Post by mysticsnowangel on May 22, 2006 20:04:22 GMT -5
About a year ago, producers of the television show “CSI” called forensic investigator Verne Hoyer about what he would look for in a felony hit-and-run crime scene.
Take the paint samples for the make and model of the car,” Hoyer told them.
In fact, the Los Angeles Police Department has one of the few machines in the country that can determine what kind of car was involved in an accident just from the scratches of paint left at a crash scene. The TV show producers actually borrowed the machine and used it for the episode.
“I kind of patted myself on the back for that one,” said Hoyer, a retired Eugene police officer who does work for criminal defense and resides in Brownsville.
Television shows like “CSI” have risen the profile of forensic work in the minds of the public. But the work done by Hoyer and his fellow investigators take on more relevance as the abduction of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger in Corvallis leads newscasts and captures headlines.
Forensic work of the kind that Hoyer has assisted is a painstaking, often dirty, sometimes stomach-churning process that usually makes the difference between an arrest and a suspect remaining at large.
If a crime scene yields valuable clues from a victim’s hair follicle or dot of blood, “a lot of homicide arrests are made within 24 hours,” Hoyer said. “If it’s not made within 24 hours, it gets harder.”
Hoyer, 53, retired from the Eugene police department in 1989. He specializes in training law enforcement and private sector clients on collision and crime scene reconstruction. He also operates a laser scanner that police departments across the country have called upon to help locate and map out evidence at a crime scene.
The scanner is powerful enough that it can determine a bullet's trajectory, from where it was fired, and what weather conditions it was fired in.
Hoyer’s knowledge of the Wilberger case has been limited to what he’s heard or seen from media reports and some sources involved in the investigation.
If the Wilberger case becomes a homicide, it will trigger an investigation into the crime scene that can literally move earth in the hunt for clues.
“It will go meticulously,” he said.
The first order of business in a crime scene probe is to isolate the area. No one except the investigators is allowed in or out. Investigators want to preserve signs of tire trucks or footprints or any other possible clues about the suspect’s escape.
“A patrol officer would not be allowed there,” Hoyer said.
They’ll cover the body to protect any clues on the person and to also show respect. How the person died would be obvious – either by strangulation marks around the neck or gunshot or knife wounds. If there are no obvious signs of death, they’ll look for needles around the body that might have been used to inject the victim.
If it’s a sex crime, investigators will take swabs and blood tests. Rigor mortis and the presence of insects inside the wounds, ears or eyes could reveal how long the person has been dead.
The body may not be moved from the crime scene for a day as investigators do their work, Hoyer said.
The crime scene itself – a house for example – could be moved to a different location where it can be isolated.
“The more people you have at the crime scene, the harder to stop contamination,” he said.
Investigators will also take as many photographs as they can of the scene and of the body.
Search for clues around the body
It’s around the body where investigators will “make sure every stone is turned over and checked,” he said.
They look for blood if it was a violent act. Even if rain has washed away traces of blood, they’ll use chemicals that draw the blood’s iron from the objects around the body.
“Weather conditions are going to be a primary concern,” Hoyer said.
If it has been raining around a crime scene, they’ll immediately erect tents. It’s also meant to obscure what investigators find from the prying cameras and eyes of the media.
Every natural element around a body has an effect on the investigation: the fertilizer in the ground, the soil, the type of grass. Hoyer once worked a case where investigators cut one-foot squares, about six inches deep into the ground.
They then took the blocks out section by section to search the blades of grass for hair samples that might be helpful in their case, he said.
If there is a nearby pond, investigators will sometimes drain the body of water to see if the murder weapon was thrown into the water. During his time as a Eugene police officer, investigators once drained a local waterway to look for body parts, Hoyer said.
One of the most interesting techniques used by forensic scientists to draw fingerprints from a murder weapon is to put it in a fish tank. They then seal the tank and pour Super Glue into a cup. A special acid is poured with the Super Glue. The chemical reaction releases a mist that adheres to body oils left from a finger print on the murder weapon.
