Thurston Kids Study Salem Witch Trial Crime Scene With Laguna PD

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —Thurston Middle School's forensic science class and club stepped out of their element and into a historical, albeit gruesome murder scene last week. All gathered atop the Alta Laguna park that had been transformed into Gallows Hill in Salem, Mass. during the witch trials of 1692. The cold and rainy morning made things ore ominous as students learned about the art and science behind crime scene investigation.

Dividing the tasks, students walked the crime scene, got down on hands and knees to swab samples and photographed every angle as the wind blew and the weather worsened.

“With rain, the crime scene changes,” Euan Latimer, 14, told the media present. “We have to try and get as many photos before it changes.”

The elaborate display showed victims in various states of evisceration, with arms in stockades and partially beheaded, another body crushed by concrete blocks and still another burned at the stake to the point of skeletal ashes. Each horrific death was an example of how victims were murdered during that time in a learning experience funded by a grant from Cox Communications.

Student Resource Officer Cpl. Cornelius Ashton, an investigator of over ten years, introduced the students to department detectives and offered his advice to the students, as reported by the OC Register.

“The most important thing when you’re working a crime scene is managing it,” Ashton said during the event. “You work in unison with your team to make sure the crime scene is properly examined and processed. It’s a slow and methodical process. Any fragment or paper wrapper could be part of the evidence. Everyone has a role, whether it’s the team leader, note taker, photographer or the person sketching the scene.”

Thurston Middle School teacher Michelle Martinez began the forensics club at the school five years ago, when her daughter Noelle attended the school. The goal was to teach not only how this level of investigation works, but also to show the reality of the hard work and how forensics in real life is not as it appears on television.

“Working with the police they see firsthand what it’s like,” Martinez told reporters. “They also see it’s tiring and hard work.”

Cox Communications provided $5,000 to fund the crime scene as part of their grant to further science and technology in schools.