Laser Scans Car in Stalker Case

Several hours after the recovery Wednesday of a stolen orange station wagon believed to have been used by the so-called Night Stalker, Frank Fitzpatrick aimed a blue-beamed wand at the car and began looking for a glow in the dark.

Inside a wooden, light-proof shed hastily erected in Santa Ana, Fitzpatrick, Orange County sheriff’s chief criminalist, began the painstaking process of searching for glowing white fingerprints that would be invisible to most people.

But the high-powered laser ray, which looks like a flashlight, gives Fitzpatrick the ability to see fingerprints that may help identify and perhaps even locate the serial killer.

If fingerprints were found inside the car--the search would not be completed before early this morning--the discovery “could be significant in the case,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think it’s just another step in the whole process, another piece of evidence,” he said. “. . .It is an extra scientific tool . . . . If we had a named suspect and he had a (fingerprint) card on file, we could compare our fingerprints with that.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department--spearheading the wide-ranging manhunt by several law enforcement agencies for the man linked with 14 slayings and 21 attacks in California--has used the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s laser to examine evidence from the Night Stalker’s attacks, officers from both agencies said Wednesday.

“(Investigators have) gone to Orange County with some items of evidence to see if (the laser) would develop anything in this case, but it was unsuccessful,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Donald Dennison, commander of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department criminalists. He said he could not elaborate because he had no further specifics.

But the laser has been used with some success in enhancing latent fingerprints that may have been partially wiped clean by criminals, according to authorities.

“We have high hopes of finding good evidence in the car,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Olson.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is the only law enforcement agency on the West Coast now equipped with the $35,000 laser, which it purchased about a year ago and has already been used in “hundreds” of murder, burglary, rape and assault cases,” Fitzpatrick said.

“In (some) homicide cases and drugs cases it was the only (major) evidence” investigators had, Fitzpatrick said, adding that “we’ve had a lot of success with it.”

The lack of success in finding clues about the killer in the past does not mean new evidence will not be found, Fitzpatrick said.

“But you have to remember . . . finding a latent fingerprint is more the exception than the rule. It’s not like Dick Tracy or the movies or something, where you always find them.”

Investigators find the device extremely helpful in finding otherwise invisible fingerprints--which are generally considered the best evidence in a criminal case but which are often the most difficult to collect. Consequently, law enforcement agencies all over the country are trying to equip themselves with the latent fingerprint detection system, according to a spokesman for the Mountain View , Calif., manufacturer of the device.

Argon Ion Laser

“It is an argon ion laser--it uses a fiber to take the light out to where you want to direct it,” said Sicco Westra, marketing manager for Spectra Physics laser division.

The Sheriff’s Department laser “is used in some medical applications as well: coagulation applications, for treating eye diseases. These lasers have been used by police and crime labs for about five years in Texas, a couple in Washington, D.C., Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut, (and) Georgia.”

The Los Angeles Police Department does not have the laser, but the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is expecting to purchase the costly device soon, spokesmen for both agencies said.

“Orange County has the best, most sophisticated equipment on the West Coast,” said Willie Wilson, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. “We do not have (a laser) or anything like it.”

A simple analogy of how the device works, Fitzpatrick said, would be comparing the laser to “the kind of stamp you get at a bar” or amusement park, when you want to exit and return later. Latent fingerprints show up in glowing yellowish-white under the high-power ray, just like the stamp on your hand would when placed under a fluorescent light.

Uses Lots of Power

In his Wednesday night probe of the car, Fitzpatrick was wearing goggles that he said block out the blue-green beam of the laser’s large flashbulb so that only the luminous fingerprints are visible.

The 200-pound immobile device requires a great deal of power and operates with a “series of mirrors where argon gas is ionized and creates light--a very pure light that goes through a fiber-optic wand,” Fitzpatrick said. “The beam can be directed with the wand,” he said.

The laser ray is so powerful, Fitzpatrick said, that “we have (burned holes) through the gloves that we wear. We’ll be holding up a piece of evidence and it burns the glove.

“When you have a large item, you can get into the little nooks and crannies by shining this (beam) on the surface. It reacts or lights up residue left in the print--residue that can be found no other way.”

Before the laser is actually turned on, there is considerable preparation of evidence, in this case the car. A special gas or liquid is applied, depending on the type of surface under examination.

Just like a neon sign, he said, the gas within the laser “energizes and gives off radiation of a certain color, depending on the type of gas.” Then, the latent fingerprints may appear.

Pictures Taken

As the laser scans the evidence, its beam encompassing no more than six inches, photographs are taken with a 35-millimeter camera equipped with special filters, Fitzpatrick said. The pictures, essentially, become the evidence.

Most Orange County criminal cases in which the laser has been used to collect evidence--including a murder--are still pending, Fitzpatrick said.

Though he would not say where the best place to find a fingerprint in the car would be, Fitzpatrick said a print found on the steering wheel of the orange Toyota would “certainly” place the Night Stalker “in the car.”

And though he said “we’re just scientists looking for evidence,” Fitzpatrick acknowledged that finding a latent print in the car linked to the serial killer would be exhilarating.