PLATTEVILLE, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is home to one of the only Forensic Investigation Crime Scene Houses in the state of Wisconsin.
The house was built in 2010 as a residential home to be used by forensic investigation students.
Janamarie Truesdell is the assistant professor of forensic investigation at UW-Platteville. She said the house plays a crucial role in the learning process.
“Learning how to get in and command the scene, get where you need to be, ask the questions you need to, is something that you can’t do with a powerpoint and a lecture,” said Truesdell.
She said when construction students built the home, they installed everything a normal home would have, but included a few special touches.
“There are two-way mirrors, we have cameras so we can stay out of the action and just watch it happening, there is also sensors in the walls to see if things get too hot or too cold or anything like that,” said Truesdell.
In late October, Truesdell had 50 students in the home working on death investigations for midterm projects.
“911 was called at 9:17, the coroner was called at 9:30,” said Kathryn Borski, a senior studying forensic investigation at the university, during an investigation.
Borski and two other students were tasked with determining how a man died in the garage of the home.
“What might we be looking for on the body?” said Truesdell while explaining the scene to the students.
The scene that was presented to students showed a man with burn marks on his hands, a screwdriver close by and a disassembled machine that was plugged into the wall.
Students then examined things like body temperature, eye color and bodily wounds to determine how he died.
“To come out here and put what we learned to use will help us better prepare for when we are out in our jobs actually in the field,” said Borski.
Borski said she hopes to be a death investigator after graduation.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of forensic science technicians, which includes crime scene investigators, is projected to grow 11% from 2021 to 2031.
“It is kind of a last service to provide the deceased to give them the proper examination and closure for the family to find out what happened,” said Borski.
Truesdell said this death investigation is only the midterm.
She said the final will involve things like blunt force trauma and hangings, all things needed to prepare her students for the real world.