First Homicide..

A few days ago, was the start of my first official homicide. As horrible of an act as murder is, I was thrilled to be a part of the team that is helping catch the predator. As I was removing the evidence from the box and organizing it, I got frustrated because I couldn’t read the handwriting of the CSI. Sometimes I wish I could collect me own evidence then test it, but I also do not want to have to see the crime scene. It makes it all feel more real which makes it harder to do my job. From what I gathered this case was a suspected murder- suicide through poison but I tried not to think about it and gain any bias. I located the blood and hair samples. I took the blood sample tubes and put them in the Mass Spectrometer.

I then cut one of the hair samples to test the root for drug exposure as well as the physical strand for any trace evidence. I did this for both individuals. Then I used the fume hood and cyanoacrylate on the bottle of cyanide to create a super glue fog that will stick to the oils on the print. Our hope was to find out who poured the cyanide. Before starting up the spectrometer I secured a sample of the champagne to be sure it was contaminated. Once all samples were ready to go, I set up the machine and let it go.  While I was waiting I made sure to record my steps and double check that I followed evidence protocol. It is super important for the chain of evidence to stay intact. It is one of my greatest fears that I will be the cause of a mistrial. That is a heavy burden I wish never to carry.   Luckily that thought was interrupted by the lovely tone of “Spectro”. The hair and soda samples were finished, while the blood still needed time. Blood usually takes longer; it can give a lot of information.  The champagne sample did have high quantity of cyanide, two grams. Now I know that doesn’t seem like a lot in the macro world but that is a lot in the micro world. Both hair samples contained a tiny amount of cyanide, which meant it was not an exposure over time situation. If this happen within a few hours after ingestion it would not have enough time to really show in the hair which would explain why it was not in the hair but in the soda. All I was waiting for was the blood toxicology. My mind was slipping back to my own mental reconstruction of the crime scene when Spectro went off again. I took a deep breath and read the analysis. Again both results were the almost identical. They each had over twice the lethal dose of cyanide. One of the only things that could tell us the final piece of this morbid situation was the prints on the cyanide bottle. After the fumes had died down and the hood cleared, I dusted the bottle and lifted off any print I could find. I located two prints on opposite sides of the body of the bottle. I ran both and they quickly came back as the finger and thumb for the same person, one of our deceased, Malcolm Bridge, an ex-convict who had just gotten out a couple days before the incident. The medical examiner had identified the male after getting his fingerprints in autopsy, along with his longtime girl Wanda Garcia, the victim. It was all in all a straight forward case for my first homicide.

PS:       

   Rumor around the street was that Wanda was working on moving away while Malcolm was locked up but he got out earlier than expected. He surprised Wanda with her favorite bottle of champagne and she couldn’t refuse. It was over after the first sip.. It seems Malcolm found out from someone inside and refused to live without her.