Forensic Science Day

You hardly expect to be confronted by a murder mystery on a normal school day! The unexpected often happens at Sevenhills Academy, and this is exactly what happened on Wednesday, 8th July.

On meandering slowly into tutor period expecting the ‘exciting’ slog of normal timetable pupils were told that a ‘dead’ body had been found in the ‘Time Out’ room, and that they were responsible for solving the Murder Mystery. After dividing into teams evidence files were presented. Case Studies on the main suspects were read. The opportunity and likely motives for the murder were discussed. Sterile white suits (to prevent contamination of the Scene of Crime) were worn to collect a whole range of evidence from photographs of the crime scene to collecting fingerprints, measuring maggots and swabbing blood stains. With ‘packed’ evidence bags (all correctly labelled and sealed in accordance with SOC procedure) numerous laboratory tests were carried out. Many questions were asked:

Could the length of the maggots help establish the time of death?

Why was ‘Brash Baily’s fingerprints’ all over the scene of crime? Why was his blood smeared on the windowsill? Did the DNA profile match?

Was the broken watch from ‘Jovial Jenny’ or ‘Haunting Heather?’ Why did the white powder found at the SOC match that in their pockets? Are they really not quite as sweet as they seem?

Why was ‘Dodgy Donna’s’ fingerprints found at the scene of crime? Why did the ink in her pen match that on the handwritten note? Why had she dumped her Dutch boyfriend? Was she intending to bury something sinster under her new patio?

Why were samples of hairs and fibres matching ‘Jujitsu Jenna’ found at the scene of crime? Had she finally squeezed the life out of the victim? Why?

Why did the DNA profile match that of ‘Forceful Phil?’ What had he been doing at the SOC? What was he trying to cover up?

There were many questions and only the sleuths from Sevenhills could help solve the mystery. The winning team was group 3 – starring Cameron Palmer, Cameron Cook and Paige Mair. An excellent presentation identifying ‘Brash Baily’ as the most likely suspect with such a dark motive that I dare not pass on was deduced. Congratulations to the team, and a word of warning —–if you intend to commit any crime whatsoever the Sleuths of Sevenhills are a pretty canny and scientific team that will use all evidence against you! There is no escape!

Watch the power point to show the sleuths in action

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