CSI High
CORDOVA, Tenn. — “You guys are making me laugh!” the dead girl said.
The corpse speaks!
Lauren Adkins, a senior at St. Benedict at Auburndale, had little to do as the designated corpse sprawled on a classroom floor.
Her crew had just set up the crime scene for another team in Jamie Schneider’s forensic science class. Money was scattered about, a bullet hole was positioned, fibers and fingerprints were there to be found if the young investigators were alert enough.
Walking into the room, one sleuth saw a gun still clutched in Adkins’ lifeless hand and said, “suicide.”
But, as they like to say in TV's police procedurals, “Let the evidence speak.”
Adkins had earlier confided that “I have a suicide note in my pocket but it’s not in my handwriting. It’s a staged suicide.”
Would the team figure out the ruse?
Schneider was there to offer reminders (“Remember to wear gloves and make sure evidence isn’t tampered with”) and pointers (“Keep it simple guys. You don’t want to confuse the jury.”)
But the details were left to the students who cataloged everything in notebooks, photographed, labeled and bagged whatever looked important.
Later they would take the evidence across the room and run the tests.
Just like “CSI.”
Or not. The popular TV show and its spinoffs are regarded with mixed feelings among forensics fans.
Schneider speaks approvingly of the technical aspects and she’ll refer to it for discussion of things she can’t easily reproduce in class, like establishing time of death.
But sometimes the program causes eyes to roll — like how the TV team solves a case by the end of the shift. And what’s with the field investigators questioning suspects?
Yet the role of science as a star of the shows has been the very thing that grabs attention.
It did for Shannon Webb, a senior who went to a camp on criminal investigation for nine days last summer in Boston. “We did simulated scenes, had guest speakers from the FBI and forensic scientists. We did fingerprinting and made foot casts,” she said. “No fluff.”
She’s looking at colleges with programs that will take her into forensic science. She’s lured by both lab and field work.
“I like the way you go about it,” she said. “The depth and complexity of it.”
The results of the students’ investigations won’t be known until next week. Schneider says “they have to measure and draw the scene to scale, photographers have to arrange a poster board for court presentation and the evidence has to be tested.”
As for the unfortunate laughing corpse, Schneider reports the investigators, “thought it was a homicide staged to look like a suicide.”
Good instincts. They just might be ready for prime time.
The Commercial Appeal, Thursday, March 30, 2006
The corpse speaks!
Lauren Adkins, a senior at St. Benedict at Auburndale, had little to do as the designated corpse sprawled on a classroom floor.
Her crew had just set up the crime scene for another team in Jamie Schneider’s forensic science class. Money was scattered about, a bullet hole was positioned, fibers and fingerprints were there to be found if the young investigators were alert enough.
Walking into the room, one sleuth saw a gun still clutched in Adkins’ lifeless hand and said, “suicide.”
But, as they like to say in TV's police procedurals, “Let the evidence speak.”
Adkins had earlier confided that “I have a suicide note in my pocket but it’s not in my handwriting. It’s a staged suicide.”
Would the team figure out the ruse?
Schneider was there to offer reminders (“Remember to wear gloves and make sure evidence isn’t tampered with”) and pointers (“Keep it simple guys. You don’t want to confuse the jury.”)
But the details were left to the students who cataloged everything in notebooks, photographed, labeled and bagged whatever looked important.
Later they would take the evidence across the room and run the tests.
Just like “CSI.”
Or not. The popular TV show and its spinoffs are regarded with mixed feelings among forensics fans.
Schneider speaks approvingly of the technical aspects and she’ll refer to it for discussion of things she can’t easily reproduce in class, like establishing time of death.
But sometimes the program causes eyes to roll — like how the TV team solves a case by the end of the shift. And what’s with the field investigators questioning suspects?
Yet the role of science as a star of the shows has been the very thing that grabs attention.
It did for Shannon Webb, a senior who went to a camp on criminal investigation for nine days last summer in Boston. “We did simulated scenes, had guest speakers from the FBI and forensic scientists. We did fingerprinting and made foot casts,” she said. “No fluff.”
She’s looking at colleges with programs that will take her into forensic science. She’s lured by both lab and field work.
“I like the way you go about it,” she said. “The depth and complexity of it.”
The results of the students’ investigations won’t be known until next week. Schneider says “they have to measure and draw the scene to scale, photographers have to arrange a poster board for court presentation and the evidence has to be tested.”
As for the unfortunate laughing corpse, Schneider reports the investigators, “thought it was a homicide staged to look like a suicide.”
Good instincts. They just might be ready for prime time.
The Commercial Appeal, Thursday, March 30, 2006