Woman Expert Plays Major Part in Crime Detection

Lake County Mail, Issue 17, 17 September 1947, Page 9

Woman Expert Plays Major Part in Crime Detection

The rare distinction of being the only woman criminologist in Eastern Canada is held by Miss Verda Vincent, and, according to Carroll Allen, writing in the “ Toronto Globe and Mail,” she sometimes even surprises herself. Miss Vincent became accustomed long ago to the awed and incredulous comments which her grisly profession evokes from Avomen of milder occupations. But after 11 years in the field of criminology she has not yet learned to face an accused criminal against Avhom she must bear testimony Avithout certain misgivings. criminal case in Ontario Avhich requires the services of a medico-legal laboratory pass through Miss Vincent’s hands. Horn in London, Ontario, she graduated in general science after completing her .high school education, later majoring in laboratory research of a hospital type. Petite and sympathetic, intensely feminine and quick to respond to people in trouble, she Avas not sure she could maintain a coldly objective attitude in a profession Avhich concerned itself so directly Avith the lives or deaths of men and Avomen. What Avonld her reaction be AVhen a man’s life rested on the findings of her experiments. When, the GoA'crnment medico-legal laboratory Avas founded Avith Dr E. R. Frankish at its head, Miss Vincent became assistant, and in 1941, Avhcn Dr Frankish died, she took charge. Unsavoury Assignments Miss Vincent recalls her first notable case to bo a murder. It was her assignment, and she asserts at the time it Avas an unsaA'oury one, to determine Avhether the ashes discovered Avere those of a human being. This was only the first in a series of ordeals for her. Recently a serious case hinged on the question whether the accused had been near the scene of the crime. Although a Avitncss . indentified him positively there Avere no other eyewitnesses, and hence no proof that it Avas a case of mistaken identity. An alert police constable noticed burrs clinging to the clothing of the accused. A sample of the burrs was sent Miss Vincent Avith a specimen of those growing beside the victim’s house. f On examining them under a microscope, Miss Vincent found the lavo specimens to be identical. She made enlarged drawings Avhicli, when produced in court, proved the Crown’s case. Guilt Fault of. Society Miss Vincent states that she still tends to regard each case, not in terms of blood sugar counts and hair textures, but in terms of human anguish. “ Whenever I see a prisoner on the stand,” she remarked, “ I Avonder just lioav guilty he is of the crime he has committed and Avhat part of the guilt could be attributed to society. I think of the expense of the trial and AA'onder Avhat Avould luiA'e been the ultimate effect on him if that money had been utilised for his education Avhen he Avas younger. I think of all the unpredictable and unassessable things that have happened to him since his birth and calculate lioav responsible they arc for his present state. And then I shut all this out of my mind and see only the facts, that I have seen a feAv days earlier in the laboratory.”