Murder / Suicide - Warning: Very Graphic Content

"It was the bloodiest crime scene I had ever been to."

Ah, I see I've caught your attention!

Adding the warning on the title and a comment like, "It was the bloodiest crime scene I had ever been to" is like a magnet just drawing you in, isn't it! :)

Well, it is true. It WAS the bloodiest crime scene I had ever been to. I had just finished a long day in school and at the San Diego Police Department where I was training for my career in law enforcement to work as an Evidence Technician.

My school load was about 21 credit hours per semester. Yes, it was a lot, but I wanted to finish the schooling as quickly as possible. So a typical day for me was to wake up around 6:30 AM and get to class by 8:00 AM. Classes would finish around 2:00 PM and then I'd drive to the police department near the downtown area of San Diego and work in the crime lab dusting prints and doing photography of evidence until about 5:30 PM. I'd then drive back to school in El Cajon, California and take a night class from 7:00 PM until about 9:30 PM (can't recall the actual time...)

Well, after a long day, I just got home and greeted my wife and just set down my school books and then I got a call from one of the Evidence Techs at the PD. "Russ... do you want to go to a homicide?" Hmmm.... long day, I'm tired, haven't even said more than a few words to my wife... so I answered, "Sure!" :) What a glutton for punishment, right? :)

I jumped in my car and headed off to the police department where I was to meet Georgina (yes, a female Evidence Tech, and one of our best too!) We have one hour to respond to any call outs. So, I had to hurry as it would take at least 25 minutes to drive back downtown from where I lived. Luckily we were headed near Miramar (near the Naval Airstation where the famed "Top Gun" training station was) and that wasn't too far away.

I had read a newspaper article about Georgina when I was at school. The San Diego Union newspaper did the article as a human interest story about this female evidence tech from Panama who had gone to the school while she was working as a meter maid (I hate that term) for the PD. She later got promoted to being an Evidence Tech and is currently one of the lab's supervisors! Without a doubt, Georgina was one of the nicest persons I have ever met in my life and was very inspirational to me as I wanted to be as good as her in this field. We remain friends to this day, but it's been a while since I've been in contact with her.

Any way, we drove in the crime scene van to the crime scene and were told what had happened. Early in the day, the mother of a young 5 year old boy had threated her son and husband with a knife and threaten to kill them both. The father ran out of the house and went to neighbors to ask for help. The police was called and the SWAT team was deployed. Why he ran out of the house without the boy, I'll never be able to figure out.

Now SWAT typically does not just go charging into a home with guns blasting away. They have to assess the situation and determine the best way to access the home. Often they will use mirrors and other things to see around corners. Any way, after entering the home and looking around with mirrors, they saw the body of a woman laying in the laundry room in a pool of blood. Beneath her was the body of the 5 year old boy she had apparently murdered before taking her own life. She had slit the boy's throat with a knife before doing the same to herself.

We were to find out later that she had a history of mental problems and that the boy had just finished celebrating his 5th birthday.

When we entered the scene, we made our way to the laundry room where we were greeted by several of the homicide detectives. Sure enough, I saw the bodies on the floor which had a massive amount of blood all over it. In addition, there was a huge blood spatter on the wall. It was the bloodiest mess I had ever seen. Georgina had put on her "homicide shoes" as she called them before we entered the scene. She told me that she wears these shoes for work because she didn't want blood all over her regular shoes. Now when she told me this in the van, I didnt' think much of it. But after seeing this scene, I understood.

She also put on plastic shoe covers (so did I) just so she could walk in the blood to get to the evidence and the bodies. Yes, it's not a clean job like some shows like CSI make it out to be. It's a real mess sometimes.

Well, Georgina systematically photographed the scene and documented the evidence found as well. As I was just interning at the time, I only observed. But I was very impressed at the way Georgina handled the evidence and was able to separate her emotions from the work. Georgina is a mother of two girls and I'm sure if you just thought about the people who laid on the ground in their own blood, it would be very difficult to work.

Later, I asked Georgina about how she was able to do the work without getting emotionally attached. She told me that it was very important to look at the bodies as just evidence and not people any more. If you looked at them as people, it would be very difficult to do this job. I fully understood and realized that this is what makes an evidence tech able to do this type of work.

I forgot to mention that Georgina said a prayer in the crime van before we enter the home. As we were both Christians and have a very strong belief in God, it was very nice to see that even in work like Law Enforcement that she asked God to give her the strength to do a good job and for the souls of the people who we were going to see when we went inside the house.

That day had a major impact on me. I got to see a real professional at work, I saw what was the bloodiest mess I had ever seen in my life and I got to see what horrible things people can do to others and themselves.

I left the crime scene at about 3:00 AM and Georgina was still working on the scene. I had one of the patrol officers drive me back to the station where I picked up my personal vehicle and drove home and then crawled into bed about 3:45 AM. I got up the next morning at 6:30 AM for classes and started my routine again.

Ah, those were the days! Oh... how did I do in school with 21 credit hours per semester? I graduated at the top of my class with a 3.94 out of 4.0 grade point average, received an award by the Administration of Justice Department for best student, got an accomodation by the Chief of Police for the work I did at the crime lab and was picked up by the DA's office in San Diego as an investigative technician. :)

Now I shoot weddings....

(Edit note: 12/04/05 - I recently heard that Georgina has since retired from SDPD, so I thought I'd update this post with this information.)