Scent-transfer is the principle that made special mockery of the inspection in the gym.
The point has (rightly) been raised that all items, apparently, 'reacted to' in the gym were transported in the same container, meaning that (in the event of any item in the box having a death-scent) it would have transferred to all items in that box.
However, that point, though important, misses a wider and still more important point. Those clothes were in common circulation as clothes are for fully 3 months after the crime: worn, washed, packed in suitcases, folded away on wardrobe shelves (etc, etc,), meaning that cross-transfer of a death scent (assuming, I don't, that there ever was one) would have occurred long before the 'inspection', rendering said inspection nul-and-void.
What was the point of any of it?
I doubt very much if the 'information' from the transfer of clothes to the gymnasium from the McCann villa would have stood up in a court. That is, if it was even capable of getting that far.
There was a good reason that the case against the McCanns didn't result in them being charged with any criminal offense. There simply wasn't any evidence to warrant bringing charges resulting in a court case.
In fact, there was never any justification in making them suspects in the first place.
Even had there been any evidence resulting from the inspection of clothes in the villa and then again in the gymnasium ... the aquisition of it was so amateurish and flawed that a legal defence team would have made mincemeat of it and anyone presenting it.
I sincerely do not think a man with Harrison's CV would wish to be associated with a process where the chain of evidence was unclear and the exhibits packed in such an inexperienced higgledy piggeldly manner.
It just wasn't a professionally carried out process.
Read the information below ... then make a mental comparison with what we have read and watched on video with what actually happened in the Praia da Luz inspections.
Preserving and maintaining evidence collected at a scene is crucial. The key is understanding evidence and understanding the proper way to package it.
First, a few important points:
Choose packaging of the proper size and material for the evidence.
Package each piece of evidence separately, and properly label, seal, and document it.
Evidence tape is designed to fracture easily to indicate tampering; it’s not meant to hold bags shut and boxes together.
Use packing tape to seal bags and boxes, then place evidence tape over the packing tape.
Sign across the tape, with half the signature on the tape and half on the package.
That way, your evidence will be securely packaged, and you’ll notice any tampering.
For basic collection, you’ll need an assortment of clean, new paper and Ziploc bags.
Never use an old paper sack or an old plastic bag, or you risk contaminating your evidence.
If you put a sweater from the scene into an old grocery bag and the lab finds a hair, they won’t know if it came from the bag or the sweater.http://www.forensicmag.com/article/2013/02/properly-packaging-evidence
