Full Tilt

40

Saint Paul, Minnesota

The state’s main crime lab was housed in the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s headquarters, a three-story brick-and-glass building on Maryland Avenue. Displayed in the atrium was a large steel-and-stained-glass sculpture known as “Exquisite Corpse.”

Staci Anderson considered the eye-catching artwork a beautiful metaphor for uniting the crime-solving work done in the complex. She drew heavily on its inspiration today as she worked, for she was feeling the pressure of this new case on all fronts.

It had been twenty-four hours since her crime scene team had returned from the grisly homicide in Lost River State Forest. Today she’d learned that it had been given priority status. The BCA state lab also functioned as one of the FBI’s regional mitochondrial DNA labs and Anderson was told there was a “federal push” to expedite the case, given its ritualistic nature.

The lab was already grappling with a backlog, but the team set aside all other ongoing work to undertake analysis of the evidence they’d collected at Lost River.

Anderson’s husband, an engineering contractor, was not pleased when she’d called him to say she’d miss dinner and would be late getting home. Again.

“It means you have to take Chloe to the mall tonight to get a birthday present for her friend’s party tomorrow,” she told him.

“Me? But I’m meeting the guys to watch the game at Stan’s tonight.”

“I’m sorry. See if Taylor can sit when you get back from the mall, then catch up with the guys.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. You’re putting in a lot of OT these days.”

It was true.

But when she measured her personal guilt against the agony of the victims and their families, it was easy to concentrate on her job. She was good at it and was often called upon to coordinate investigations.

Anderson held a master’s degree in microbiology from the University of Illinois and degrees in science and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin. She was one of the section’s strongest scientists when it came to presenting court testimony and was being considered for a senior supervisory post.

Today she’d been working steadily at her station on the hair sample taken from the victim’s scalp, which included the root. With the first level, microscopic examination, she was studying shaft characteristics, scale patterns, color, length and many other aspects before extracting the DNA, which could conclusively prove identity.

DNA analysis involved many time-consuming steps.

Extraction usually took a day. Then there was quantitation and amplification, usually another day. They were followed by an instrument run that could take half a day. The procedure then called for a rigorous cover-to-cover review of her work by another section scientist, which could take up to a week. Once that was completed the results could be submitted for comparison to state and federal databases like the FBI’s CODIS databank, a variety of state and national missing persons networks, and new systems holding the DNA of victims of major crimes.

After working for several hours amid the white countertops and neat array of equipment, Anderson collected her tablet and left her station. She needed to check the status of work under way by scientists in other sections who were examining items from Lost River.

Glancing at her screen, Anderson continually insured that the team had taken care with the proper collection and disposition of the evidence. Each piece had been stored separately in proper containers, marked with its position, location, description and the name of the analyst responsible for it. Anderson checked that each item had been photographed before it was removed from the scene.

Janice Foley, expert in biological fluids, was handling what they believed to be blood. She’d scraped some dried traces. Where she couldn’t scrape, she’d moistened a gauze pad with distilled water. Foley was also analyzing a discarded fast-food take-out cup and straw for traces of saliva. She didn’t find much else at the scene in the way of substances.

“We didn’t find any indication of urine, feces or vomit,” Foley said.

“Yes, we’ve noted that.”

“I’ve got no semen traces near the body or at the scene.”

“Okay.” Anderson made a note on her tablet. “We’ll send a reminder to the ME in Ramsey to take a vaginal swab while he’s conducting the autopsy. I know they know, but it’s our job. Keep me posted, Janice.”

Anderson moved on to Heather Wick, who was responsible for trace evidence. Wick was studying the fibers, fabric and additional hair she’d collected at the scene near the impressions.

“I’ve got some hemp, some cotton, nylon polyester, chips of treated wood.” Wick was bent over her microscope. “And I’m looking at thread counts and fiber twists before I can be conclusive.”

“When will you have that additional hair ready for me?”

“Shouldn’t be much longer, then you can start extracting.”

“Sounds good, Heather, thanks.”

Travis Shaw was one of the country’s best analysts when it came to tracks and footprints. Tire impressions filled his large computer monitor when Anderson approached him for an update. Head nodding to the music flowing through his earbuds, he was the youngest scientist on the team. Anderson tapped his shoulder and he tugged at his plugs, music ticking from them after they’d fallen to his shoulders.

“What about the tripod theory, Trav?”

“I agree one hundred percent. The impressions and the positioning with the buried body are consistent with recording, photographs, video or both.”

“But?”

“As we’ve said, this is bird-watching country. A birder could’ve set up there. Still, soil conditions match what we’ve got on the foot and tire impressions. Take a look.”

Shaw clicked on an array of enlarged tire tracks in the dirt.

“I got great images and casts of everything. I’m still analyzing the tire impressions, but we’ve ruled out police or park vehicles. I’m confident, given the conditions of the soil that captured the impressions and the soil that entombed the victim, these impressions are from our suspect vehicle. You know, weather wear, timing, all concern the same time period.”

“Good.”

“As with my earlier analysis, again, given soil depth, estimated vehicle weight and tread, we’re looking for a heavy-duty pickup, utility or a van, as the suspect’s vehicle. I’ve still got work to do on damage, wear, then I’ll start going through the directories to confirm tire type and model.”

“Okay.”

Shaw clicked on images of foot and shoe impressions. “Like with the tires, I ruled out all other potential shoe impressions-our witnesses, the first responding officers.”

“Good.”

“Got some awesome ones here. The soil was very moldable-it worked to our advantage.”

“I see that.”

“The victim was buried without shoes, so these are her foot impressions. Now here-” he clicked “-it looks like a male size-twelve boot. I’m still working on it. And here, another set of smaller impressions from footwear from a female. Again, in both cases, I still have to study characteristic properties, tread wear and look for shoe type and model.”

“What do you think?”

“My preliminary take? I think there were three people at this crime scene. Two women and one man.”

“And if we only have one victim that means two people connected to this woman’s murder are still at large, and I don’t know if anyone’s stated the obvious.”

“What’s that?”

“This is one of the most horrific scenes we’ve ever had.”