The mock murder was part of the CSI Investigators Kids College class, for seventh and eighth graders, taught by the college's anthropology instructor Jeff Schiel. A similar class was offered last week for students in fourth through sixth grade.
During the hands-on class, which started Monday and ended Wednesday, students learned all about crime scene investigation and forensic anthropology.
Students spent the first day learning about forensic anthropologists and how they identify individuals by age and sex and estimating ancestry and time of death.
On the second day, a crime scene was staged in the courtyard of E.S. French Hall. When students went to the scene to investigate, they found the bodies of two women, mannequin dolls, who had been shot and stabbed.
After a thorough search of the scene, they found a knife, guns, a white powder, money and a bottle with blood on it. After taking blood swabs and searching for fingerprints, they determined the DNA from one of the victims was on the knife, along with fingerprints belonging to one of the three suspects; the guns matched those used to shoot the victims; the powder was salt; and the bottle had blood matching another one of the suspects.
On the final day of the class, the students used the evidence they had gathered to participate in a mock trial that included prosecutors, defense attorneys, a judge and jury.
Shouts of "objection" and "silence in the court" were heard numerous times.
During the trial, prosecutors and the defense took turns questioning crime scene investigators about what they found. They also questioned each of the suspects about where they were at the time of the crime, their bad habits and why they couldn't have committed the crime.
Then it was up to the jury to come up with a verdict.
This was the final class for the 2013 Kids College line up. Kids College is put on by the college's Extended Studies Department. To find out about the department's future class offerings, for both adults and children, call (970) 521-6900.>
Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; email@example.com. Follow @cjones_JA on Twitter.