This article is part of “Solutionaries,” our continuing commitment to solutions journalism, highlighting the creative people in communities working to make the world a better place, one solution at a time. Find out what you can do to help and subscribe to our Solutionaries channel on Youtube.
Cutting-edge technology is helping solve crimes faster than ever before. That technology is what students in Virginia are learning on too thanks to a unique partnership. 10 News got an inside look at the process and how you can be part of the research helping investigators solve murders now and in the future.
Flagging and marking a crime scene.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to this, it’s just as we find them we’re marking off our evidence,” Emily Rancourt, Associate Director of the Forensic Science Program explains as she looks at a field of fake bones to teach students.
This is all part of teaching the next generation of crime scene investigators and they are learning from people who worked in the field.
Rancourt is a former crime scene specialist with the Prince William County Police Department.
“I used to investigate homicides, suicides, suspicious deaths, any crime scene with a life-threatening injury where we didn’t know if the victims were going to live or die,” Rancourt said.
In Manassas, they have just the eighth body farm in the country. It’s a teaching tool for students.
“I kind of want to learn more hands-on. If you want to do those kinds of works, having like a hands-on experience, where you’re in the body farm, doing research, collecting samples, that’s kind of invaluable,” Nick Iyde, a GMU graduate student said.
At one point, it took a crime scene investigator hours upon hours to get their photographs and measurements, but Rancourt said the FARO scanner can do it all in just a few minutes.
GMU partnered with the company to have the very first certified forensic FARO university laboratory. Rancourt is certified to teach students who then can work with the equipment all over the world.
We watched the process as students marked the simulated crime scene. Once the markers are set up, it was time to scan the woods. They all hid behind trees because there weren’t walls to hide behind like they would do in a house. By hiding, people aren’t in the scene when it’s scanned.
Rancourt says the FARO technology is so accurate it can get measurements within two millimeters.
Once the scan is put in the system, investigators can also analyze blood stain patterns or bullet trajectories. In court, they can take a judge or jury through the actual scene as if they were there.
“Which is amazing technology we never used to have before. Before it used to be a 2-dimensional photograph and now we’re actually able to take these people through our scene in real life,” Rancourt explained.
10 News is taking you inside the new science research of solving crimes all week.
- Thursday: How bees can help investigators find a body. Click here for that story.
- How donating your body to science will help the next generation of crime scene investigators. Click here for that story.
- Old technology is used in new ways to help find things buried underground. Click here for that story.
Join us at 7 p.m. for a different story every night - showing how forensic science is evolving to catch more criminals and get justice for families.
This article is part of “Solutionaries,” our continuing commitment to solutions journalism, highlighting the creative people in communities working to make the world a better place, one solution at a time. Find out what you can do to help and subscribe to our Solutionaries channel on Youtube.
