| Did
the man hanging in the woods behind the College
of Arts and Sciences Building commit suicide or
was he murdered? That's one of the
staged cases Maurice Godwin's University of
Alaska Anchorage class had to solve last week.
Throughout the week, the body count on campus
rose to four, as groups from the 25-member class
planted body after body among gory crime scenes
as an assignment for the undergraduate justice
course. The
class first broke into four groups. By Monday,
two of the groups had planted a dummy each among
blood (mostly corn syrup, red dye and water),
hair and other items. Then, the two other groups
began to investigate the crimes, the other of
which was staged in an upstairs bathroom in the
CAS Building. On Wednesday, they changed groups
and crimes.
Godwin's
class, Criminal Investigation, acted out what
they learned from books by lifting fingerprint
samples with tape and by collecting blood
samples. Students had to figure out what happened
at the crime scenes, find a specific suspect and
then follow a paper trail of interviews,
autopsies and blood typing. But it wasn't easy.
Was
that blood on his wrists or bruises? It looked as
if he'd been tied, but they weren't sure.
“It's
easier reading about it in the book,” said
Nick Mendez. A member of the group assigned to
investigate a hate crime, Mendez sorted through a
wooded area surrounded by frosty leaves.
The
case Mendez and his group members had to solve
was that of a young, gay male who had recently
come out publicly via the college newspaper. His
body, found hanging but slumped against a tree,
had bruising and lacerations, signs of physical
confrontation and restraint. Police reports
showed there had been prior harassment and death
threats, and the victim claimed he would never
kill himself.
Cory
Magro, who called out items from her list, asked
group members, “Has anyone checked this
guy's pockets?”
Group members answered, "Yes, yes."
While
the outside group continued its investigation,
Rod Benek's group, all justice majors, carried a
female dummy from the Justice Center to the
bathroom.
“To
make it confusing, we made the evidence match the
blood type of more than one of the
ex-boyfriends,” Benek said. They also used
putty to attach fake hair and blood on a door jam
in the hallway and left blood spatters trailing
toward the bathroom.
When
Benek's group finished setting the bathroom
scene, Travis Jensen's group started its
investigation of the rape/murder.
Jensen
leaned against the tile wall as he began a
detailed crime scene sketch. “You don't have
to worry about exact measurements,” he
explained.
As
a team member collecting evidence happened upon a
semen-like substance on the leg of the dummy, he
called out, “Travis, we've got ourselves a
sexual assault!”
One
classmate took photos while another recorded them
in a notebook for later identification.
As
they wrapped up their investigation in the
bathroom, groups who had set up the scenes waited
in the hallway, in case there were any requests
for information.
“We
did up interview notes with ex-boyfriends of the
victim, but we don't have to give them to the
group unless they ask for them,” Beneck
said.
The
groups have a week to submit complete crime scene
reports that will be graded on whether they
followed proper procedures. “If they don't
note the boundaries with tape or imaginary tape,
it would be wrong. If they used plastic rather
than paper, allowing the evidence to breathe,
that would be wrong,” said Godwin.
“Surprisingly,
actual training for criminal investigations does
not go through this. It's on the job training
with a veteran, whereas lawyers get mock
trials,” Godwin said.
Benek,
who said he might become a probations or parole
officer, said, “Anyone going into a justice
field should be able to investigate a scene, so
at the very least, they could empathize with
investigators.”
The
book Godwin will use for his next class, Criminal
Profiling, is his second and was released last
week. Seventy people have signed up for the
80-person class so far.
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