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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Pre-hi-tech CSI--Tracking making a comeback? |
| 2007-08-29 |
| Edited for brevity. The trackers arrived early on a drizzly morning at a crime scene that a homicide detective called "a forensic nightmare." A thicket of blackberry vines and dense woods surrounded the elderly victim's ramshackle trailer. Nearby, rusted overturned cars, a van and a travel trailer spewed garbage. The driveway into the property was littered with flattened tin cans. Ever since May 16, when a Pierce County [WA] sheriff's deputy went to Roy Park's home to check on his welfare and found the man's body buried beneath brush, clues to the homicide had been difficult to find, and the trail was growing cold. But on Monday, Pierce County homicide Detective Bruce Larson turned to a "new" old skill: a team of trackers with skills similar to what hunters use in tracking game through woods, but tailored for tracking humans. Suddenly the crime scene bristled with clues that had previously been overlooked. As tracker and King County Sheriff's Deputy Kathleen Decker and two volunteers studied the scene, bent and broken blades of grass revealed where the body had been dragged from a grassy spot near Park's beehives — the site of the slaying — down into a gully. Barely perceptible indentations in the soil told of an escape route. The sweep of grass showed where a car had traveled. In an era when law enforcement has turned to high-tech gadgets and forensic science to help uncover clues at crime scenes, the ancient skill of tracking has largely gone overlooked, experts say. While search-and-rescue teams have often used tracking to find missing persons, it's only more recently being used as a tool in crime-scene investigations. Decker is leading the push in King County. |
| Posted by:Dar |