News Editor, News Reporter
Photo by: Brian Wise
Criminal justice students at CMU descended onto a series of crime scenes at 818 Elm Ave. last Wednesday as part of a unique educational experience with the Grand Junction Police Department.
The crime scenes, which had been staged by the Police Department’s Crime Unit, were constructed four hours prior to Dr. Jane Quimby’s Criminal Investigations class.
“We’re trying to have the students process the items of evidence here and figure out what’s going on,” Police criminalist Trent Rundiquist said. “The scenarios are imaginative, but parts of it are based off of what we have seen in the field.”
When students arrived, they were separated into three groups and instructed to analyze and collect data scattered throughout the house.
“This gives student an opportunity to have a hands-on learning experience, which I think separates it completely from the academic classroom,” Quimby said.
This is the first year criminal justice students have been able to practice fieldwork in a residential house.
“Fortunately, the university has purchased this property, and it’s for tactical training purposes,” Police Sgt. Dave Oswald said.
The unique circumstances surrounding the house’s ownership allowed the Crime Unit to get creative with its crime scene set up. Using human blood that was donated to the Police Department last May by a private class, the officers constructed numerous blood patterns on the walls, floors and stairs.
“This was new for us,” Sgt. Oswald said, “to have a whole room where we could use blood.”
“I thought they’d use some kind of dye,” junior criminal justice student Dominic Dimercurio said. “I wouldn’t say it was shocking, but it definitely caught me off guard.”
Quimby said that the learning experience offered during the investigations varied drastically from the academic classroom setting and would go a long way in helping students land jobs.
“It will give [students], when they go through the interview process, a kind of leg up,” Quimby said. “Who else has a blood-splatter room?”
The house is being used across varying disciplines at the university, including biology, osteology, chemistry and the recently opened body farm. Quimby also noted that the house would be used in fugitive training for the Peace Officer Academy which had previously always been a challenge.
“It’s kind of hard to get someone to volunteer their own house,” Quimby said.
cferganc@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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