In 2013, scientists were asked to help determine the exact location of a buried body.

Using tiny bits of plant on the killer’s shoes, plant scientists were able narrow down the precise area that housed the living conditions for those plants, and locate the body.

CSI: Botany

Mosses’ small size often allows them to grow in microhabitats, away from competition from other plants.

Even within a small area, a microhabitat would be a much more specific location- like a rock crevice, the shade of a certain plant, or a rotting log.

One of the earliest forensic uses of moss was in 1929, when investigators looked at the growth rate of mosses on a skeleton to figure out how long ago the person had died.

Since then, there have been about 10 recorded cases of mosses helping to determine specifics about a crime.

The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald killed all 29 aboard.

Despite numerous subsequent underwater expeditions examining the wreckage, no definitive answer was reached as to why the vessel sank.

In July 1977, the Coast Guard released its report on the sinking, concluding that due to improperly closed hatches, the ship took on water.

People had other theories about what happened, however, including that the freighter was unseaworthy.

Over the following week, sonar detected two large objects in the area where the Fitzgerald was lost.

While the bow was resting upright, the nearby stern section was upside down.

The two pieces were separated by a debris field that included taconite pellets.

After trying to contact the freighter for more than an hour, the Anderson notified the Coast Guard, which requested that the Anderson return to the storm to search for the vessel.

Lifeboats, life jackets, and other debris were discovered, but there was no sign of the Fitzgerald.

4:10 pm: The freighter tells the Anderson that both its radars are down and requests assistance with its route.

7:10 pm: The captain states, “We are holding our own.”

Those were the last words heard from the Fitzgerald.

Within 10 minutes, the freighter disappears from the Anderson’s radar.

The next few hours went like this:

3:15 pm: The captain of the Anderson notes that the Fitzgerald had passed dangerously close to a shoal off Caribou Island.

3:30 pm: The Fitzgerald reports that it has minor damage and has taken on water, though it has turned on its pumps.

A shift in winds, however, meant that the ships had inadvertently set course towards the brunt of the storm.

On November 9, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, for a steel mill near Detroit.

It led another ship, the Arthur M. Anderson, by 15 miles.

Later that day, gale warnings were issued, and early the next morning, the two vessels agreed to change course.

In 1957, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company commissioned the construction of a freighter, named after its president, that would be the largest ship on the Great Lakes.

After its completion in 1958, the ship typically carried pellets of taconite, an iron ore.

While he was ultimately convicted, Guiteau was not alone in this argument.

Others had also accused the lead physician, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss, of negligence.

That’s not a typo BTW. The doctor’s first name was Doctor.

Our takeaway from all this? Wash your hands.

Guiteau was charged with murder, and at his trial, he argued that the president had actually died from malpractice with his now-famous line:

“I did not kill the president. The doctors did that. I merely shot him.”

Predictably, infection set in and developed into sepsis.

As his condition deteriorated, Garfield was transported to his family’s cottage, where he died on September 19, 79 days after the attack.

The cause of death was attributed to a heart attack, massive hemorrhaging, and sepsis.

Alexander Graham Bell was even enlisted to use his experimental metal detector to find the bullet.

Ultimately, the detector “failed” because Bell had been told to scan the wrong area of Garfield’s body.