Tulsa World: Video: CSI 101

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Video: CSI 101
OSU students probe lifelike crime scene

Andrew Taylor looks for evidence as forensic science graduate students from the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences investigate a mock crime scene. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
Published: 6/27/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 6/27/2009 3:44 AM

For Oklahoma State University graduate students, everything but the crime was real Friday morning.

Ducking around yellow crime scene tape at a small house near River Parks, men and women with latex gloves, clipboards, measuring tape and other equipment carefully investigated the scene.

They drew sketches, took pictures, measured rooms and made copious notes in preparation for a mock trial in August. They will have to testify to their findings in front of a real judge while being grilled by University of Tulsa law students.

The OSU Center for Health Sciences students are in an advanced crime scene class that is part of OSU's forensic sciences program.

They practice with crime scenes every week, but they are not as elaborate and lifelike as the fictitious date-rape scenario that instructors had set up for Friday, said Rob Allen, chairman of the Forensic Sciences Department.

"It's one thing to read about it in a book. It's another thing to do it," Allen said. "And we ratchet it up a notch or two by making them defend it."

Five students in forensic chemistry or forensic biology arrived at the house to find a "crime scene" with drink cups and beer bottles on the coffee table.

A scrap of paper with a phone number was wedged in the doorjamb, and in a back room, the bed cover was thrown aside.

The students took multiple pictures of the evidence, cataloging each photo, and examining the bedroom for biological fluids.

Then they collected the evidence and took it back to their labs. In the afternoon, they investigated another scene — the suspect's car.

The evidence will be analyzed for the next three weeks, and then the students will make a case file that will be turned over to the TU law students to prepare for moot court, Allen said.

"They can't take the whole house back to the lab, so they have to be discriminating in what they analyze," he said.

Andrew Taylor, who expects to graduate from the program in August, was assigned to be the sketch artist. He drew the crime scene in a notebook, jotting down measurements as he went.

Taylor will go to Atlanta this summer for a fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He hopes eventually to get a job studying biological agents in a public health laboratory.

Taylor said Friday's exercise helped prepare students for what they are likely to encounter on the job.

"It's been immensely helpful and at least a real step toward what real crimes scenes would look like," he said.

Allen said forensic science programs are popping up across the country as areas, including Tulsa, face a backlog of evidence that needs to be analyzed. Those already in the field must keep up with the latest techniques and practices, as well.

"As crimes evolve, training needs to evolve," he said.

Shannon Muchmore 581-8378
shannon.muchmore@tulsaworld.com By SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer

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okie ridgerunner, Small Country Town State Line (6/28/2009 1:07:44 AM)

This is great for the students and very interesting.

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