Central Campus class takes murder mystery approach

Yellow caution tape surrounded the crime scene inside an airplane hangar on the city’s southern border. Three victims. One stabbed, one shot, one lying halfway out of an airplane. A bullet had penetrated a nearby helicopter windshield.

Detectives, media, forensic scientists and biotechnology analysts — all students from Des Moines Central Campus — were on the scene.

The school’s biotechnology, criminal justice, broadcasting and aviation technology classes collaborated Feb. 8 to create a realistic crime scene inside the district’s new aviation complex at McCombs Middle School, 205 County Line Road.

Students from each discipline set to work solving the horrific crime. The scene was one part classroom exercise, one part murder mystery party.

“While many academic programs study criminal investigations and forensic science, few programs combine an entire program identifying, collecting and analyzing evidence in a combined collaborative exercise,” said criminal justice teacher Kelly Willis, a retired captain with the Des Moines Police Department.

Sixteen students in the criminal justice class collected and labeled evidence. Biotechnology students then analyzed the fibers and blood.

Biotechnology in medicine instructor Kacia Cain brought 22 students from the downtown campus.

“The students can identify bacteria, analyze fibers, distinguish between blood types, and possibly give DNA information,” she explained.

Professionals from the Polk County attorney’s office, sheriff’s deputies and Des Moines police officers were on hand to coach the students through the procedures.

Criminal justice student Jessa May, a senior at East High, was studying Victim No. 3, a dummy with a screwdriver stab wound. She’s planning to study forensics at Iowa Central in the fall. Assisting her was Luke Holliday, a senior at Lincoln High, who plans to continue studying forensics at DMACC after graduation.

Broadcasting and film instructor Tim Coleman coached five students on the ins and outs of how to cover a bloody crime scene. Students played journalists and documentarians, collecting evidence for the courtroom.

Madeline Habhab, a senior from Lincoln High, was the designated public information officer. She had the job of directing the media students to where they could collect video and photos of the scene.

“The students are doing a great job,” Des Moines police Officer Brookelyn Budd said. “They know what they are doing.”