Can DNA be extracted from a fart?

sam t smith

As per the thread title, can DNA be extracted from a fart?

The scenario:

A person commits the ‘perfect murder’. Afterwards the person pulls down their trousers and underwear and farts in the face of the victim.

No ‘follow through’, just a regular fart.

There is no CCTV of the person in the vicinity of the crime, no witnesses, no phone mast triangulation, no motive, nothing else to tie the person to the crime.

However the persons DNA is stored in a database of DNA samples that the cops have access to.

Could the fart particles on the victims face be detected by an extraordinary coroner with all the latest gadgets, then be used to extract DNA to match to the perpetrator?

The Continental Op

https://healingpicks.com/can-you-get-dna-from-a-fart/

I don't know if they covered that in CSI?

Maybe more a case of how would CSI know to check for fart DNA and dependent on the underpants you are wearing https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/best-idea-ever-pants-fart-18629749

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058244828/can-dna-be-extracted-from-a-fart

But how would you know he farted on the deceaseds face , if it was the perfect murder .

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027581#Comment_119027581

A fair point, well made, that’s why I mentioned a ‘smart coroner’ - like you see on CSI. The one who goes the extra mile and spots something that 999 out of 1,000 other coroners wouldn’t.

I edited the opening post to say ‘extraordinary coroner’ instead of ‘smart coroner’.

Sleeper12

Only from Guinness farts as far as I know

goldenmick

Is this something you're planning on doing?

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027654#Comment_119027654

Keeping my options open.

goldenmick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027657#Comment_119027657

Well eat a can of baked beans a few hours before the deed, if you want a really favourable outcome.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027657#Comment_119027657

As long as it's only your options that you are keeping open.

fryup

all jokes aside, i don't think so - to get DNA its has to be from sweat, skin particles, hair etc i may be open to correction but i don't think you can get DNA from gas 😶

Drumpot

Never has a post and thread title deserved a place in after hours more then this.

Extra bonus points for the OP actually putting some thought into it. So the perp pulls down his pants, farts but there’s no follow through, how thoroughly specific. A Forensic fart unit would he needed and who wouldn’t want to hear about the training required to work in that job.

mikethecop

given the correct equipment environment and time line as well as bottomless pit of money i believe that the answer is yes.

its a lot of effort to go to prove the old natural law of "he who smelt it dealt it "

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027773#Comment_119027773

Is this your professional opinion as a cop? Or interested amateur?

Scientifically it is possible. Our guts shed mucus all the time, a lot of this helps protect the colon from pathogens, lubricates the passage of stool with which it combines and gets mostly expelled along with it. Also with cell turnover, the endothelium gets shed on an ongoing basis, again most gets combined with stool. Minute amounts of blood gets shed too. All this material contains DNA. Colonic gas is a combination of small amounts of swallowed air but substantially fermentation from bacterial action on the waste product of the digestive system. The longer it’s in there, the more metabolic byproduct of thriving bacteria there is.

When there is a major build up of gas and it is expelled with some force, the Venturi force will pull a little of the mucus & epithelial shedding along with it and deposit that in the vicinity of the corpse that that just been murdered, presuming the murderer has taken action, eg, to wrap themselves in cling film to stop all other meaning of DNA shedding. The fart then remains a definite risk factor in depositing DNA and I rest my case.

sam t smith

^ TMI 😂

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027777#Comment_119027777

a little from colon A a little from colon B ....

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058244828/can-dna-be-extracted-from-a-fart

There's always a little followthrough. As for the fart, getting a sample would be tricky. Also pointless, because it would only prove that the suspect was in the room at some point. Can't pin the murder on him for it.

Gregor Samsa

Rookie mistake, casually farting on the face of the victim - you see it a lot.

A true practitioner of the perfect murder would first secretly consume some flesh from another human being, before farting on the victim in question. This way, the fart will contain some of the DNA of the other person, masking any DNA from the true murderer, and implicating a patsy with irrefutable forensic evidence.

Bonus points if the flesh consumed is from the "extraordinary coroner", thus forcing them to concede that they were indeed the murderer unbeknownst to even themselves.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027891#Comment_119027891

The digestive enzymes further up the tract would alas dissolve that DNA. Only your own traces emanating from the other end.

sam t smith

^ Sounds like you would need to bottle someone else’s fart and release it at the scene if you wanted to implicate someone else.

Thanks for the helpful advice.

Donald Trump

OP, how else do you think the scientists made you?

There is some young wan, I think she might be Australian, who apparently makes millions from selling jars or her farts around the world. She eats nothings but beans I think.

You could buy one of her jars, clone her, and use the clone to make millions yourself

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029016#Comment_119029016

No need to be nasty, Donald.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029039#Comment_119029039

Ah it was only a joke

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027845#Comment_119027845

Would that make them semi-colons?

Shield

*opens Boards*

*read this thread title*

*closes Boards*

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029113#Comment_119029113

Maybe.

But are you sure it was my faeces? Or perhaps I planted someone else’s poo to implicate them?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119027581#Comment_119027581

Shoe prints would show the squat.

And on my sunglasses go

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029154#Comment_119029154

Aha , so you've done this before.

Ush1

Didn't they get the killer in the Amanda Knox case from a brown trout left in the bowl?

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029278#Comment_119029278

Was it linked to the African chap?

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119028483#Comment_119028483

Hmmm. So it seems my rudimentary knowledge of the mechanics of the alimentary canal may have resulted in the unnecessary consumption of a significant quantity of human flesh.

sam t smith

An easy mistake to make. Presumably you will stop eating human flesh now?

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029388#Comment_119029388

For this specific purpose, possibly.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029662#Comment_119029662

Recommend you stop farting on your victims then.

growleaves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029921#Comment_119029921

He can still fart on them as long as he doesn't kill them though, right?

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119029951#Comment_119029951

Correct. I made the assumption that he kills his victims. If he doesn’t then he should be okay to continue.

Gregor Samsa

Lads, I’m not going around farting on live people just to spread my DNA for some master forensics genius to find and nab me.

I’ll cut down on the human flesh, but let’s keep this on topic: the farting is strictly on dead people.

passatman86

What kind of a fart. A burny fart might emit some dampness. Whereas a fart that had been held in for a prolonged lenght of time is more questionable....

See google "Trying to hold it in leads to a build-up of pressure and major discomfort. A build-up of intestinal gas can trigger abdominal distension, with some gas reabsorbed into the circulation and exhaled in your breath. Holding on too long means the build-up of intestinal gas will eventually escape via an uncontrollable fart."

A very good question all the same @sam t smith. Look forward to seeing your next threads - hoping they are just as interesting

sam t smith

^ I occasionally snart.

Involuntary sneeze followed by involuntary fart.

Thankfully no follow through to date with the snarts, but something I am wary of happening.

I might start wearing an extra pair of jocks, just in case.

During Liveline broadcasts host Joe Duffy audibly emits a lot of gas, live on air. By his own account he spends a lot of time in graveyards, so a little of his DNA would be permeating underground and working its way to corpses, which could be dug up as an experiment to validate the theory.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119030363#Comment_119030363

If it means he would be locked up for murder then it is something I would welcome.

fonecrusher1

If the assailant had consumed a particularly rich and pungent meal before the attack, lets say a vindaloo, would this affect the forensic integrity / completeness of the available DNA sample?