VIDEO: Crime-scene science gets real in the classroom

It’s not every instructor who grades you on your understanding of blood spatters.

But Sarah Bailey is not every instructor.

First off, she’s a Metropolitan State University of Denver alumna, which makes her special. But beyond that, she’s a veteran crime-scene investigator with more than a decade’s experience with the Aurora Police Department.

Now, she’s passing on her knowledge to current MSU Denver Criminalistics students. “I’m really fortunate to be back,” she said recently. “I wanted to give back to the program that shaped my career.”

When Bailey was a Chemistry major at MSU Denver, she took several Criminalistics classes and had “great mentors” who helped her get an internship at APD.

Bailey now is shaping careers for students such as Biology major Elizabeth Velazquez-Jacquez and Timothy Ball, a Criminal Justice and Criminology major. Both are pursuing a minor in Criminalistics, with an eye toward crime-scene-investigation work.

Along the way, they learn techniques for developing fingerprints, examining physical evidence and, yes, analyzing blood spatters.

Equally important, students learn to think. “When we first arrive on a scene, we’re told initially what is thought to have happened,” Bailey said. “But it’s a huge mistake to take that as gospel. We need to take in that information ourselves, walk the scene ourselves and go through all the possibilities.”

That kind of real-world insight gives Bailey’s students an education that is more than what’s in textbooks. “My goal in teaching is to bridge the gap between what students are learning in academics and giving them my actual experience as a CSI,” she said. “I’m giving them lots of hands-on experience that is true to the field.”

Ball and Velazquez-Jacquez are excited about that field. “My dream job is working for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation or the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a CSI,” Ball said.

Velazquez-Jacquez hopes for a job working with DNA. “It’s very interesting to learn all the new technology,” she said. “… And it’s only going to get more and more advanced as we go. So it’s like I’m learning every day.”

Not surprisingly, both students cut their crime-scene teeth on such shows as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Forensic Files.” Both quickly learned that real-life investigations are far different. Real crimes, for example, aren’t solved instantly. And, Velasquez-Jacquez said, “They don’t talk about the hard parts, like seeing the scene yourself and having to deal with that.”

Ball said he thinks he’s ready for those difficult aspects. “I think I’ll be good at managing scenes, whether they’re disturbing or not, because I’m there to do a job and find out what happened to this person so I can give their family or these victims closure,” he said.

Learn more about Chemistry and Biochemistry and Criminalistics at MSU Denver.

Learn more about Criminal Justice and Criminology at MSU Denver.