NCJ Number
222860
Journal
Evidence Technology Magazine Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: March-April 2008 Pages: 12-17
Date Published
March 2008
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article presents a chronological account of the work of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) in Minnesota after the I-35W bridge collapse, which the article describes as "the longest, most intensive crime-scene investigation ever undertaken by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Crime Lab."
Abstract
The planning and staging of equipment to document the disaster began in the predawn hours as the sheriff's Crime Lab mobilized the Hennepin County Sheriff's Major Crime Scene Unit, the Sokkia forensic-mapping equipment, digital cameras, and personnel. At the same time, the unit coordinated with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office for victim recovery and established a partnership with the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department for the documentation of the entire bridge collapse, both on land and in the water. As a result of the overnight planning, soon after sunrise everyone involved in the recovery and documentation efforts had a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities. The HCSO Crime Lab was responsible for the documentation of all vehicles and victims recovered from the Mississippi River. The Minnesota State Patrol documented the vehicles in the collapse area on land and on the bridge deck above the water. The Crime Lab Unit conducted pre-dive meetings with the law-enforcement divers in order to issue specific instructions on what to record during the dive. The protocols established in the pre-dive meetings proved invaluable as divers communicated the standardized information to the teams on the surface. The information was then relayed to the command post to be compared with information that was known about the possible victims. This article describes the protocol for recovering victims; the use of DNA to identify victims' remains; and the management of a complicated, shifting, multi-layered crime scene.