With a Little Help From My Friends...

Whenever we hold interviews for a new Crime Scene Investigator, I'm always interested in how well the candidates can think outside the box. We all get a lot of training in how to handle most circumstances, but what about the rest of the circumstances? A good investigator can tell you the best way to apply the training but a great investigator can find a way to do something for which there has been no training. Some things in this line of work are just so freakish that you have to create your own method to get the job done. The first thing I try to do in this situation is to find someone else who has done something similar, but for a completely different purpose. For instance...

My agency recently got new information on an old homicide that was never solved and the murder weapon had never been recovered. (I must be vague about the details since it has not gone to trial yet). The information proved to be accurate and we made several arrests. We also recovered the weapon. The problem is, it had been laying in a marsh for years and was severely corroded. As I photographed it, my mind raced back to episodes of Jacques Cousteau and how ancient metal disintegrates as soon as you remove it from salt water. I had never been trained for this specific instance nor had anyone in my office or surrounding agencies. As usual, I made it up as I went along. I 'borrowed' my friend's plastic tote box and filled it with water from the marsh and then placed the item in the water.

After getting it back to my office, I realized I needed help. I wondered who would know anything about processing metal objects that had been in salt water for years. The scientists who are working on the Hunley do exactly that kind of thing but with a different purpose. It sounded like a good place to start so I looked them up on the internet, sent them an e-mail, and got a response back in less than 8 hours. They have been assisting me with this project ever since and have also put me in touch with other experts who have volunteered their time. As it turns out, not only have I found a way to preserve the evidence from this homicide, but I stand a very good chance of recovering trace evidence from the weapon that can give me that final little piece of evidence that makes this a slam-dunk case.

Thank you to all of my friends on the Hunley project - or Team Hunley as I call them. I would like to thank them individually, but several of them have asked to not be named - they prefer to stick to the science rather than the publicity.