A Fowl Mystery

Fall was in the air for the AITE forensic science team. The crisp leaves, cold air, and murder…

It started off as a normal day for everyone at the school, but at 10:32 AM on October 19th, the team got a call that five corpses had been found on the soccer field. The forensic scientists quickly set up and marked off their crime scene zones and were off to work.

There are numerous jobs that were distributed among the teams while the evidence is being collected for analysis. There is the team leader who is in charge of one of the sections of the crime scene. The team leader is involved in the first walk-through of the crime scene, and makes sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to.

Then there is the sketcher, who is supposed to draw out pieces of evidence and the crime scene for further analysis of the evidence. The photographer also documents the evidence but does it by taking pictures. Finally there are the evidence collectors who are in charge of finding, marking, recording and collecting all of the evidence in the crime scenes. They also have to make sure that no evidence is stolen or false evidence is placed in the crime scene.

While questioning the members of the forensic team, our press team was not able to get the scientists to say who the suspects might be. They could not say who because of two reasons: one is that they are not allowed to tell us, and the second is that it is just too early on in the investigation to make any judgments, such as who may have been the murderer.

The major pieces of evidence that were found that day: a few gun cartridges, a knife and a “hate note” against chickens, The AITE Journalists arrived at around 10:45 in the morning. There were two roped off sections that the press was allowed to stand in. Later on in the day, a reporter from the Stamford Advocate arrived and started to ask questions while her photographer was taking pictures.

After a good deal of questioning Ms. White, the forensic leader, the Advocate reporter turned to the AITE press and asked us some questions, then she questioned the forensic scientists. By the time she had finished questioning everyone, the newspaper staff was also done with questioning those involved. All of the AITE press went back to second wave lunch, and continued with a normal day.

The next day, which started out as casually as any other, was soon turned into another crime scene. Around 9:30 AM, the forensic science team received another call. Two more corpses had been found on the field in similar locations to the first five that were found the day before. At the time, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Mr. Gross would say about these new murders.

The day before, he had visited the crime scene and I quickly went over to him to ask how he felt about an event such as this taking place. He said, “I am in awe that such a terrible and gruesome event has occurred on my school’s property. I am sure that the forensic teams are doing everything that they can to find who has committed such a terrible crime.”

Once we were on the field, everyone on the newspaper team started asking one of the teams many questions right away. The information that we were told was very insightful for the investigation. We were told that both of the chickens had been decapitated and were found with stab wounds all over their bodies. No evidence had been found that had shown the use of firearms.

A lot of the traits of this murder had been similar to the day before. Ms. White brought up that point as I was talking to her. She felt that the press coverage of the event the previous day had been great…to an extent.

The journalist published a lot of the information about how the murder had taken place which might have led to a “copy cat crime.” Ms. White explained to me that a copy cat crime is when someone who was not involved in a murder hears about it on the news. This person tries to copy that murder so that the forensic teams will think that it was the same person as the previous murderer.

Evidence that was found that day proved to be very helpful. The evidence that was collected included a tie, a spoon, a plate and a foot print. The foot print will help the team a great deal because it will allow the team to narrow down the suspects because everyone’s foot is different. Another major clue is that there were flies on the chickens’ bodies.

Ms. White’s last words following the first day’s murder investigation were, “Please keep your chickens safe.” After the second murder she said she felt that no one listened to her, which could have been the cause for the two new murders. Before the press left, she also said that “there is no such thing as a perfect crime”, which is why the team of scientists at the school will be able to find the criminal behind these mischievous murders. Until then, remember that you should keep your chickens safe, and don’t try to kill any chickens because the world does not need another terrible, dreadful, and fowl mystery…