UCF professor featured in CBS article about Casey Anthony

The defense’s third witness of the day was Dr. Michael Sigman, a University of Central Florida (UCF) chemistry professor, who said he was asked by Orange County sheriff’s officials in July 2008 to take air samples from Anthony’s car.

Sigman detailed how he and a colleague transferred 1 liter of air into a bag and another sample into a second bag. Sigman said he later performed more tests.

“In those, the data was better than the bag ones,” he said, reports the station. “The pattern was gasoline, and looking more closely, we saw chloroform (and other chemicals).”

Sigman said he could not conclusively determine that human decomposition was present in the trunk of Anthony’s car.

In cross-examination, Sigman said he did not fully examine the trunk on July 21 and only opened it about an inch to take the air samples. He also said he was unaware that the trunk liner had been removed days earlier.

State experts have testified that the chloroform they detected came from a stain on the trunk liner. Since the UCF tests were on air drawn after that “point source” of chloroform was removed, the state may argue that’s the reason why chloroform was not detected in high concentrations by Sigman, the station reports.

Read more of the article here.