Taylor Bowen is attending CSI Day Camp at the Greer Police Department. The rising senior at Blue Ridge High School will be providing a blog each day of the camp.
By Taylor Bowen
You’ve watched CSI or NCIS right? Police investigate a murder scene, gather evidence and ta-da! … the suspect is found and the case is solved. It's a lot more than that and as I go through the CSI Day Camp that the Greer Police Department is holding this week, you will experience it with me.
Today was the first day of the camp. It was kind of nerve-racking, walking into a police station and waiting to go into a room full of people you don't know. As I walk through the door, an officer is standing in the middle talking to everyone. The students sit in comfy chairs around tables and we listen attentively.
Angie Childers, Vice President of the Greer Police Alumni and the moderator, explains all that we will be doing for the day. Then Lt. Jim Holcombe tells us to talk and ask questions. Everyone sits in silence, glaring at him. He tries again to get us to talk to one another or even him. We still sit in silence.
Officer Childers returns from setting up the crime scenes and puts us into three groups – Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. Each group has a different crime scene that they have to solve based on all the evidence they have and the crime report explaining what happened.
I was group Charlie and we had a scene that looked like a male overdosed on antidepressants, or that was at least our conclusion.
Everyone came together to show the pictures from the different scenes and to tell what we thought happened. Officer Childers explained what we might have done wrong or overlooked. For example, if someone in your group is in one of the photos taken at the crime scene, that person is going to have to explain why he/she are in the photo and what they were doing there. That photo could jeopardize the entire investigation.
Being our first time as crime scene investigators, I thought we did an awesome job.
Officer Childers wraps up the investigation telling each group what was the cause of death.
My group was completely off. The male who died had actually had a heart attack and hit his head on the table, which killed him. We learned not go into a crime scene and already know everything, that's the whole point.
Everyone had gotten to know one another and we all get along. It's the perfect combination of people and I am excited to get to know all the other teens.
Today was so much fun and I am so ready for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we will be documenting the scene and collecting the evidence.