With the help of the most modern technology, a crime scene can be preserved in a quasi-measuring manner. This new technique has been used in almost all capital offenses in the southwest since the end of 2021. The Interior Minister speaks of a "quantum leap".
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The blood splattered up to the top of the kitchen cabinets - but what happened? Where was the victim, where was the perpetrator and what did he use to attack? The investigators from the State Criminal Police Office in Stuttgart use the so-called CAVE technology to find answers to such questions. And can not only find perpetrators, but also provide relevant information for a process. CAVE - that stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. A crime scene is preserved with the help of a 3D laser scanner and becomes a virtual environment, as LKA expert Stefan Knapp explains. Later, the various experts can do a special crime scene inspection with virtual reality glasses.
The use of this technology is unique in Germany, said Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) at a presentation on Monday in Stuttgart. This is a "quantum leap" in the investigators' forensic work. With the help of real measurement data from the crime scene and virtual reality glasses, a crime can be simulated, for example, from the point of view of the perpetrator or the victim.
The LKA has been working with the CAVE technology since the end of 2021. Since then, it has been used in almost all criminal offenses, described LKA expert Knapp. For example, during the rampage in Heidelberg in January 2022 or when a suspected "Reich citizen" from Boxberg shot at police officers last spring.
During such a virtual inspection, experts from different areas can look at the crime scene again together and search for clues - such as experts on firearms and bloodstain distribution images. And: In case of doubt, something like this still works years after a crime, for example if a witness suddenly comes forward. The investigators can then even understand whether the witness can really have seen what happened from the place mentioned or whether perhaps a construction site sign or a hedge was in the way.
For example, it is also possible to see exactly where a victim was standing - or whether he was already lying on the ground when the perpetrator fired. "Something like that is relevant for the sentence, for example," explains Knapp. What is still very rare in investigative work is already much more widespread in other areas. For example, CAVE technology is used in the automotive industry or in urban planning.
In the case that the investigators are now presenting, technology has provided answers. The blood spatters on the kitchen cupboards can be traced in their "career path": The victim was killed right at the sink with a blunt object. Even the size of the perpetrator can be determined and the angle at which he must have struck.
