A Thousand Points of Light

Frank Samuel Baechtel, a forensic examiner with the F.B.I. who was allowed by the court to testify as an expert witness, said the carpet was subjected to three levels of testing. In the first, the carpet was examined under an ultraviolet light that causes bodily fluids to fluoresce. "Multiple areas of that carpet glowed very dramatically," Mr. Baechtel said.

"Does an image come to mind?" asked Peter S. Jongbloed, the lead prosecutor on the case.

"Outside on a clear night, you see a lot of stars," the witness answered. "It was kind of glowing like a galaxy." The witness asked permission to inspect the carpet from the well of the courtroom and approached the swatch as jurors and the judge craned their necks to see the 39 spots where the government said it had found stains. -- New York Times, March 20