date for the document to be forwarded to 

the P\P SAC is March 1, 2017.

• The task group will begin document development of 

guidelines for a BPA certification program upon 

completion of the training and education document.

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Quality Assurance and Standard 

Operating Procedure Task Group

Priority Level: High

• The task group has reviewed and updated the SWGStain 

guidelines for a BPA quality assurance program, the SWGStain 

guidelines for standard operating procedures in BPA, and the 

SWGStain guidelines for a BPA proficiency test. 

Task Group Name: QA and SOP

Task Group Chair Name: LeeAnn Singley

Task Group Chair Contact Information: 

lsingleygsa@msn.com

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Work Product

Title Origin of 

Document(s) Suggested OSAC Process

Guidelines for a Quality Assurance Program in 

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

SWGStain ASB: Standard

Guidelines for Developing Standard Operating 

Procedures for Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

SWGStain ASB: Standard

Guidelines for Proficiency Testing in Bloodstain 

Pattern Analysis

SWGStain ASB: Standard

QA and SOP Task Group

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QA and SOP Task Group

Work Product Update:

• The task group is has reviewed and updated the SWGStain QA 

guidelines. The QA guidelines were forwarded to the OSAC Resource 

Committees (RC) for comment. RC comments were adjudicated during 

the OSAC meeting in Phoenix, AZ. The document has been 

reformatted for ASB submission and the BPA subcommittee has 

voted to return the document to the P/P SAC for review and 

comment.

• The task group has completed review and update of the SOP and the 

proficiency test documents. The documents have been uploaded to 

KAVI for review and will be discussed by the entire BPA subcommittee 

at a future virtual meeting. 

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Research Task Group

Priority Level: High

• The task group is responsible for the identification of BPA 

research needs and identifying existing published BPA research.

Task Group Name: BPA Research

Task Group Chair Name: Kevin Winer

Task Group Chair Contact Information: 

kevin.winer@kcpd.org

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Research Task Group

Work Product

Title Origin of 

Document(s) Suggested OSAC Process

Identify BPA research needs

Identify published BPA research articles

BPA Process Map SWGStain BPA OSAC Webpage
Research Task Group

Work Product Update:

• The task group continues to identify BPA research needs. The 

current list of BPA research needs is available on NIST.gov 

(https://www.nist.gov/topics/forensic-science/osac-researchdevelopment-needs)

• The task group continues to identify BPA research publications. 

• The task group is updating and completing a BPA process map 

that was started by the SWGStain Training and Education 

Subcommittee. 

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Questions?