Crime Scene Investigation

In class simulated crime scenes were set up for students to solve together in groups. Based on the evidence left at the crime scene, this is what my group and I concluded:


Lucas Moore, a depressed psychiatric patient, took his dog for a walk. When walking through a field in a wooded area he came across Sandra O’Conner, a homeless drug addict who possessed cocaine dealt to her by drug possessor Jet Trong. After making contact with Sandra, Lucas decided to try cocaine with her and after injecting the drug into their veins Sandra overdosed. Panicking, Lucas forged a suicide note in the hopes that he would not be suspected of involvement or caught for use of illegal drugs. He walked away from her body and took his dog back home. Sandra’s body was found about two weeks later in the state of active decay.

 

Setting:

·         Outside

·         In a field

·         In a wooded area

Evidence:



·         Ripped Note: “Please forgive me! I love you all.” Word choice leads us to believe that this was a suicide note, but it was not Sandra O’Connor’s handwriting—it matched Lucas Moore’s handwriting characteristics perfectly. The note was note well-forged which was an obvious indication that Moore wrote a fake suicide note.

·         Hair: After analysis and comparisons under the microscope, we concluded that the hair belonged to an animal, specifically a dog. With this conception we determined that Lucas Moore was walking his dog, which brought him into the woods and lead him to Sandra O’Connor.

·         Fingerprint: One of the fingerprints found at the scene was a plain arch, which matched the print of Lucas Moore. He was the only suspect to have this specific fingerprint, informing us that he was definite character in our case. Another print found was a double loop, linking us to Jet Trong, the drug possessor that dealt the cocaine to Sandra. The third fingerprint found, an ulnar loop, matched the fingerprint of Sandra O’Connor, the homeless drug addict whose dead body was found at the scene of the crime.

·         Fiber: A small, black thread was found at the scene of the crime and after further analysis we concluded that the strand came from a wool sweater. Wool tends to be a very warm fiber, indicating the crime may have occurred during a cold season or at night.

·         Body/Maggots: At the crime scene a skull covered in maggots was found decomposing. The maggots covering the skull indicated that the body died two weeks prior due to its state of active decay.

·         Footprints: Two different types of footprints were found at the scene of the crime. They were both tennis shoe footprints, but the patterns from the bottoms of the shoes did not match. The victim’s footprint was smaller than the footprint found walking away, leading us to believe the victim was female and the person walking away from the scene was male.

·         Possible Poison/Syringe: After further analysis of the substance that could potentially be poison, test results showed that the substance was cocaine, an illegal drug. We deduced that the syringe found at the scene of the crime was used by Sandra and Lucas to inject the drugs intravenously into their systems.

Thanks to Sara Ward (http://swardforensics.blogspot.com) for taking these forensic pictures.