Where It Works

"If you know where exactly a perpetrator touched something, then yeah, you could swab something. But most of the time we don’t know so it’s better if you have something that is cloth or fabric or a rope, some sort of ligature, bricks and rocks, things like that, wooden boards, I would always recommend the M-Vac versus swabbing just because I’ve seen the results! It’s not just a theoretical thing. I know what it can do. I know you can get some pretty amazing results using M-Vac. So the more I use it the more I’m a proponent of it for sure." --Suzanna Ryan, Laboratory Director/Forensic DNA Analyst, Pure Gold Forensics

With what types of evidence has the M-Vac^® been successful or where does it work well?  The obvious answer is porous or rough surfaces, but it also works well on some surprising substrates.  It has yielded meaningful, third-party data from these evidence types.

An * denotes that the item has yielded meaningful profiles in casework.

A † indicates the item was analyzed in university research.

A ‡ means the item was studied by either the FBI or an independent agency or lab, either for research or validation purposes.

• 2x4 boards*
  
• Armoire*
• Bat handle*
• Bedding - Pillow*, sheets*, blanket* and comforter*
• Bricks*†‡
  
• Carpet†
• Carpet - Automotive Carpet‡
• Carpet - Carpet Padding‡
• Carpet - Outdoor Carpet‡
• Cinder block*
• Clothing -Blood soaked clothing (Y-STR)*
• Clothing - Cotton T-Shirt‡
• Clothing - Denim swatches†
  
• Clothing - 43-year-old evidence*, other old evidence
• Clothing - Knit Cap‡
• Clothing - Shirt†
• Clothing - Water soaked clothing*
• Drywall - Painted flat‡
• Drywall - Painted satin‡
• Drywall - Painted semi-gloss‡
• Drywall - Painted gloss‡
• Duffle bag*
  
• Environmentally aged clothing*
  
• Firearms*
  
• Gloves - Latex*
  
• Gun sock*
  
• Halter top*
• Knots*
  
• Ligature*
  
• Molotov cocktail wick*
• Panties*
• Pants*
• Pants pockets*
  
• Rocks*‡
• Ropes*
• Rope - hemp‡
• Rope - nylon‡
  
• T-Shirts*
• Scarf*
  
• Ski mask*
  
• Socks*
• Sweatshirts*
  
• Tape - Packing Tape - including the sticky side*
• Tape - Duct Tape‡
• Tile†
  
• Tool boxes*
• Tools*
  
• Towel*
  
• Toy stuffed animal*
• Vehicle seat*
• Vehicle carpet‡
• Vehicle cushion collar‡
• Vehicle cushion insert‡
  
• Vehicle trunk liner and mat‡
• Water soaked clothing*
  
• Wigs*
• Wood - Pressure-treated‡
• Wood - Oak‡
• Wood - Pine‡
• Wood - Plywood‡
  
• Zip ties*
  

M-Vac® Strengths: Textured, porous & rough substrate sampling Capable of sampling large surface areas Deeper surface extraction Better collection results