Question

Two different hairs were found at a crime scene. One hair strand only provided class evidence, whereas the other hair strand provided both class and individual evidence. How is this possible?

Answer 1

The hair found that only provided class evidence was just the shaft of the hair, while the other strand provided both class and individual evidence because it contained both the shaft and hair follicle.

Explanation:
You can lower the suspect pool in a forensic case using the strand with just class evidence by looking at the different characteristics of the hair shaft, such as the color, overall thickness, presence of a medulla, etc, however the shaft of the hair does NOT contain any DNA, so it cannot be considered individual evidence.

On the other hand, the strand with both class and individual evidence contains the hair follicle, the part of your hair that your hair grown from inside the skin. You can extract DNA from the follicle, therefore allowing the hair to be linked to a singular person.

Answer 2

One hair strand provided only class evidence, while the other hair strand provided both class and individual evidence. The difference lies in the presence of unique DNA markers in the hair strand that can help identify a specific individual.

Step-by-step explanation:

The difference between the two hair strands found at the crime scene is that one provided only class evidence while the other provided both class and individual evidence. Class evidence refers to characteristics of an item that can be attributed to a group or class of items, such as the color or texture of hair. Individual evidence, on the other hand, refers to characteristics that are unique to a particular individual, such as specific DNA sequences in the hair.

In this case, the hair strand that provided only class evidence could have been identified as belonging to a specific group of people based on its characteristics, such as the color or texture. However, it did not have any unique individual markers that could be used to identify a specific person. The other hair strand, which provided both class and individual evidence, had unique DNA sequences that could be used to determine the identity of a specific individual.

Therefore, it is possible for one hair strand to provide only class evidence, while another hair strand provides both class and individual evidence, depending on the unique characteristics and DNA markers present in each strand.