LEHMAN TWP. — The first thing Eric Williams saw was the blood on the floor. And the bloody shoeprint.
“Then I looked at the ceiling and saw the scuff mark,” said the student at Penn State’s Wilkes-Barre campus. “I figured that was there from before. But then, I saw the red by the light and figured it was blood spatter.”
Blood isn’t something the Laflin senior, studying surveying engineering, usually encounters in class. But this class is FRNAR 100, forensic photography. And the March 18 session was a lens-on workshop in what a photographer looks for at a crime scene.
The class, with instructor Jonathan Pineno, is one of the art department’s photography classes that is teaming up with the university’s Administration of Justice program. It is the first class of its kind in the entire Penn State system, said Marshall Davis, coordinator of the AOJ program at the Lehman campus.
The class got help from the Wyoming Barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police, including three troopers well-trained and experienced in crime scene investigations.
Trooper Peter Smith took the lead, showing the class how to work from shots of the overall scene to getting documented close-ups of details, all designed to help investigators gather evidence at a crime scene.
Monday’s crime scene was based on a fictional scenario about a loud disturbance with gunshots in the modular building on the campus. The students were treated to a table with cards and poker chips, the remnants of a party – bowls of snacks, alcohol bottles, drugs. One of the chairs was overturned. Near the blood on the floor was a pair of bloody scissors and a bloody trail led to the door. In one corner, there was a desk with a computer. The room reeked of cigar smoke.
“Keep your mind open,” Smith said. “Don’t get tunnel vision and concentrate on just particular items; look at the whole picture. You’re trying to put together a story of what happened.”
He encouraged the students to “take pictures of everything.”
“More is better than less,” he said. “Some little thing might not mean anything right now, but it could be a detail that is important later.”
Smith offered common-sense tips on approaching a crime scene and how to maneuver in the area to protect the evidence. He talked about communication with everyone involved in an investigation. He advised to not rush but take the time to be thorough. And he explained some of the legal issues that come into play with search warrants.
“And remember that every case is different, even if it is similar to something you’ve seen before,” said Trooper Deanna Pekanski, communications officer for the Wyoming Barracks. “You never assume anything.”
To complete the session, Trooper Rich Rachkowski, who specializes in accident reconstruction, demonstrated how to map out a crime scene to put together the “whole picture” of the incident.
When the experts finished the explanations and demonstrations, the 19 students in Pineno’s photography class swarmed around the mock crime scene, cameras in hand, and looked for clues in the case.
Pineno said Monday’s class session was a chance for the students to try their hands at gathering evidence. They would return Wednesday to gather more evidence in the room, looking in drawers and other possible hiding places for more clues in the case. On Friday, they’d finish out the week by comparing photos and discussing what they’d learned. For homework, they’ll write about the experience.
Just about every person in the class noticed something different, like a matchbook on the table or the James Patterson novel on the table near the sofa or the computer’s missing hard drive.
And just about every student had a different reason for taking the class. Williams, the surveyor, took a previous photography class because he wanted to become good at working a camera, something that will be valuable in his future career.
“And I decided to take this class because it focuses on details, looking pretty hard at what’s in front of you,” he said.
Morgan Weaver, of Harveys Lake, has plans to major in Administration of Justice because there are several state troopers in her family. And New York City native Vyron Barriera is about to get an associate degree from the Penn State campus but is also considering a career in criminal justice.
And others, like Addy Glinski, of Laporte, are gathering credits.
“I am a transfer student,” she said. “I technically have enough credits to be a junior. And I took this because I needed an art class.”
Every one of those students, however, will have a chance to try something new, Pineno said.
“It’s a chance to try something different, learn about something they probably haven’t encountered before,” he said. “And, perhaps, some of them might discover something they want to study more.”