Breadcrumb Navigation:

Home > Featured Stories > Outside the Classroom > August 2007 > CSI Workshop Ripped from the Headlines

CSI Workshop Ripped from the Headlines

You've seen it all on the police dramas on TV. Campers discover what may be the remains of a hiker who disappeared years ago. The fate of a man accused of murder lies in crime scene evidence that includes plants, insects and soil. An anguished family needs to know what happened when a loved one goes missing.  

The cases might not be 'ripped from the headlines,' but law enforcement officers from around the region recently came to North Carolina State University to solve a series of mock murders during a crime scene investigation workshop. Far from the fast-paced, glitzy images of crime scene investigations portrayed in popular TV programs, forensic science is a painstaking and sometimes tedious endeavor that involves detecting, observing, analyzing, and interpreting crime scene evidence.

Investigators rely increasingly on the expertise and methodologies used by anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists, chemists, entomologists, even botanists, to identify victims and solve crimes. But how are investigators supposed to find the experts they need? And how can law enforcement leaders best train their staffs to conduct investigations?

Thanks to a program launched at North Carolina State University, the state's law enforcement community has a resource to call upon - the North Carolina Program for Forensic Science, a unique partnership between NC State and the N.C. Archaeology Research Center.

"The Program for Forensic Science offers technical information, education, research and outreach throughout the state on issues relating to medico-legal death investigation," says Dr. Ann Ross, assistant professor of anthropology. "We also created a program of centralized resources to help law enforcement and medical examiners contact certified experts in science and technology."

Ross co-chairs the program, along with Dr. Billy Oliver, an adjunct assistant professor in the department and an archaeologist for the N.C. Office of State Archaeology Research Center (OSARC). Ross collaborated with colleagues in colleges across campus and with a consortium of experts in public agencies to create a central Web site for the program (www.ncforensics.org), which includes an extensive list of scientists and researchers willing to lend their expertise.

The program offers law enforcement and medical examiners an annual workshop in death investigation and recovery methods. The workshop, held each spring at NC State for the past three years, offers five days of lectures and hands-on field practice. Participants exhume bones, collect insect, plant, and other evidence, and analyze their findings during field exercises at a mock crime scene.

Participants and inquiries about the workshop have come from around the country and as far away as the Cayman Islands. The strong interest has prompted officials to offer an advanced three-day workshop for the first time in North Carolina this fall.

For students interested in a career in forensics, several forensics-related courses are already offered at NC State in areas such as sociology, anthropology, entomology, textiles and chemistry. Interdisciplinary research - which not only crosses colleges at NC State, but also involves public agencies - is key to the program.

"We are excited about developing new standards for forensic identification, archaeological recovery, entomology, and other related disciplines," Ross says.

Program leaders are working with the N.C. Justice Academy, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and law enforcement personnel to establish protocols for medico-legal investigations.

The program also provides technical services, such as experts who can assist with archaeological recovery of buried bodies. Others can analyze remains and help determine ancestry, age, sex, stature and similarly critical information. The program also provides experts who can conduct geophysical surveys using electromagnetic and ground-penetrating radar equipment.

The North Carolina Program for Forensic Science was launched in April 2005, and Ross says early feedback has been tremendous.

"In the past, law enforcement personnel have had to search for help, whether they needed a forensic chemist to analyze fibers, or an anthropologist to provide a biological profile, or an entomologist to identify a particular fly species," Ross says. "Now the resources are all in one place, and we can provide the expertise that's needed. The community we're serving through this program is very grateful for our efforts, and our expertise."

More Stories