Documenting the Crime Scene with A Sketch

by Andrea Campbell

After the first responder cordons off and protects a crime scene, the next step is a documentation of record that lays out the room and the evidence. Reports can be made in many different manners; for example, an investigator can record audio of the scene, take extensive notes, shoot photos or video, and map out the scene. 

Today we are going to talk about sketching.

Investigators need to document all observations of the scene. A sketch will help them to recall locale and evidence. They may make a rather informal first sketch, using any drawing tools, such as pencils, pens, even colored pencils. It probably won’t help to use chalk or charcoal because they smudge unless preserved with a setting spray. This is not a good idea at the scene, since other elements may be sprayed there.

Sketch after the scene has been photographed. This ensures nothing has been moved, kicked or otherwise disturbed. While a “rough” sketch will be difficult for some budding artists, rough is all you need in the beginning. If it's used in a court of law, it can be cleaned up. So go with messy and crude but accurate.

Sketches help clarify what is where in a photograph. A sketch may offer a different perspective, such as a top-down bird's-eye view, an elevation or side view, or a three-dimensional view. Oftentimes an exploded or larger view can accompany any perspective; this view may be a close-up or cross-sectional view of the scene.

What should you document? The physical artifacts, such as furniture, tables, lamps, and so forth, similar to a blueprint; the precise location of weapons, evidence, and the body; even a traffic pattern. Investigators may use this documentation to help with interviews, jog someone’s memory, establish a permanent record of the scene or location, and assist when writing a report. In jury trials, sketches can help answer various questions and aid witnesses, lawyers and judges. If the perpetrator or suspect visited several areas of the house, for example, going from bedroom to bathroom or into the kitchen, the sketch will help to recreate the series of events. With accident scenes, sketches may display distances for a better understanding of the sequence of events. 

*Note: Don’t forget to reference on your crime scene drawing where you were standing.

A final sketch can be made using templates or a computer. It should indicate distances; most art uses a scale of one inch to one foot to ease understanding. The sketch needs a label of the crime, such as Private Residence and Homicide. It needs the name of victim,  location, date and time, case number assigned, and the initials or name of the person who drew it. As with any good map, include a legend so the reader can learn some facts without having to ask. Besides the scale, indicate direction if possible -- north, south, east, west. Try to indicate which way doors open, potentially important elements later on. If you use symbols to represent something, such as a square for a seat or a triangle for an end table, make that known. You may code key elements with the alphabet for clarity. Itemize specific evidence, artifacts and elements. The couch might be where the body was found, making it item “A” or, in a numbered system, “1”. Don’t include clutter that's not relevant. A pile of clothes may not mean anything -- unless it has blood on it. Label a table of measurements with the disclaimer “All measurements are approximate.”

Remember that a bird’s-eye view won’t show the height of items at the scene. If the gun was on top of a cabinet, only an elevation view with measurements will indicate that. A 3-D crime scene is usually the function of a computer rendering, created by a software program.

If the distance markers were established or made by someone else, make note of that for credibility. It's better to anticipate a question than try to answer one if you get blindsided in court.

The National Crime and Investigation Training website has an example of a sketch. See: http://www.ncit.com/Tips Tricks/Sketching/sketching.html

The Crime Scene Sketch has a pdf file of key facts to remember along with tips. (Search Crime Scene Sketch):
http://www.bcps.org/offices/science/secondary/forensic/Crimescene%20Sketch.pdf

Another extremely detailed pdf file, complete with CAD drawing examples and notes on triangulation of measurements, can be picked up here:

http://www.authentegrity.com/download/CrimeScene Diagramming.pdf

One particularly delightful website, created by retired forensic investigator Thomas F. Hanratty, includes crime scene sketches from all Sherlock Holmes cases.

See: http://redbirdstudio.com/CrimeScenes/

An absolutely beautiful rendition, including some top-notch software examples, can be found at: http://www.doj.state.wi.us/dles/crimelabs/physicalEvidenceHB/Ch4_CrimeSceneSketch.pdf

A commercial site that sells the Smart Draw program: http://www.smartdraw.com/resources/how-to/Crime-Scene-Diagrams

An Unwritten Law

by Laura James
 
Love triangles turned deadly have been around longer than David and Bathsheba and Uriah, and you know the ending of that story (unless you skipped your true crime lessons from Sunday School). In Michigan in the mid-1950s, the last chapter of a classic love triangle was written in a courthouse, as they so often are these days. 

But this case was so sensational that the story achieved national prominence. Thousands of articles delved into the details of the tawdry affair; the press of the crowd seeking admittance at the trial shattered two glass doors to the courtroom. The verdict was a shock only to those who believe in strictly codifying human behavior. 

