Students take part in mock crime scene

A dummy meticulously dressed with fake wounds was the center of an investigation last week at Hartselle High School.

The dummy was discovered in the teacher break room on the second floor, surrounded by fake blood and evidence of a struggle. Students from criminal justice classes led an investigation into what happened to the victim of the crime.

Enquirer photo/Lauren Jackson
Brennen Jones finds the wallet with the identity of the “victim.”

Keith Wright, criminal justice teacher, said the activity was a way for students to put the things they have learned into practice. The students were joined by law enforcement professionals from Hartselle Police Department and were visited by coroner Jeff Chunn in preparation for the activity.

“We have some kids that are going through as a coroner; someone that is an evidence collection specialist; someone that is a lead investigator; and so on,” Wright explained. “They are going through the crime scene to see who committed the murder.”

Enquirer photo/Lauren Jackson
Mack Reed measures the length of the “blood” splatters as Lydia Higginbotham records.

Retired Police Capt. Tom Sparks also joined the class to help lead the students through the process of an investigation. Sparks said the activity is an excellent way to encourage a future in law enforcement.

“I think it is outstanding. Anytime we can encourage kids to go into the criminal justice field is a good thing,” Sparks said.

Wright said he has done similar activities in the past but never to this extent. “The evidence has been put into place to take fingerprints and come up with suspects. Then ultimately students will come up with who committed the crime. We have a fingerprint database we created at Hartselle High School that has 40 fingerprints in it. From that, they will identify three suspects from the crime scene, and then they will take those three suspects and go interview them,” Wright said.

Gracie Alexander was one of the students who took part in the activity, and she said it was a way to see a new perspective of what investigators do every day. “It shows you what actually goes on – that it’s not that easy, that you have steps you have to follow and procedures you have to do,” Alexander said.

Enquirer photo/Lauren Jackson
Alyssa Jones and Maddie Stafford complete a room sketch using the measurements they took of the scene.

Alexander said she was interested in taking the class after growing up watching “Criminal Minds.” She took on the role of being a photographer during the activity. “We had to go into a crime scene, and I had to take pictures of the crime scene and of evidence at the crime scene. After that our head investigator and a couple of other people went inside and tried to identify the body and try to identify what happened,” Alexander said.

Wright said having the involvement of local criminal justice professionals helped bring insight into what their careers are actually like.

“What my class is designed to do is expose them to occupations in the criminal justice fields,” Wright said. “We have had coroner Jeff Chunn come in the classroom. Sgt. McDearmond has been in the classroom and taught them how to do fingerprints and different aspects to the investigation process.”

All of Wright’s classes will take part in the activity, about 50 students in all. “It is kind of a competition in my classroom; they have been divided into teams,” Wright said. “We will reset the crime scene after every period so every class has an opportunity to solve the crime scene with Capt. Sparks. He will take them through all that.”