Crime Scene Documentation and Reconstruction Tools

Supports crime scene investigators in documenting and reconstructing scenes. Scene points are mapped from field measurements (baseline, triangulation, polar). Shooting incidents are reconstructed from bullet defects with explicit uncertainty, following the methods described in Haag and Haag (2020, ISBN:9780128193976) and Hueske (2015, ISBN:9781498707664). Evidence and custody are logged in a structured form, and reproducible scene reports are rendered to Word, PDF or HTML.

forensicR

Tools for crime scene investigators, built with one.

The core is shooting incident reconstruction with explicit uncertainty, following the standard field workflow (Haag & Haag 2020; Hueske 2015; OSAC 2025-N-0003 terminology):

impact angle from the defect ellipse, with a Monte Carlo interval;
trajectories from rod/laser angles, from two points, or from a single defect's ellipse plus directionality;
possible origin of fire at assumed muzzle heights, bounded by scene size;
segmented paths through intermediate targets, with measured deflection angles and joint-consistency checks, or explicitly flagged assumed deflections when the path after the object was not documented;
convergence of several trajectories (closest approach, miss distance, whether it lies behind both defects);
plan and elevation plots showing the cone of uncertainty, not just a line.

Supporting modules:

Scene mapping: baseline, triangulation and polar/total-station measurements to one XY frame (plus height z), plan view with room outline, and wall elevation views.
Scene objects: furniture, appliances and persons as schematic boxes placed the way they are measured (against a wall, by a corner, by two corners), semi-transparent by default, drawn in every view; trajectories are checked for objects on their back-projected path.
3D reconstruction: the same objects rendered as a schematic, to-scale room with numbered floor axes, evidence markers, bullet defects at height, trajectory rods and uncertainty cones. A rayrender still for PDF/Word, an interactive rgl widget for HTML (both optional dependencies).
Evidence documentation: evidence items, chain of custody, photo hashes, and a structured death scene observation record (observations only; time since death is the coroner's determination).

Reports render to Word, PDF and HTML from one template, each ending with a one-line note of the forensicR version that produced it.

Installation

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("kaquadros/forensicR")

Quick start

library(forensicR)

pts <- coords_baseline(along = c(2.4, 5.1), offset = c(1.2, -0.8), id = c("1", "2"))
plot_scene(pts)

impact_angle(width = 8, length = 16, se = 0.5)
t1 <- trajectory_from_angles(c(2.0, 5.0, 1.35), azimuth_deg = 352, vertical_deg = -3, id = "D2")
t2 <- trajectory_2pt(c(3.4, 4.2, 1.20), c(3.73, 4.92, 1.10), se_position = 0.01, id = "D3")
origin_zone(t1, heights = c(standing = 1.5), max_distance = 12)
intersect_trajectories(t1, t2)$point
plot_trajectories(list(t1, t2), view = "plan")

log <- evidence_log("2026-001234", "Lawrence Police Department")
log <- log_item(log, "1", "Cartridge case, 9 mm", location = "1", collected_by = "CSI")

render_scene_report(output_dir = "report")   # docx, pdf and html