By Jill Gosche
Staff Writer
jgosche@advertiser-tribune.com
Article Photos
PHOTO BY JILL GOSCHE
Tiffin University students participate in a measurement activity at a mock crime scene on campus Thursday morning.
Two victims were on the ground, bullet casings were scattered around the yard, guns were nearby and yellow tape was stretched across the scene.
It was another day in the life of Tiffin University students learning about various situations within the criminal justice field.
Don Joseph, an adjunct professor of criminal justice and a sergeant at Seneca County Sheriff's Office, and Scott Blough, assistant professor of criminal justice and security studies, led students in a criminal investigations class through an exercise in drawing sketches of the mock crime scene Thursday morning.
"Now they're actually putting practice to the theory. ... (The goal) is to give them some real experience and to have them turn in a crime scene sketch," Joseph said.
Students took measurements of the crime scene and made rough sketches while participating in the activity, and they were to draw nicer sketches later.
"They'll list out the measurements," said Joseph, a detective.
Also Thursday morning, TU students in an evidence processing class taught by Michael Lewis, assistant professor of criminal justice and national security, visited John's Welding & Towing to learn how to process a vehicle involved in a crime or accident.
The activity involved students dividing into teams to inspect a previously wrecked green four-door Saturn. The car had mud on its tires, deployed airbags, scratches and a bent rim.
Students could examine the car, do blood analysis and scrape some of the paint.
"I have some fake blood in there," Lewis said.
Lewis, a retired police officer, said people assume the car had been involved in a crash but questioned whether there was more to the story. There are a lot of variables if there is no body or if there is no one to talk to, he said.
"Sometimes, things aren't always as they appear," he said.
Lewis told students a vehicle is mobile, and investigators need to see how it ended up at its current location.
"We have to look beyond where this is at," he said.
