9781422284841

Discover the secrets of the evidence with . . .

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Archaeologists! Astronauts! Big-Animal Vets! Biomedical Engineers! Civil Engineers!

Climatologists! Crime Scene Techs! Cyber Spy Hunters! Marine Biologists! Robot Builders!

By Beth Sutinis

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3416-7 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3423-5 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8484-1

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Tom Carling, Carling Design Inc. Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

Cover image: Dreamstime.com/CorepicsVof

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sutinis, Beth.

Crime scene techs! / by Beth Sutinis.

pages cm. -- (Scientists in action!) Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4222-3423-5 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4222-3416-7 (series) -- ISBN 978-1-4222-8484-1 (ebook) 1. Forensic sciences--Juvenile literature. 2. Crime scenes--Juvenile literature. 3. Crime scene searches--Juvenile literature. I. Title. V8073.8.S885 2016 363.25’2--dc23 2015011867

Contents

Action!. .................................................................... 6 The Scientists and Their Science....................... 14 Tools of the Trade................................................. 24 Tales From the Field!. .......................................... 32 Scientists in the News......................................... 44

Find Out More..................................................................... 46

Series Glossary of Key Terms............................................ 47

Index/About the Author.................................................... 48

Key Icons to Look For

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowl- edge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weav- ing together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connect- ed to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis.

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here.

Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains ter- minology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

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Action!

akayla Isaacs walked up to the apartment building. She wasn’t going home, she was going to work. Makayla was a DNA specialist who worked at the county medical examiner’s office. The police department in her small city wasn’t large enough to have specialists in its crime scene unit. For more complex crimes that required DNA collection, they phoned specialists from the M.E.’s office—and Makayla was called into action!

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND apparent  clearly visible or obvious contaminated  made impure or dirty DNA  deoxyribonucleic acid—the chemical basis of inherited genes found in the cells of living things hypothesis  an idea that hasn’t been proven logging  keeping careful track of a series of events or set of information by using a list perimeter  the path that surrounds an area procedure  an official way of doing something

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Crime scene investigators, police officers, and detectives all must carefully follow proper procedure when searching for clues.

Over the phone, Detective Robert Farley had briefed Makayla about a string of robberies that had plagued the city. Farley reported that officers responding to a 911 call had arrived to find the apartment’s resident injured at the scene of an apparent robbery. The officers got the victimmedical help, then they properly secured the scene by set- ting up a perimeter , and called in the detectives.When Farley arrived,

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he checked in with the officer who had secured the perimeter. It was her job to write down the names of all the people who came and went from the crime scene. She was also in charge of keeping out anyone who did not absolutely need to be there. There’s a reason they call it “police procedure ,” since following procedure precisely is crucial to keeping the evidence from being contaminated , which might make it useless in court. At the scene, two crime scene investigators (CSIs) went in first, taking video, photographs, and notes. They walked in a spiral pattern starting from the middle of the room, where the victim had awoken with a gash on his head. The investigators documented everything in the scene. The CSIs reported what they saw to the evidence collection team—an open file cabinet and a baseball bat, apparently with blood on it. Farley also observed a few things that made him think the robbery might be connected to other crimes he was investigating. This time, however, the robbery had included an attack of the victim. Detective Farley spoke to the victim, Mr. Ramos. Farley learned that the baseball bat belonged to Ramos. Farley did the interview, not the CSIs. It was important that the CSIs never speak to witnesses or suspects—more of that procedural stuff! The pros analyzing the evi- dence didn’t want to be influenced by the impressions of others. Detective Farley decided then to call Makayla. If this scene was anything like the others, there weren’t going to be any fingerprints or shoe impressions or hairs to collect, although the CSIs would still look for such evidence. Farley was hoping there might be “touch” DNA on the baseball bat. One of the tricky things about touch DNA was that so few cells were required for the process that everybody who walked into the

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scene could potentially leave their own body traces, even if they were wearing their PPE (personal protection equipment) correctly. It was best if DNA and touch DNA evidence were collected and secured first. So before the CSIs touched anything, Makayla suited up in her PPE outside the perimeter. She grabbed her kit and went right to the base- ball bat, which was lying on the floor. It had been photographed and videotaped from every angle, but was untouched. Touch DNA was most likely to be found where someone had touched something with pressure. Makayla used her gear to gather possible evidence from the bat’s handle and also further up the grip. She then carefully bagged the baseball bat to take it back to the lab, where other workers would examine the blood on the bat’s fat end. The blood was probably from the victim, so a sample from the victim would need to be obtained and analyzed to make a match. Makayla took the bagged bat to the crime scene perimeter and handed it over to the CSI technician who was logging in evidence. As she walked out the door, Makayla spied something she didn’t see when walking into the apartment. “The baseball bat was a good place to start, but that is what I need to test,” she said to Detective Farley who was standing on the other side of the tape. From his side of the perimeter tape, the detective could see that Makayla was pointing to something on the door of the apartment directly across from the crime scene. Before she reopened her kit, Makayla took a close look at the area where the peephole was on the neighbor’s door. A peephole allows someone inside an apart- ment to look into the hall before opening the door.The peephole of the victim’s neighbor was covered with something. There was a Band-Aid stuck to the outside of it!

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A blood-stained knife goes directly into a sealed plastic bag for analysis. It may one day end up as evidence in a courtroom.

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Makayla stood back and asked the forensic photographer to suit up again in a new PPE and come back into the crime scene.While she waited patiently for the photographer, she determined the best ap- proach to collecting this particular evidence. By the time the pictures had been taken, she knew what to do. She decided to scrape the edges and outside of the bandage into a collection envelope. Then, using tweezers, she gently removed the bandage and sealed it inside a second paper envelope. She labeled both envelopes and delivered them to the CSI. Then she examined the door itself in case any skin cells had been transferred there. In the squad

car on the way back to the lab, Makay- la came up with a hypothesis that the robber had put the bandage over the peephole to prevent a neighbor from watching him come and go. The lack of care taken by an otherwise careful criminal may have been because the robber was used to ripping off the ban- dage as he left and

The DNA specialist noticed a Band-Aid covering a peephole such as this one. It was the breakthough police needed to make an arrest.

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taking it with him—leaving no visible trace it ever had been there.This time, in his haste, it looked like he forgot to do that. Detective Farley could now go back to the other crime scenes with a trace evidence specialist who worked in the lab with Makayla. Although the bandages wouldn’t be over the peepholes at other crime scenes, they might find traces of the adhesive itself on the doors, which would suggest a pattern. Band-Aid adhesive wasn’t a common thing to find on peepholes, after all. Weeks later, Makayla’s theory proved correct. The adhesive turned up at other crime scenes, and a tiny piece of DNA was found on one door. Later, when a suspect was arrested, the DNA matched. Science—and good detective work—came through to solve the crime.

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