My First Crime Scene

It's been a while since the last "Forensics" post, so I thought I'd tell you all about the first crime scene I ever went out on.

I was working at the San Diego Police Department's Crime Lab and we got assigned to check out the scene of a recent rape in the Pacific Beach area. There had been a string of these rapes occuring and this was the latest victim.

I went out with one of our Sex Crimes detectives and one of the Evidence Technicians from our field services unit. I wasn't sure what to expect since I was so "green" at all of this. But I do know I was very excited to go out on my first crime scene.

Well, the victim was still there when we arrived. That was something I was a little surprised about. I knew I was not allowed to say anything to her as it was the job of the detective to do so. She was sitting in her living room with one of the female officers called to the scene.

While the detective was interviewing her, I worked with the evidence technician collecting evidence from the crime scene. We collected bedsheets and other objects from her room and also dusted the window area (the point of entry) and other items for fingerprints.

As we were working, one of the local TV news crews pulled up and started taping. As this was my first crime scene, I made sure to turn on my videotape recorder when I got home to record whatever broadcast about the incident I could find. It was interesting to see myself walking around the crime scene on TV.

Since I was only interning at the time, I still had classes to take at school when I wasn't working at the police department. I was one of only two students lucky enough to land an internship with the San Diego Police Department. We were both recommended for the jobs by the head of our school's Administration of Justice department. The other intern was assigned to the latent print unit. But I was lucky and got assigned to the evidence technician's unit. Because of that, I got to go on all the call outs while the other student was delegated to stay at the lab comparing fingerprints. Yeah, I had a much "cooler" job! At least in my opinion.

Any way, the next day, a bunch of my classmates came up to me to tell me they had seen me on TV. Everyone got a big kick out of it because it was so interesting to see one of us on TV. Well, after many crime scenes over the course of the year, I could be seen walking around crime scenes on TV or hanging around discussing strategy with the detectives. Yeah, I was the "celebrity" of our school... at least for our Adminstration of Justice department.

I still have a tape of the broadcasts of various crime scenes I worked. I made sure I turned on the VCR whenever I was out or I had my wife do it so I could watch the broadcast later. It's been a while since I've seen that tape, so perhaps I'll pull it out soon to watch it and get a good laugh. It is kind of funny to see me walking around these crime scenes.

As for the series of rapes in Pacific Beach, we eventually caught the guy. He had a habit of watching the women he intended to rape and then waiting for the cover of the night before breaking into their homes to rape them. In this particular case, the victim left her window open because it was a hot night. That's how he got in.

Lesson learned? NEVER leave your window open at night... especially if you live on the first floor of a building.

About a year and a half later, I graduated at the top of my class with Associates Degrees in both Evidence Technology and in Pre-Law / Court Management and worked for the Chula Vista Police Department and then subsequently was hired by the San Diego District Attorney's Office. (My Bachelor's degree is in Electronics Engineering... totally unrelated to crime scene work, but helpful in my job cleaning up audio evidence for court. More on that for another post...)

The interesting part was that the detective I had worked with on this particular case eventually retired from SDPD and was hired by the DA's office and he became one of our DA Investigators. It seems that many of the detectives became DA investigators after leaving the police department. So we got to work many more cases together at the DA's office. But I'll never forget my first case with him! Nobody ever forgets their first case.