By Derrick Forsythe, Record Staff WriterNo minor detail was going to get past Maddie Garrison as she drilled her class’s guest speakers with her curious queries.The Human Body Systems class at Warrenton High School hosted a pair of local detectives last Friday as part of their study on forensics and DNA.Rich Black and Brandon Weber, of the Warrenton Police Department, spoke to students in two separate classes about how they process crime scenes.“What we recently covered was identity,” said Jenny Hoffmann, instructor of the school’s Project Lead the Way courses. “With having the detectives come in, they were able to expose us to a career related to identity and how they use DNA in the crime-solving process.”The students recently conducted a lab called “Bone Detectives,” in which they were given artificial skeletal remains and had to identify the victim by age, race and gender.“The students broke into groups and had to create, package and sell a method of identifying people,” Hoffmann explained.Those packets were presented to the detectives on Thursday for evaluation.Black and Weber demonstrated the fingerprinting process for students and also explained how shoe wear patterns can be used to link persons of interest to a crime.“I thought the shoe (wear patterns) were kind of cool,” said junior Abigail Fahland. “You don’t really think about how you wear your shoes, and I’m on my heels a lot. Knowing they can link you to a crime just by the way you wear your shoe was kind of interesting.”The detectives used a real-life case scenario of how DNA evidence and other small clues were used to link a repeat offender back to the crime scene following a robbery of a Warrenton business.Garrison, a junior, is in the Warrenton Police Explorers program and intends to pursue a career in criminal justice.“It was kind of cool seeing the different tools that they used,” said Garrison. “I also didn’t know that if there’s something they’ve used to solve one crime, they can use it to connect other crimes.”Students also learned how Black and Weber chose their careers and how the students could achieve similar goals. Hoffmann says one of the goals of Project Lead the Way is to offer insight to students on choosing a career.“I’ve also had an interest in the medical field,” said Garrison. “I took the first class of Human Body Systems and decided to do the second this year to get a better understanding.”Both Fahland and Garrison say Project Lead the Way is one of their favorite classes.“It’s a practical class, and you can see this as something you can be doing in 10 years,” said Garrison.They particularly enjoyed the recent forensics studies.“This is probably one of the coolest things we’ve done,” said Fahland.Detectives Brandon Weber, far right, and Rich Black of the Warrenton Police Department, spoke to students in the Human Body Systems class at Warrenton High School on Thursday about how they use DNA to process crime scenes and link potential suspects. Pictured, from left, are students Abigail Fahland, Julia Meury and Maddie Garrison. Derrick Forsythe photo.
