ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Police officers and detectives worked in groups last week as they investigated a blood-soaked double homicide at Cedar Crest College.
While the officers were real — coming from departments across the Lehigh Valley and beyond — the murders were fake, a simulation created to teach them how to figure out what caused the bloody crime scene.
The training, “Reconstructing Scenes Involving Bloodshed,” drew more than three dozen detectives and officers Wednesday from the Valley, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey to the newly opened Joni Berner Esq ‘75 – Expert Witness Training Center & Crime Scene Laboratory.
“This space is meant for all of us to train, collaborate, talk.”Carol Ritter, a senior instructor at the college and the center’s assistant director
The center aims to train forensic science professionals, law enforcement, first-responders and social workers, who often are asked to provide testimony in court, to become effective expert witnesses.
Made up of three rooms set up like a home — kitchen, living room and bedroom — with a lab outfitted with computers and a darkroom, as well as a mock courtroom, the new center also is open to students for hands-on training with realistic simulations.
“The need that I see for these three spaces and bringing together EMTs, coroners, law enforcement, forensic scientists and attorneys, is there's gaps,” Carol Ritter, a senior instructor at the college and the center’s assistant director, said.
“Everyone does their job, but then how they do their job affects the next person downstream. So if they don't know up front what we need at the back end for reconstruction and putting this all together, it's a problem.
“This space is meant for all of us to train, collaborate, talk.”
'Enhance education, strengthen partnerships'
College officials opened the training center last Saturday, during the college’s Homecoming Weekend, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
"The Expert Witness Training Center represents what Cedar Crest does best — combining rigorous academics with real-world experience," college President Elizabeth M. Meade said at the ceremony, according to a news release.
"This facility will further enhance the education of our students and strengthen our partnerships with the law enforcement and justice communities that serve our region."
Located on the first floor of the college’s Curtis Hall, the center was funded through a $608,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance, as well as a donation from alum Joni Berner, an attorney, and her husband, Dr. Edwin Hemwall.
Asked the total cost of the center, college officials declined to reveal the donation amount, citing privacy concerns.
Trainings and workshops for forensic science and law enforcement professionals at the center will be free through August, officials said.
A robbery turned double homicide
For Wednesday’s training, Ritter’s students helped prep the space, setting it up as if it was a robbery gone bad, Ritter said.
Blood dotted the living room floor, dripped down a mirror and was smeared across a wall. A bloody knife sat on the floor near a recliner, splattered with more blood, steps away from a bloodied baseball bat, poking out from the bedroom.
And there were victims — played by two mannequins. A man was sprawled across the living room floor; a woman also was on the floor, but in the bedroom.
Ritter explained the narrative created for the training: A husband and wife were watching television the evening before in the living room.
The husband fell asleep on the leather recliner, while the wife went into the bedroom to sleep.
“Two people came in to rob the place,” she said. “They went in through the kitchen door and started rooting around in the kitchen.
“And then he, the husband, hears something, and then [the robbers] grab knives and take him out with blunt force trauma, from beating with fists, knife injuries and then he's eventually shot as well.”
The wife, who heard everything, grabbed a baseball bat and hit one of the two assailants, Ritter continued. However, she died after she was stabbed in the back and the chest.
For the training, groups of 10 walked through the staged crime scene, jotting down notes and theories.
After that, the group heard a lecture about blood spatter analysis, the method investigators use at a crime scene to figure out what occurred.
“Seeing how it actually was created really helps you to get some confidence in processing scenes.”Carol Ritter, a senior instructor at the college and the center’s assistant director
In addition to the staged scenes, each room also includes cameras, fitted into the corners. That way, teachers and facilitators can observe and critique as trainings are going on.
“We can actually watch them here without disturbing them and telling them what to do,” training center Manager Joseph Cordoma said.
“And then we can then have them watch themselves and say, ‘OK, this is where you could have done this better. This is where you should have done this.’”
The cameras also can record how the scene was created in the first place to show students after they’ve arrived at a theory.
“It really gives you confidence, too, to understand the patterns and the evidence that you're seeing,” Ritter said.
“Seeing how it actually was created really helps you to get some confidence in processing scenes.”
‘Rigorous academics, real-world experience’
Ron Clouser, a detective with New Jersey’s Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, said the new training center is good for hands-on training real-world scenarios.
“When you do crime scene training, it's very impromptu. In other words, the facilities aren't designed for it,” he said, describing trainings generally taking place in a classroom-type setting.
“When I find stuff like this, I'm a real big proponent of practical as well as training — I'm constantly looking for training. This is impressive.”Ron Clouser, a detective with New Jersey’s Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office
In contrast, the center was designed with training in mind — there are different wall and furniture textures to illustrate how blood can react differently depending on the surface.
There also are drains in the floors for easy clean-up and reset.
“When I find stuff like this, I'm a real big proponent of practical as well as training — I'm constantly looking for training,” Clouser said. “This is impressive.”
In addition to reconstructing homicide scenes such as Wednesday’s training, center officials plan to hold workshops on topics such as de-escalation techniques and K-9 training.
“We're open to any type of practical exercise that would assist any public service figure who may eventually testify in court,” Cordoma said.
For more information, and a schedule of trainings, go to the center's website.
