In post-mortem police casework, evidence of offender contact on the skin surface of the homicide victim has to-date been regarded as almost impossible to detect in Europe, as indeed has forensic analysis of such evidence. The initial success of series of tests at a national level initiated by the German Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt) started in 2000 were the bases of the project ‘Latent Fingerprints and DNA on Human Skin’ funded by the European Union. This project was carried out in cooperation with Denmark, The United Kingdom, Austria, and Germany (project management) in a time frame of two years. The project had two main objectives, the recovery of latent fingerprints on human skin with simple means and little effort and secondly the recovery and extraction of DNA from these latents. In this study, a total of 1000 fingerprints were deposited on corpses in the morgue. The latent prints were enhanced with magnetic powder or black fingerprint powder. Following, the latents were secured either with silicone casting material or gelatine foil in order to extract the DNA from the lifts. The trials carried out have shown that it is possible to visualise a considerable number of identifiable fingerprints on the skin of corpses (16%). The project was also successful in demonstrating that it was possible to recover and extract DNA from the powdered latents