Noor Hazfalinda Hamzah

Faculty of Health Sciences Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia · Forensic Science Program

Increased crime involving air weapons has led to recent proposals for licensing such weapons in Scotland. As a consequence, the comparison of marks on pellets (bullets) fired from air weapons is of interest. Comparison of marks is considered important in matching the fired pellet with the air weapon used to fire the projectile, however is currently...

The incidence of close-range firearm shootings on fishing vessels in Malaysia has been increasing every year. The challenge faced by law enforcement agencies is to demonstrate how these shooting crimes are carried out. To address this problem, a model of shooting angles and ricochets within a confined space needs to be constructed. This study exami...

Lymnaeid snails play a crucial role in the transmission of trematode cercariae as an intermediate host that can infect humans, ruminants like buffalo, and other animals, resulting in serious economic losses. The purpose of the study was to identify the morphological and molecular characteristics of snails and cercariae collected from water bodies n...

This study aims to determine if the number of shots fired, bullet striation marks, and shooting and ricochet angles could influence bullet weight on three types of woods: Balau, Resak, and Seraya. The weapon and ammunition used in this study were CZ 75 SP-01 Shadow semi-automatic pistol with 9 mm full metal jacketed bullets (7.45 g). A total of 432...

Cheiloscopy may not be as well-known as other techniques of identification, such as fingerprint or DNA analysis, but it has its own impact in the appropriate circumstances. Cheiloscopy has been recognized as an important tool for human identification. A manual approach of studying lip prints was utilised by many researchers (magnifying glasses). No...

Lymnaeid snails are vital in transmitting trematode cercariae as an intermediate host that can infect buffalo and other ruminants and humans, causing significant economic losses. The study aimed to conduct morphological and molecular identification of snails and cercariae collected from the selected buffalo farms under palm oil integration in Perak...

This study examines the ability of a Diphenylamine-Calorimeter Optical Device (DCOD) to detect the presence of nitrate in shipping containers. Fifteen selected inorganic fertilisers that potentially can be turned into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) were analysed using UPLC-PDA. Results showed that only ammonium nitrate is suitable for turning...

Rumen fluke is a parasitosis that infects ruminant animals across a wide geographical range of countries. It is a severe infection in temperate and tropical climate regions of Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe, which cause significant economic losses. In this review, the available information to date on rumen fluke species infecting cattle and bu...

A post-mortem decomposition is defined by the evaluation of the physical and chemical changes of a cadaver or a carcass in order to estimate the cause of death and the time of death. The purpose of this study is not to replicate a real crime scene but to enhance knowledge of the effects of clothing in a decomposition process, mainly, the effects of...

Background: Examination of post-mortem changes is one of the ways to assess decomposition process on buried bodies. Nonetheless, studies on such assessment are still lacking, especially on the effects of body coverings by different materials in burial conditions. The aim of this research is to study the effect of different types of covering toward...

Ruminant fascioliasis is a neglected yet important tropical zoonotic disease that affects both the livestock and humans. The disease has a worldwide distribution, and Malaysia is one of the countries that face problems related to this parasite. These retrospective studies were conducted in Makmal Diagnosa Veterinar Kota Kinabalu (MDVKK) and Sabah M...

Crime Scene Investigation is the backbone of any criminal investigation. Expert report generated by Crime Scene Investigators are based on scientific evidence and are reported in a standard form. The content, when published should be reviewed rigorously by its peers. The expert report is a document detailing out how the investigation process of a c...

Lip print is useful in forensic investigations for individual identification. The present study aimed to discriminate sex based on lip print patterns in Malaysian Malay population in Klang Valley using a scanning technique. Lip prints of 360 subjects (180 males and 180 females) were taken using the lipstick-cellophane tape technique, pasted onto A4...

Lip print pattern is different and unique in every human. It consists of indented pattern from fissures and grooves that appear on the red part of the lips. Cheiloscopy, the study of lip print, proves that it has individual characteristic and has been widely used for identification purpose. It can be an important method for gender determination and...

Fascioliasis is a parasitic disease of human and animal caused by Fasciola gigantica (F. gigantica) and Fasciola hepatica (F. hepatica). More than 700 million of grazing animals and over 180 million human population are at the risk of fascioliasis. This study was conducted in Banting, Ipoh, Shah Alam, and Taiping abattoirs within Peninsular Malaysi...

