By Meghan Holmberg
A party scene throbs with music and the movement of a crowded room. The atmosphere is hazy, intensifying a sense of foreboding and mystery. Then, a scuffle or a scream and the discovery of a dead body. Enter the crime scene investigators to narrow the list of suspects, collect and process DNA, and solve the crime, all within an hour block on Thursday nights.
Meanwhile, in the real world, forensic scientists see their job in a different light, outside the shine of Hollywood.
'Most forensic scientists are not sworn officers who carry a gun. We certainly do not drive Hummers and work in fantastic facilities,' said Tim Kupferschmid, forensics laboratory director at Sorenson Forensics, a DNA testing facility in Salt Lake City that tests for cases across the country.
While the entertainment industry may skew the perception of the profession, results are real and help in the identification of criminals. In November, Sorensen Forensics helped crack the three-decades-old cold case for the murder of BYU student Barbara Jean Rocky. Sorenson also helped bring arrests in four other cold cases in 2007, media outlets reported.
'I derive a large amount of satisfaction knowing that I helped victims and victims' families put their nightmare behind them and making society a tiny bit safer for the rest of us,' Kupferschmid said.
The term 'CSI effect' is a used to describe the unrealistic expectations popular entertainment has placed on the field of forensics. Although it has a negative connotation, Kupferschmid said it has helped the profession by getting more students interested.
'If you have a natural science degree and a real interest in helping society, then this may be a career for you,' he said.
Suzanne Miles, senior forensic scientist for the Utah State Crime Lab, calls TV shows like 'CSI,' 'more or less science fiction.' Instrumentation and time is portrayed inaccurately or unrealistically, she said. As a result of the CSI effect, prosecutors ask the state crime lab to process a lot more DNA even though it is unnecessary, Miles said.
The state crime lab analyzes evidence for all law enforcement agencies across the state, using forensic biology and chemistry in its analyses. In covering such a wide area, the serology and DNA section of the lab must focus its caseload on violent crimes such as homicides, sexual assaults and aggravated assaults, although the serology department does take some burglary and robbery cases. Although on TV analysts seem to get immediate results, in real-time scientists also have a quick turnaround, averaging about two days to get results on a serology case, and about seven days for DNA results, Miles said.
Through serology, the study and identification of bodily fluids, a trace of blood, semen, saliva or hair can identify a criminal. In a case that happened in Spanish Fork, a small bloodstain led to the conviction of Robert Steven Hatch in the 2002 murder of his estranged wife, Sheree. Hatch shot her to death and was later found miles away with no traces of blood on him, having already changed all his clothes, except his socks. The bloodstain found on his sock matched his wife's DNA, Miles said.
In cold cases, evidence collection at the time of the crime is key in cracking the case later. In the Rocky case, a piece of skin or nail collected in a soil sample at the scene of the crime helped identify her murderer, more than 33 years later, according to a police affidavit. Samples from old cases are 'often just waiting for technology to catch up,' Miles said.
'For some of these cold cases that bring up, I'm amazed at how much evidence they collected then, even though they knew they wouldn't be able to do testing right then,' she said.
Sgt. Dave Broadhead, supervisor of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Crime Scene Unit, sees the capabilities provided by technology.
'As the world changes and we get new technology, it seems to affect just about every profession,' he said.
Broadhead has also experienced the CSI effect in his area of work, saying that people expect investigators to put fingerprint powder anywhere and get a result. In reality, tools enhance the likelihood of discoveries, but success also depends on the circumstances, including the type of surface they are testing, he said.
Although traditional methods continue and technicians must do the tedious task of swabbing crime scenes, new developments also enable police to find blood evidence more readily. Investigators can find blood even if it has been washed out, Broadhead said.
'It's an ever-changing field, and you have to stay up to date with the latest training in order to know what the new trends are that, in most cases, make the job easier and your success rate higher,' he said.
In 1985, DNA testing became a reality. Testing works by scanning 13 DNA regions that differs from person to person. Using this information, scientists can create a DNA profile or fingerprint, with an 'extremely small chance' that any two people have the same profile, according to the Human Genome Project Web site.
All evidence works together to make a stronger case, said Daniel Drell from the U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Project on the site. DNA works in the same way by looking for matches at different locations on a person's chromosomes.
'One or two aren't enough to be confident that the suspect is the right one but ... a match at all five is rare enough that you can be very confident that the right person is accused,' Drell said.