Media Advisory

Crime Investigators to Receive Training at Campus Workshop

Media Contact:
Dr. Ann Ross, 919/515-9021
Chad Austin, News Services, 919/515-3470

May 18, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Law enforcement officers from around the region are coming to North Carolina State University next week to help crack the cases of several fictitious murders as part of a crime scene investigation workshop.

“Discovery and Recovery: Death Investigation in Natural Environments,” being held May 21-25 at NC State, will help law enforcement officers hone their crime scene investigation skills through a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on field exercises. The workshop features classroom lectures and presentations each morning at NC State’s College of Textiles, followed by field exercises in the afternoon at NC State’s Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratories. During the field exercises, participants will collect, exhume, process and analyze insect, plant and bone evidence from mock crime scenes.

Media wishing to hone their skills in covering crime scenes are invited to do so on Tuesday, May 22, Wednesday, May 23, or Thursday, May 24. Lectures will be held each morning from 8:30 to 11 a.m. in Room 2207 at NC State’s College of Textiles on Centennial Campus. Field exercises will take place from approximately 1:30 to 6 p.m. at the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratories. Media wishing to cover the workshop are asked to contact Chad Austin in the NC State News Services office at 919/515-3470.

The workshop is sponsored by the North Carolina Program for Forensic Sciences, a unique collaborative effort established in 2004 by NC State University and state agencies, including the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the N.C. Department of Justice, the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the N.C. Justice Academy. Dr. Billy Oliver, an N.C. Department of Cultural Resources archaeologist and NC State adjunct assistant professor, and Dr. Ann Ross, assistant professor of anthropology at NC State, serve as co-directors of the forensic sciences program and are coordinating the workshop.

Oliver and Ross will be joined at the workshop by Dr. Jason Byrd, a forensic entomologist in the Hume Honors College at the University of Florida; Dr. David Hinks, associate professor of textiles at NC State; and Dr. Wes Watson, associate professor of entomology at NC State.

- austin -