Detective delivers police tips to student sleuths
Marlboro youngsters
explore crime scene,
secure evidence
By marissa schafer
Correspondent

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Marlboro police Detective Jay Fox (c) helps Marlboro Middle School seventh-graders (l-r) Christine Notarmuzi, Ricki Halpern, Edan Mudachi and Nick Despotidis examine evidence that was left at the “scene of the crime” by an unknown perpetrator.

MARLBORO — Seventh-grade students in Quad 7C at the Marlboro Middle School received some hands-on experience with crime-solving techniques recently.

The presentation from Marlboro Police Department Detective Jay Fox followed the students’ studies in the area of evidence collection and preservation.

According to Sharon Kuflik Witchel, public information officer for the Marlboro school district, as part of the unit concerning evidence collection, a skit was performed for the students in which a puppet victim’s home had been robbed. The students’ first assignment was to collect all the evidence possible.

While performing evidence tests in the middle school’s science lab, the students wore goggles and gloves so they would not taint the evidence or contaminate themselves.

According to science teacher Loreen Labuza, after the crime scene evidence was collected, students performed a saliva test. The evidence was found on a soda can that had been left behind by the perpetrators. The test was performed using agar plates, which Labuza explained are petri dishes with special gel inside that produces either a positive or negative result of saliva. The DNA found can then be sent out for testing.

On Feb. 19, as part of their studies, Fox talked to the students about how police conduct criminal investigations. In a presentation separate from the initial classroom investigation, the stage of the middle school auditorium was set up as a crime scene complete with imitation blood, a cellular telephone, a fake gun, fake bullets and a chalked body image on the ground.

Fox handed students an assignment sheet that transformed them into "detectives in charge" responding to the scene of a crime.

The assignment sheet stated that the crime had been called in to police by an unknown caller. The caller reported the sound of "gunshots and a "screeching noise" speeding away from the Marlboro Middle School.

The assignment also explained to students that a front door was found open and the victim was pronounced dead.

Fox told the students, "You will receive added information as it becomes available. The rest, as they say, is up to you. Good luck."

As students walked to the stage and observed the crime scene, Fox told them, "If you have a crime scene, everything is evidence."

He said the first thing a detective should do is photograph the scene.

As Fox passed around pictures of his fictional crime scene, he said, "A picture is worth a thousand words; a crime scene photo is worth a million."

The next thing to do, he explained, is to put all evidence into bags — plastic bags for objects that won’t be affected by moisture and paper bags for objects such as fingerprints.

"Things that are wet we have to let air-dry before we put them in bags; plastic bags are good for things you’re not worried about being destroyed by moisture," Fox said.

All evidence gets sent to the state police lab to be tested.

"They determine whether that green vegetable matter we find on somebody and believe is marijuana really is marijuana," he told the students.

Prior to the presentation Fox chose a student from the group and took her fingerprints. With that in hand, he demonstrated how fingerprints are found on evidence. A glass that was found at the scene of the crime was tested with a special powder to find prints. The fingerprints on the glass were Fox’s. He showed students that they did not match those of the girl he thought was a suspect to the crime.

Fox told students, "Fingerprints are very important; [even] identical twins don’t have the same set of fingerprints."

Other evidence found at the scene was a fake gun and a shoeprint left behind in the blood of the victim. Using a student volunteer, Fox demonstrated how the gun must have been shot.

After students suggested their ideas of the location of the shooter, Fox explained that by looking at the place where the bullet shells had landed, a detective can assume where the shooter was standing. This can help in determining which direction the perpetrator fled, he said.

The shoeprint found in the blood was made into a plastic cast prior to the assembly. Fox explained that this was good evidence because it could help to determine what type of shoes the perpetrator was wearing.

"A police officer does not need a search warrant to look at the bottom of your shoes, because you expose them to the public as you walk," Fox said.

The students were surprised to hear that and offered explanations of how the information could help find the suspect.

Another important step in investigating a crime scene, Fox said, is finding witnesses. In the case proposed to the students, the main witness was the unknown caller. Fox explained that it would be crucial to the investigation to speak to this person because he or she might know information the police did not.

The assembly ended with a telephone call from the morgue informing the young detectives that the dead body found at the scene of the crime had been successfully identified.

Fox left the students with an important comment about crime investigation.

"You have to be thorough; it’s like a test, and you have only one chance to pass that test. You have only one chance to walk into the crime scene and collect the evidence. If you miss it, you’re out of luck," he said.

Fox’s assembly was part of the students’ upcoming project. Along with all the procedures and finding of evidence in Loreen Labuza’s science class, students will be writing a murder mystery for Jean Buck’s language arts class. The students were told to incorporate knowledge from class assignments and Fox’s presentation.

The students’ crime-solving techniques unit will conclude with the murder-mystery story. Labuza will grade the stories for accuracy with regard to collection of evidence and testing procedures, while Buck will grade the stories for grammar and sequencing.