Winners

While all the five students did a great job of researching the field of Forensic Science and preparing for the presentation, two students went above and beyond the call of duty in their participation and contribution to the team.
Mr. David Kellogg and I are pleased to announce the winner of the first prize ($100.00 Gift Certificate from Best Buy) is Thomas Reichert of ROWVA School District. The second prize winner ($50.00 Best Buy Gift Certificate) is James Dykeman of ROWVA School District. Congratulations to Tom and James!

Board Presentation

The students did a fantastic presentation on Forensic Science to the Carl Sandburg College Board of Trustees at their regular meeting on July 24th in Carthage, Illinois. The following were the topics that were presented:
•Thomas A. Reichert – Fingerprint Analysis
•Duncan L. Nall – Footwear Impressions
•Donald G. Von Kannon – DNA Analysis
•P. Ian Stewart – Post-Mortem Examination
•James N. Dykeman – Forensic Entomology

They were presented with their Certificates of Participation by the Board Chairman, Mr. John Huston.

Troubles with footprints

Footprint analysis is a great field in forensics but there are some problems with it. First of all a criminal can throw out his own shoes after the crime to avoid being identified or he can just wear someone elses shoes to make a false lead. Also in the event that a person may be still alive in a crime scene, EMTs will rush right over the prints causing more confusion. There's also weather to be conserned about with outdoor prints. These aren't like the footprints on the moon that will last forever, because theres rain and wind and erosion to worry about. Plus how long will indoor ones last anyway. What about the footprints that were set before the crime? Will those still be there. Maybe looking for latent prints is completely useless. It's these problems that make this area of forensics not as strong as say dna analysis or fingerprint examination, but the person did have to enter and leave the scene, and whether or not he had shoes or socks or was barefoot, he had to have left prints

Crime scenes

This information might be useful to everyone. When a crime is first reported there are things that must be dealt with first such as the victim in need of help or the perpatraitor having a weapon that must be secured. Then they must detain the eyewitnesses and interview them separately and whoever reported the crime. Then the scene is taped off along with any other crime scenes (places where body was found, where weapons were found etc.). If there isn't an emergency it is important not to disturb the body or any other evidence. Then the scene is searched in a very organized manner, like a grid system or a spiral one, or even one just a back and forth line system. There are many jobs on the crime scene ( of course that doesn't help preserving footprints but owell,) such as photographer, sketcher, measurer, evidence collector, and master note takers. After evidence is collected, transported, preserved, and stored carefully, the scene may be recreated either mentally or physically and adding in or throwing out witnesses testimonies. In the movie (12 angry men) the alleged murderer is found innocent not by finding evidence that leads to someone else but because the witnesses testimonies were insuffient.

Western

So we took our trip to WIU on saturday. Whille the trip was mostly geared towards western university itself, it did help show us some of the facilities that we would have at our disposal if we were to pursue a carrer in forensics.

Trip to Western

So Saturday we went to Western for a "discover Western day." It was mostly geared towards "advertising" the school, but we did get to learn about forensics. It was definitely worth it. All I am doing now is getting ready for the big presentation that we've been preparing for. Doing some last minute research, writing my speech, practicing what I am going to say...all the fun stuff. Wish me luck!

Western

The trip to WIU may not have been as hands on as the trip to chicago or to peoria, but we really did learn quite a bit about the importance of forensics. I think it was a good field trip to go to right before the presentation. As for the presentation i am currently working on my speech for my first slide only which will be mainly stressing why shoe prints are unique and the uses of shoeprint analysis. I am hoping to get it around a minute twenty so the rest of the time i can talk about procedures of lifting and photographing footprints. Theres so much info but so little time