The matter aroused so much interest because the participants were all very beautiful and very wealthy but had the habits and bad taste of the lowest sorts. So many people were touched by this not-all-that-long-ago love disaster that it seems appropriate to change the names. There’s no other mention of the case on the internet. 

So meet “Madame Bovary.” Let’s call her Emma. The press will call her “an oval-faced brunette.” In 1944, she was caught in a whirlwind romance in Ann Arbor, falling in love with Kevin, a dental school student, on the eve of his graduation from the University of Michigan. He was six feet tall, dark-haired, and very handsome. They married soon thereafter, and he joined the Navy. She became a loyal military wife, and they had three sons together.

After his military service honorably ended, Kevin settled his family in Detroit near Emma’s parents, who loved them both and lavished them with thousands of dollars, setting up Kevin’s dental practice and buying them a mansion. They had servants and a nurse to care for the boys. Imagine Emma as Mrs. Cleaver, in dress, heels, and pearls, but without the vacuum cleaner.

It was then that Emma grew restless and dissatisfied with her husband. She would later describe the eighth and ninth year of their marriage as a “clash of ideologies.” She wanted Kevin to be a “bigger man,” but his main interests seemed to lie only in his home, his family, and his work. “It isn’t anything tangible and it’s hard to explain,” she would say about her curious abstractions. “Kevin never gave me credit for decisions, and we had a lot of arguments. I never cared for money as money. I felt it was to be used for the things one wanted. For instance, if I wanted a stick of bubble gum and it made me happy, it should make him happy too.” 

Then Emma’s father died, and she inherited a large amount of money. She took to vacationing without her husband and hanging out with divorcees, and sooner rather than later she met Jack, a wealthy industrialist and New York playboy who hung out at the “21 Club” when he was in town and jet-setted across the country. Emma was introduced to him in Florida, and they had three unforgettable dates. On the night she returned to Detroit, Emma told Kevin she wanted a divorce.

The news transformed Kevin in an instant. He turned to drink for the first time in his life and became alternately abusive and pathetic. He hit her once. He threatened suicide. There were scenes featuring a brandished pistol. He pleaded with her. “Even a dog is entitled to another chance,” he told her. But she locked him out of the bedroom. Kevin threatened to knock it down. She called the police from the bedroom phone. 

A few days later, she left for New York to be with Jack. When her husband begged for their marriage, she told him to see a psychiatrist. “He told me I should see one,” she said, “that it was I who was all mixed up.” Meanwhile, Kevin moved to a hotel and immersed himself in self-help books like Wake Up And Live.

After Emma filed for divorce, she had a rendezvous with Jack several hours from Detroit in a summer house in Douglas, Michigan. It was no cottage -- there were servants and gardeners and a stunning view of Lake Michigan sunsets. But Emma began to miss her children, or so she said. She phoned home. Kevin happened to answer. An argument followed – “I thought you were in Chicago!” was in the earful Kevin gave her. 

The next thing she knew – as she sat on a couch in the summer home, reading a magazine, the lake’s swells singing in the background -- she heard her husband’s voice at the front door, followed by pistol shots. Kevin had tracked them down and promptly shot Jack twice in the chest. 

Kevin was imprisoned in the Allegan County jail and put on trial two months later. The case was an exercise in histrionics. Emma bolted from the room several times while others were testifying. Kevin’s father collapsed and had to be carried out. The judge had to hand out tickets in advance after the crowd smashed the glass doors. Journalists came from hundreds of miles around for this one, and each witness was a spectacle. 

Kevin’s money bought a good defense – he argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity. Three psychiatrists testified that he was “definitely insane,” in a “post-psychotic stage,’ at the time he killed Jack. The murder was the result of extraordinary events, one expert said; “it’s like striking a match – once you strike it, you don’t strike it again.” 

Kevin himself was on the witness stand for less than ten minutes. “I can’t say what I did. I can’t say what I did. I don’t know.” 

When the jury retired to deliberate, Kevin spent the night in his jail cell, praying with his cell mate, rereading the many letters sent to him, the only lights he had in the nightmare. Then in the wee hours of Saturday came word that the verdict had been reached. The jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity. 

At once, the flash bulbs started popping off, and the expression they caught on Kevin’s face is pure relief. His last words in the courthouse: “I never knew people could be so nice.” 

Kevin spent three months at Michigan’s Hospital for the Criminally Insane before the pretense was dropped and he was released. Emma divorced him – he didn’t contest it – and their real names are now quite forgotten. 

The legal lesson remains -- statutory prohibitions on murder are sometimes trumped by an older, unwritten law.