Prosecution witness, Dr. Arpad Vass, a leading expert on human decomposition odor, spent the entire eleventh day on the witness stand in the Casey Anthony murder trial.
Vass, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, who has studied decomposing human bodies for 20 years, told jurors that the odor emanating from carpet samples taken from the trunk of Casey’s car was “extremely overwhelming” and consistent with the smell of human decomposition.
Testifying that he has followed 50 human corpses through their full cycle of decomposition and hundreds of partial decomposing bodies, Vass said he was “shocked by the intensity of human decomposition”, and that he jumped back a foot or two when he opened the container in which the carpet sample was stored.
Vass told jurors he had identified 51 chemical components from the carpet sample, and 41 of those were consistent with human decomposition. He said he and his team were shocked by the amount of deadly chloroform in the air samples.
“We were shocked,” Vass testified. “We have never seen chloroform in that level in environmental samples, at least I never have in 20 years of shooting these types of samples.”
Asked by prosecutor Jeff Ashton, whether he had an opinion as to whether there was a decomposing body in the trunk of Casey car, Vass replied that he did.
“I can find no other plausible explanation other than that to explain the results we found”, Vass told jurors.
Defense attorney Jose Baez on cross-examination attempted to discredit Vass by suggesting he has a lot of money to gain with the technology introduced–a hand-held “sniffer machine” called “Labrador” which is used to detect human decomposition through reading of air samples.
On re-direct by Ashton, asked whether he had a financial interest in this particular case, Vass replied, “not at all.” He reiterated his interest was purely that of “scientific inquiry”, given his curiosity, and that he is paid to think “out-side-the box.” Vass added that, if royalties were to be received they would be miniscule.
It is the first time that air samples have been introduced in a U.S. criminal case.
Baez also pointed out that Vass is not a member of the American Board of Anthropology, or any professional organization. But Vass responded, given his many disciplines, he would not know which professional organization to join.
Prosecutors believe that Casey Anthony murdered her two-year-old daughter, Caylee and drove around with the child’s body in the trunk of her car for sometime. Caylee’s remains were found six months after she went missing, in December 2008, in a wooded area close to the Anthony family home.
Anthony’s defense has said that Cayee drowned in the family swimming pool on June 16, 2008 and that George Anthony, Casey’s father hid the body and covered up the crime. They also claimed that Casey was sexually abused by both George and her brother, Lee.
If found guilty, Casey could face the death penalty.
