How a Croatian emigrant revolutionised crime solving in Argentina
- by croatiaweek
- in News
MADRID, 25 January 2025 (Hina) – In the Argentine city of La Plata, located 56 kilometres from Buenos Aires, the police are commemorating 100 years since the death of Croatian emigrant Juan Vucetich (Ivan Vučetić), who developed a universal fingerprint identification system in the South American country.
The police are holding a ceremony in Vucetich’s honour at the city cemetery, near the mausoleum of the police mutual aid association, local newspaper El Dia de La Plata reported.
“Often, modest and unassuming individuals can leave a profound mark on the history of their nations, and even humanity, as is the case with the Argentine police officer of Croatian origin, Juan Vucetich,” wrote diplomat Maximiliano Gregorio-Cernadas in the daily newspaper La Nacion on Saturday.
Gregorio-Cernadas served as Argentina’s ambassador to Croatia from 2017 to 2020.
He noted that during his tenure, Vucetich became a symbol of “what two nations can achieve together.” Gregorio-Cernadas awarded the “Juan Vucetich Prize,” which the Argentine embassy annually grants to individuals promoting bilateral relations, to Davor Ivo Stier in 2017, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in 2018, and Damir Boras in 2019.
Vučetić was born in 1858 on the island of Hvar and emigrated to Argentina at the age of 23, where he was registered as Vucetich. He joined the Buenos Aires provincial police.
In Argentina, a crime was later solved using fingerprint identification – the first-ever successful use of fingerprints to solve a murder case.
In 1892, two children aged 6 and 4 were brutally murdered in the town of Necochea, near Buenos Aires.
Initially, suspicion fell on Ramón Velásquez, a family friend of the children’s parents, Ponciano Caraballo and Francisca Rojas. However, Velásquez consistently claimed his innocence during questioning.
At the crime scene, investigators found a bloody fingerprint and contacted police commander Vucetich, who was developing a fingerprint identification system for police use.
Vucetich compared the fingerprints of Rojas and Velásquez to the bloody print. To the police’s surprise, the fingerprint matched that of the mother, who had denied touching the bloody bodies. Confronted with the evidence, Francisca Rojas confessed to the crime.
This marked the first time fingerprint identification was successfully used in a murder investigation.
Following the case, Vucetich improved his system, naming it “comparative fingerprinting.” The Buenos Aires province officially adopted it in 1903, and it quickly spread throughout Spanish-speaking countries.
Inspired by Galton’s research, Vucetich developed his own identification method, creating the necessary tools for recording fingerprint patterns. Its use has since become indispensable in areas such as document verification, criminology, and border and airport security.
For security experts, the introduction of fingerprinting was as revolutionary as DNA usage is for us today.
Vucetich died on 25 January 1925 and was buried in his wife’s family tomb in Argentina.
In his memory, the Centre for Forensic Investigations, Research, and Expertise in Zagreb bears the name “Ivan Vučetić.”
On the island of Hvar, the “Ivan Vučetić Museum of Mystery” has been established. Dedicated to the forensic scientist, the museum is housed in the building where he lived in the centre of Hvar town.