It may not be as glamorous,
but crimes are solved here
By:Donna Lukiw
Monday, Detective Gary Mayer of the Somerset County prosecutor’s office sat in the crime lab off Roycefield Road, surrounded by microscopes, computers and weapons, examining a door catch, trying to figure out what tool the burglar used to break into a house.
While testing out the common tools used during burglaries and robberies, Detective Mayer concluded it was a screwdriver after observing the scratch marks he made on the other door catches that didn’t match.
"The door was broken down and I just narrowed it down to the screwdriver to see how it happened," Detective Mayer said.
Detective Mayer is able to figure out what tools or weapons were used to commit crimes by testing out the different tools on the objects used during the crime.
Detective Mayer, a ballistics and tool mark expert, Detective Sgt. Lee Niles and Detective Sgt. Barry Jansen, both arson experts, solve crimes every day using Somerset County’s state of the art equipment and their trained detective skills. On average, they work about 526 crimes a year.
In the lab, Detective Mayer often uses the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) to determine the "finger prints" unique markings on bullets made by the barrels of guns of bullets fired during the commission of a crime. The search can involve examining hundreds of bullets and casings under a microscope, but can lead to identifying the specific gun and the bullet used to commit the crime.
"We want to know if the gun found in a bush matches the bullets found at the crime scene," Detective Mayer said, offering an example.
The federal government operates the system through the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Unit, and Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said only Essex County, Bergen County, Somerset County and the state police have access to the system in their labs.
Walking into the second crime lab, all the forensic scientists use the automated fingerprint information system (AFIS), a computer system matching fingerprints to a crime scene after using the dusting and lifting method of recovering the latent fingerprints off glass, a piece of evidence or the walls.
Mr. Forrest said there are only about 15 or 20 AFIS systems in New Jersey including the state police and the FBI.
"We’re very fortunate to have this in Somerset County and to be able to afford this," Mr. Forrest said. "Only seven counties, the state police and the FBI have this."
The labs also have equipment to solve murders and find evidence that is hidden or covered up.
For example, when detectives arrived at a murder crime scene a few years ago, they couldn’t see blood or any evidence proving that a murder had occurred in that particular house.
But by using a special ultraviolet light system called Reflected Ultraviolet Imaging System (RUVIS), they could see blood on the walls that had been covered up by fresh paint.
"Sometimes you can’t see these things with the naked eye, only with RUVIS," Detective Jansen said.
RUVIS takes shortwave ultraviolet light and can detect fingerprints, as well as attempts at cleaning blood and other bodily fluids.
The detectives can also use an alternate light source that generates different colors, making bodily fluids, gun residue, altered writings and fingerprints visible.
The special lighting can also be used to solve sex crimes since semen, blood, urine and saliva can be easily detected under certain wavelengths. Investigators finding DNA at a crime scene is sent to either the state police or the FBI for additional testing and identification.
"It’s almost like a magic trick," Mr. Forrest said.
Crimes involving fires are investigated by Sgt. Niles and Sgt. Jansen, who can determine the causes to see if the fire was started accidentally or not.
"Sometimes they think it’s one thing but it turns out to be an arson," Sgt. Niles said.
The crime lab responds to local police requests for help, sending out one of four crime scene vans which are used for specific investigations. The lab has vans specially equipped and ready to investigate fire scenes, motor vehicle accidents, general crimes and underwater searches.
The arson van holds equipment used to solve arson cases including firemen protective gear, while the general crime scene van can process gunshot trajectory and latent fingerprints.
The fatal motor vehicle crash van is filled with tools used to determine causes of accidents like measuring tools for skid marks and a digital mapping system that can mark all relevant points in an accident without hand measuring.
"Everything we do in the lab we can do here," Sgt. Jansen said about the vans.
Sgt. Jansen is also part of the dive team where he might have to fish out evidence or dead bodies while wearing scuba gear and traveling in a police and crime scene boat. The dive rescue team also uses a 3-inch underwater camera with a 1.5-inch lens to either take still photos or use as a video camera.
"We’ve recovered weapons, computers and bodies from the water," Sgt. Jansen said.
The Somerset County Forensic Unit has used its expertise to solve crimes in the county and assist other counties that may not have all the equipment to solve crimes.
"A big component of forensics is training," Mr. Forrest said. "Forensics is always training and it goes all year round."
In the fall, the 11,250-square-foot lab will be renovated, adding a light source room to be used like a photography dark room, a two-story training maze for mock crime scenes and swat team training, a separate victim and suspect evidence rooms to avoid contamination and a vehicle processing bay, a separate room to control the examinations of vehicles that were illegally used.
There are also plans to extend the crime lab from the interior and add a laundry room on the second floor.
The county Forensics Unit is also hoping to install a bar code system to track all the evidence in the lab and maintain office inventory.
The renovations are expected to be finished fall 2006.