Take the paint samples for the make and model of the car,” Hoyer told them.
In fact, the Los Angeles Police Department has one of the few machines in the country that can determine what kind of car was involved in an accident just from the scratches of paint left at a crash scene. The TV show producers actually borrowed the machine and used it for the episode.
“I kind of patted myself on the back for that one,” said Hoyer, a retired Eugene police officer who does work for criminal defense and resides in Brownsville.
Television shows like “CSI” have risen the profile of forensic work in the minds of the public. But the work done by Hoyer and his fellow investigators take on more relevance as the abduction of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger in Corvallis leads newscasts and captures headlines.
Forensic work of the kind that Hoyer has assisted is a painstaking, often dirty, sometimes stomach-churning process that usually makes the difference between an arrest and a suspect remaining at large.
If a crime scene yields valuable clues from a victim’s hair follicle or dot of blood, “a lot of homicide arrests are made within 24 hours,” Hoyer said. “If it’s not made within 24 hours, it gets harder.”
Hoyer, 53, retired from the Eugene police department in 1989. He specializes in training law enforcement and private sector clients on collision and crime scene reconstruction. He also operates a laser scanner that police departments across the country have called upon to help locate and map out evidence at a crime scene.
The scanner is powerful enough that it can determine a bullet's trajectory, from where it was fired, and what weather conditions it was fired in.
Hoyer’s knowledge of the Wilberger case has been limited to what he’s heard or seen from media reports and some sources involved in the investigation.
If the Wilberger case becomes a homicide, it will trigger an investigation into the crime scene that can literally move earth in the hunt for clues.
“It will go meticulously,” he said.
The first order of business in a crime scene probe is to isolate the area. No one except the investigators is allowed in or out. Investigators want to preserve signs of tire trucks or footprints or any other possible clues about the suspect’s escape.
“A patrol officer would not be allowed there,” Hoyer said.
They’ll cover the body to protect any clues on the person and to also show respect. How the person died would be obvious – either by strangulation marks around the neck or gunshot or knife wounds. If there are no obvious signs of death, they’ll look for needles around the body that might have been used to inject the victim.
If it’s a sex crime, investigators will take swabs and blood tests. Rigor mortis and the presence of insects inside the wounds, ears or eyes could reveal how long the person has been dead.
The body may not be moved from the crime scene for a day as investigators do their work, Hoyer said.
The crime scene itself – a house for example – could be moved to a different location where it can be isolated.
“The more people you have at the crime scene, the harder to stop contamination,” he said.
Investigators will also take as many photographs as they can of the scene and of the body.
Search for clues around the body
It’s around the body where investigators will “make sure every stone is turned over and checked,” he said.
They look for blood if it was a violent act. Even if rain has washed away traces of blood, they’ll use chemicals that draw the blood’s iron from the objects around the body.
“Weather conditions are going to be a primary concern,” Hoyer said.
If it has been raining around a crime scene, they’ll immediately erect tents. It’s also meant to obscure what investigators find from the prying cameras and eyes of the media.
Every natural element around a body has an effect on the investigation: the fertilizer in the ground, the soil, the type of grass. Hoyer once worked a case where investigators cut one-foot squares, about six inches deep into the ground.
They then took the blocks out section by section to search the blades of grass for hair samples that might be helpful in their case, he said.
If there is a nearby pond, investigators will sometimes drain the body of water to see if the murder weapon was thrown into the water. During his time as a Eugene police officer, investigators once drained a local waterway to look for body parts, Hoyer said.
One of the most interesting techniques used by forensic scientists to draw fingerprints from a murder weapon is to put it in a fish tank. They then seal the tank and pour Super Glue into a cup. A special acid is poured with the Super Glue. The chemical reaction releases a mist that adheres to body oils left from a finger print on the murder weapon.