Can DNA be extracted from a fart?

sam t smith · 07-05-2022 11:27AM #1

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 · 07-05-2022 11:29AM

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 · 07-05-2022 11:44AM

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 · 07-05-2022 11:49AM

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’.

07-05-2022 11:59AM

Only from Guinness farts as far as I know

goldenmick · 07-05-2022 12:01PM

Is this something you're planning on doing?

sam t smith · 07-05-2022 12:02PM

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

Keeping my options open.

goldenmick · 07-05-2022 12:06PM

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.

07-05-2022 12:11PM

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

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

fryup · 07-05-2022 12:25PM

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 · 07-05-2022 12:27PM

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 · 07-05-2022 12:30PM

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 · 07-05-2022 12:31PM

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

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

07-05-2022 12:47PM

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 · 07-05-2022 12:48PM

^ TMI 😂

mikethecop · 07-05-2022 12:49PM

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

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

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 07-05-2022 12:51PM

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 · 07-05-2022 01:00PM

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.

07-05-2022 03:49PM

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 · 07-05-2022 05:43PM

^ 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 · 07-05-2022 05:46PM

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 · 07-05-2022 05:48PM

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

No need to be nasty, Donald.

Donald Trump · 07-05-2022 05:51PM

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

Ah it was only a joke

Donald Trump · 07-05-2022 05:55PM

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

Would that make them semi-colons?

Shield · 07-05-2022 05:59PM

*opens Boards*

*read this thread title*

*closes Boards*

sam t smith · 07-05-2022 06:00PM

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 · 07-05-2022 06:05PM

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

Shoe prints would show the squat.

And on my sunglasses go

corner of hells · 07-05-2022 06:20PM

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

Aha , so you've done this before.

Ush1 · 07-05-2022 06:27PM

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

sam t smith · 07-05-2022 06:29PM

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

Was it linked to the African chap?

Gregor Samsa · 07-05-2022 06:42PM

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.

Can DNA be extracted from a fart?

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