This is a retrospective study on bovine fascioliasis infection on cattle in Peninsular Malaysia, spanning from January 2007 to December 2017. Cattle were diagnosed with Fasciola based on the fecal examination and the results were reported to the Veterinary Regional Laboratories in Peninsular Malaysia. These records were analysed for the occurrence...

This study was conducted to provide a chemical fingerprint of burnt porcine tissue (Sus domesticus spp.) in the presence of petrol using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The pyrolysis process was followed through using two methods; in the first method, the sample was allowed to continuously burn until auto-ignition was attained and the...

Understanding bullet behaviour is important in reconstructing crime scenes, especially in cases where the body was found in a secondary crime scene. Bullet trajectory can be used to determine the victim's position before shooting. In this study, ballistic gel was used to represent human soft tissue. The ballistic gel was of 20% consistency which re...

Death due to firearm is more common in countries with higher gun ownership such as United States of America compared to countries with restrictive gun ownership such as European countries and Malaysia. However, the increasing number of shooting cases in Malaysia recently should not be overlooked. This study was carried out to investigate the incide...

Death due to firearm is more common in countries with higher gun ownership such as United States of America compared to countries with restrictive gun ownership such as European countries and Malaysia. However, the increasing number of shooting cases in Malaysia recently should not be overlooked. This study was carried out to investigate the incide...

Road traffic injuries are one of the most common causes of death in Malaysia. Even though motor vehicle accidents occur every day, the rate is higher during festive seasons in this multiracial and multi-religious country. The aim of this study is to analyse the incidence of fatal road traffic accidents in Klang Valley involving motor vehicles durin...

Volatile products commonly known as pyrolytic products, are thermal decomposition products generated from the various fuels that are present at a fire scene due to heat exposure. When a fire scene involves human remains, the volatile species generated from the remains can be mistaken with others residues due to the presence of interfering products...

Decomposition is degradation process of a corpse into basic respective constituents macroscopically and microscopically by action of microorganisms, arthropods and scavengers. Post mortem changes could be separated into early post mortem changes (i.e. algor mortis, rigor mortis and livor mortis) and putrefaction stages of corpse. These changes func...

Deaths due to blunt force trauma to the head as a result of assault are some of the most common cases encountered by the practicing forensic pathologist. Previous studies have shown inflicting injury to the head region is one of the most effective methods of murder. The important factors that determine severity of trauma include the type of weapon...

Increased crime involving air weapons has led to recent proposals for licensing such weapons in Scotland. As a consequence, the comparison of striation marks on pellets fired from air weapons is of interest. Striae comparison is considered important in matching the fired pellet with the air gun used to fire the projectile, however is currently carr...

Post mortem changes are important in estimating post mortem interval (PMI). This project's aim was to study the effect of burial and type of clothing on rate of decomposition, which can contribute to estimating PMI for victims. 12 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) carcasses were separated into 3 groups: no clothing, light clothing and heavy clothing....

Semi-automatic pistol is a handgun which consists of a chamber and a barrel. The trigger needs to be pressed repeatedly during firing. The used cartridge case is ejected from the pistol and a new cartridge is reloaded into the chamber automatically until the entire cartridge in the magazine is reloaded. Gunshot wound usually has entry and exit woun...

This study explores the development of an experimental methodology to investigate the variation of tool marks acquired on pellets fired by the same air pistol. The development of the experimental design aimed to ensure repeatability and reproducibility and to control various important variables. Test fires were carried out using the air pistol, a w...

Individual identification is an important and challenging task in forensic investigation. Lip print on drinking glass or cigarette butt found in crime scene may link to suspects. The aim of this study is to determine the differences in lip print between sexes or races, differences in lip measurement between sexes or races, the interaction effect be...

The aim of this study was to develop formulae for stature and sex estimation using foot length and foot width. A total of 150 subjects ranging in age from 20 to 30 years were recruited from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Kampus Kuala Lumpur (UKMKKL). The subjects were Malays (45 males and 45 females) and Chinese (30 males and 30 females). Stature,...

The study was conducted to create specific formulae for stature estimation of adult male population in Malaysia based on measurements of femur, tibia and fibula lengths using radiographic method. A number of thirty two Malaysians from hospitals involved as subjects in this study. The subjects were Malays (14), Chinese (8) and Indians (10) from 25-4...