GDG- Lady Daniel Farm

[mfitz54 at aol.com]

 This article appeared in the Civil War Interactive.........
 
Restoration Revealing Carnage at Gettysburg's Lady Farm
Oct. 5, 2006--The Daniel Lady Farm is making history again.

Kathi Schue, president of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, the farm owner, today revealed details of an initial investigation into the blood stains that mark the floors of three rooms of the farmhouse.

Schue said the distinction of being the oldest known death scene ever successfully investigated with the use of luminescent agents is now shared by the farm with the Shriver House in downtown Gettysburg.

The house and barn on the Lady Farm were Confederate field hospitals during the three-day battle.

Stains in the attic of the Shriver House support accounts that a Confederate sniper died there. Stains in the Lady farmhouse offer even more vivid evidence of the pain and suffering endured by the combatants of the North and South. 

“The stains in your front room are of great significance not only historically, but also forensically, reported Detective Lt. Nicholas Paonessa of the Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Police Department, who volunteered to conduct the study on his own time. Paonessa’s interest was forensic in addition to historic. 

Paonessa’s department was seeking to determine how far back a new detection fluid, Bluestar Forensics Latent Blood Reagent, could go in finding blood at a death scene. While the Niagara Falls area is rich in history, Paonessa said he could not locate a death site nearly as old as the Lady farmhouse to investigate. “Unfortunately, we have no organization like the GBPA,” Paonessa said.

“The capability of luminol to react with blood stains over 200 years old has already been demonstrated, however, the use of this method outside of the lab and in an actual death scene had not been explored.” said Paonessa, “Our intention was to determine the feasibility of utilizing this luminol analogue (Bluestar) for use in visualizing historical blood evidence and at the same time demonstrate how useful it would be on old crime scenes which may still be prosecuted.” 

Paonessa said he was excited by what the Lady farmhouse revealed.

“Unlike the Shriver House, the finish on the floor in the Daniel Lady Farm actually gave off fluorescence when subjected to Rofin Polilight Forensic Alternate Light Source,” reported Paonessa. “This created a strong contrast between the glow of the finish and the absorption of the stains (the Shriver house attic had an untreated floor and a dark wood).”

The all-volunteer GBPA has a web site at www.gbpa.org . Schue can be contacted by e-mail at Gettysburg at pahouse.net , or by phone at 717-783-0411. The regular mailing address is: GBPA, PO Box 4087, Gettysburg, PA 17325. GBPA is a registered 501 3 C non-profit organization. 
 
Mike Fitzpatrick
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.