Forensic experts swap tips from the field

"It left a very significant impression on the door. There were very minute characteristics on the outer edge of the skin left on the door," he said.

Just this past August, Grimm helped to positively identify the body of a man who died in a plane crash in 1948. Using special chemicals from George Washington University, Grimm was able to rehydrate the victim's skin and lift prints. The result is believed to be the oldest post-mortem identification in history using fingerprints. Although there have been cases of forensics experts obtaining evidence from people who died much longer ago, such as mummies from Egypt, Grimm said because of fingerprint database systems, this was the first time an individual had been positively identified.

The case was still so new that Grimm could not reveal other details about the incident Tuesday because the victim's next of kin hadn't even been notified yet.

Grimm was recruited by the FBI right out of high school in 1968. Back then, he said, there were hardly any forensic scientists.

"At that time there was a shortage of employees," he said.

One of his first jobs was identifying unknown deceased U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam War, he said.

"When I first started in fingerprints, everything was done manually," he said. "Now in the day of computers we have automated fingerprint systems. A single latent print can be compared in a matter of seconds."

Not only has the technology changed, the field of forensic science has also boomed in popularity because of TV and the movies.

"There was never the interest there is now," he said. "We call it the 'CSI effect."'

Now the workforce has more applicants than positions. But Grimm said it has also provided for a much better pool of talent for law enforcement agencies.

Many of those new forensic scientists get their training at a facility that has received worldwide attention known simply as "The Body Farm."

The Body Farm, or the Anthropology Research Facility of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is an outdoor facility that gives students hands-on training in the study of crime scenes, specifically murders. Real cadavers donated to the school are placed in every imaginable situation in the outdoor training facility.

Law enforcers are taught such things as the different stages of decomposition and how to unearth a body and still preserve it.

Nathan Lefebvre runs the University of Tennessee's National Forensic Academy. He works with The Body Farm, running 10-week courses that train law enforcers from all over the nation. The program has become so popular that the waiting list to get in currently extends into the fall of 2009.

"I loved it. I learned so much. A lot of hands-on actual experience. You learn how to do things and precisely how they need to be done. There's no place in the world like it," Bardole said.

"We take them step-by-step through all the different types of crime scenes," Lefebvre said. "We've burned down a house.... This Friday we're blowing up a car and students will have to work that scene, the type of bomb and origin will have to be determined. It's the only place in the country that provides that type of intense forensic investigation training."

The 10-week course is funded by the Bureau for Justice Assistance, said Lefebvre, who is in Salt Lake City this week for the conference.

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