Fingerprint Breakthrough Helps to Nab Accused Child Abuser

Detectives from Saraota County managed to identify a criminal by extracting his finger prints from a photograph featuring his hand.

The detectives had received a tip earlier this year about local resident Dannie Horner being a child abuser and that he had been making a porn film with a 1 year old boy.

While Horner was arrested, the detectives still needed evidence to prove his crime.

Lt. Joe Giasone said,"You might know a person is responsible for a crime or you may think a person is responsible for a crime, but then you have to find evidence to prove it in court."

When they seized Horner's phone, they found photos of a man abusing a child but his face was not visible in the photo, only his fingers were captured in clear detail.

This prompted one of the detectives to extract the man's fingerprints from the photo.

Brenda Viana with the Sarasota County Sheriff's office fingerprint unit said, "This was something new that we had never done before."

They used computers to isolate his prints from the photos and then compared it to Horner's. It was a match.

.Gambert said, "This was actually more reliable than comparing to prints left at the scene because here you're looking at the actual finger and you're not worried about how much pressure was applied."

Forensic experts feel that the creative use of technology could be a game changer since today labs have access to quality images thanks to high end phones.

They believe techniques like these could help to convict many dangerous people in the coming years.