The best practice for investigating potential bodies inside things like wheelie bins and suitcases is not to open it, but to x-ray it, an expert says. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenThe best practice for investigating potential bodies inside things like wheelie bins and suitcases is not to open it, but to x-ray it, an expert says. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA ‘body’ found in a suitcase was actually a sex doll. How did NSW police get it so wrong? Officers may not have fully unzipped the bag containing the lifelike doll to avoid destroying evidence, one expert says
Revelations that a “body” found inside a suitcase was actually a sex doll may have been embarrassing for police, but experts say officers followed the correct procedure.
New South Wales police on Sunday were called to Oallen, a town near Goulburn, after two members of the public found a suitcase containing what they believed to be human remains, dumped on the side of the road.
A police statement released on Sunday said the body was believed to be female, and the bag was sent to the forensic medicine laboratory.
But after forensic examinations on Monday morning, it was confirmed the “body” was actually a life-like doll dressed in clothes that had hair, a nose piercing, markings that resembled bruises and grazes.
While former NSW police officer Vincent Hurley said the discovery was “amusing in hindsight”, investigators had done the right thing.
“Police have been blamed over the years, and rightly so, for tunnel vision,” Hurley, a criminologist, told Guardian Australia.
“Can you imagine if it was a real body and they just go unzip the bag and say, ‘we’ll have a poke’?
“They did the right thing, it’s embarrassing, yes, but they followed procedure.”
When police arrive at a reported crime scene, they generally try not to contaminate it, Hurley said.
This means they may not have unzipped the bag the entire way to confirm a potential body, because doing so could destroy any fibres or blood that may have been on the zipper.
The best practice for investigating potential bodies inside things like wheelie bins and suitcases is not to open it, but to x-ray it, Murdoch University forensic science associate professor Paola Magni said.
Even after realising they had a doll, forensic examiners likely would have had to fully continue inspecting it for traces of evidence like semen or other DNA in case it was associated with another suspicious case.
“It’s a doll, but if it’s connected to another crime, they can use that opportunity to link it to something suspect,” says Magni, an expert in decomposition who has observed the impact of decay on 100 dead pigs.
“Any potentially suspicious situation has to be treated with the best practice in forensic investigation.
“They did the right thing, they investigated it step-by-step.”
Hurley also said objects like sex dolls could be “incredibly lifelike” and noted the bodies of real murder victims were often found in confined places like car boots, suitcases, and barrels.
“It’s not unusual to be in a suitcase, it’s just unusual that it turned out to be a plastic doll,” he said.
Crimes around sex dolls are generally rare, but in Australia possessing a child-like sex doll is an offence and police have previously charged people after intercepting air cargo found to contain such items.
However, the one discovered on Sunday is not believed to be childlike and police investigations into it have concluded.
At her press conference on Monday, Superintendent Linda Bradbury maintained police had “no regrets”.
“Our police have undertaken the processes that we do to maintain integrity in such serious crime, to a T, and I do commend people for that,” she said.
Bradbury also confirmed the members of the public who discovered the suitcase had made the right decision by pulling over, peeking inside, and calling as soon as they believed it was something suspicious.
