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UND Forensic Science students tour North Dakota State Crime Lab, learning firsthand how evidence analysis works

Editors note:Due to a technical error when the UND Today newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, the lead photo for this story did not transmit properly. As a result, the story is being sent out to readers once again in the UND Today newsletter of Thursday, March 23.

Authors note: When the director of UNDs Forensic Science Program asked if I would like to tag along with her students for an all-day field trip to Bismarck, I jumped at the chance.

After all, the last fun field trip I could recall was when my sixth-grade class in Devils Lake, N.D., crammed into a sticky yellow bus and headed to the Big Top in the big city of Grand Forks. Our end goal, of course, was to see the Shrine Circus in the Hyslop Sports Center.

This time around, our destination would be the pristine North Dakota State Crime Lab where the only clowns would be the criminals, and the only talk of elephants would relate to an animal tranquilizer 100 times more powerful than fentanyl.

Warning: You may find parts of this story disturbing. If you dare, come along with us for the ride

* * *

We gathered before sunup myself, about three dozen students and Assistant Professor Lavinia Iancu in the Chester Fritz parking lot. Coffee in hand and wearing comfies and caps, some of us looked fresh out of bed yet ready for adventure.

We had a long haul ahead, but no worries. We had WiFi, so thered be plenty of time for Netflix and naps before wed need to crack open the three coolers stocked with sack lunches and sodas. (Thank you, UND Catering.) If we got hungry sooner, well then, our bus driver Kevin was sharing his butterscotch candies.

OK, listen up, Iancu said, lifting a small red-and-white megaphone to her mouth before lowering it and adding with a wry smile, I have a siren, and Im not afraid to use it.

We laughed up front, but she apparently meant it and showed us by quickly flipping the switch to release a high-pitched wavering scream all the way to the back of the bus. She had everyones attention now.

OK, so the plan for us today is to go visit the DNA, toxicology and forensic chemistry divisions. We will rotate as three groups and have discussions with the experts, she explained. They are going to do demonstrations for us. So, we will see how much interaction we can have. They are very busy and working on cases all the time, so we are lucky not everybody gets this kind of opening. This is your chance to ask questions.

The tour truly would be a one-of-a-kind learning experience. Not only would it mark the first time in 17 years a UND class had visited the lab, the students ranging from freshmen to seniors also would have all-afternoon access to about a dozen forensic experts.

This is a first, but I hope well be able to do it at least once a year, Iancu said. Wed also like to establish some summer internships. Unfortunately, thats not possible right now because theyre understaffed, but we are working on it.

I absolutely love what I do, but forensic science can be very stressful, hard work. For me, its also incredibly rewarding, but I want my students to understand that as forensic scientists, theyll have some very serious responsibilities. Theres nothing closer to reality than what were going to see today.

After all of the passenger names are called and checked off and a buddy system established for rest stops it doesnt take long for everyone to settle in. I figure its as good a time as any to meet my neighbors.

To my left was senior Yuliet Monatukwa, a double-major in Forensic Science and Chemistry. Already accepted into two graduate chemistry programs, Monatukwa said she hoped the tour would give her clarity on another possible career path one focused more closely on analytical chemistry and toxicology.

It so happened that the very next day, she was flying to Denver for an interview with the University of Colorados Toxicology Department.

Im really looking forward to finding out what it takes to be a criminal investigator at a crime lab, Monatukwa said. Dr. Iancu has given us so many hands-on experiences, and I think that really has cemented my decision to do something down that path. A person really has no idea about the application of theory until you actually try to apply it yourself. So Im curious, and Im going to ask a lot of questions today.

Malia Wellens, a senior and double-major in Forensic Science and Criminal Justice Studies, said she already had settled on graduate school at the University of Connecticut in New Haven.

Though she also started out at UND as a chemistry major, she said she switched to Forensic Science with a focus on forensic biology.

I think it fits more with what I want to do, she said. Once I learned about DNA analysis and the different branches of forensic biology, I was like Thats my bread and butter. I love it.

Just a month earlier, Wellens began working for Iancu as a junior research assistant studying the effects of Clonazepam and Flunitrazepam common drugs, known as benzodiazepines or psychoactive drugs, prescribed for seizures and panic disorders on blowfly development. (The results of that research eventually could alter how scientists estimate time of death, but thats another story.)

In the blue bucket seat next to Wellens was Jaden Eviota, a junior and another double-major in Forensic Science and Criminal Justice Studies.

He said: As much as I find the lab interesting, I still think Im more into getting out in the field to do crime scene investigation. Growing up, I found that pretty much everything I watched on TV or the movies was forensics-related, so thats what got me interested at first. Im not sure exactly where Ill land, but all of this is helping me shape that decision.

And in front of me sat Nicolette Ras, a Pre-Med senior and double-major in Forensic Science and Criminal Justice Studies. She recently began working part time for Iancu as a teachers assistant doing everything from setting up lab trays and equipment for classes to handling logistics for the days field trip.

Ras said her ultimate goal is to become a medical examiner, and thanks to Iancus tip about a job post, shes now learning the ropes as an autopsy technician at UNDs Department of Pathology. The office handles cases of suspicious or unattended deaths in North Dakota.

Wearing a quirky, sitcom-inspired Schrute Farms sweatshirt with a giant beet imprint, Ras added, Its all so fascinating. I just love forensic science.

On the TV shows, its the next day and you have a DNA result. Thats not quite how it works, but its still going to be pretty cool to see where all the evidence were packing up is going and to actually meet some of the people who are processing it. Im so excited for today.

This tagalong agrees. Theres no place an avid Ann Rule reader and true-crime junkie would rather be.

It takes a little more than four hours to reach our final destination, which turns out to be a gray building in a complex of other nondescript, one-story concrete buildings. First impression? From the outside, meh, nothing fancy. Inside, its state of the art.

UND graduate and forensic scientist Charlene Rittenbach is the first to greet us at the security entrance. We shuffle past a glass showcase of early-era breathalyzers and a collection of wildly artistic bongs no doubt, paraphernalia treasures seized from fantastic drug busts past into a large room that looks almost like any other business office. Its wall to wall cubicles and computers.

Rittenbach, who also serves as technical leader for the labs Forensic Chemistry Unit, tells us that this is where the scientists write their reports and review cases. Unlike some other crime labs, she explains, this one is all digital. Next, were introduced to Brian Herz and Marc Larson, two more forensic scientists and UND alums. We hear a few rules no bags, no liquids, no photos and then were off to the laboratories.

For the next several hours, were in a different world a fascinating world where hard science turns evidence into fact. Its a world where criminal prosecutors get the goods to prove guilt or innocence in illegal drug and DUI cases, arson, rape and any number of other assaults and untimely deaths.

I must admit for someone without a chemistry background, it felt as though everyone else was speaking a different language. Gas chromatography. Mass spectrometry. Liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Huh? Over and over again, as fast as my head was spinning, the students heads were nodding as they peppered the experts with questions.

Up close, we watched the so-called presumptive tests and confirmatory tests to identify all sorts of suspected illegal drugs. FYI: The top three in North Dakota are cannabis, methamphetamine and fentanyl.

The uptick in opioids and fentanyl compounds and new synthetic drugs in the state is just huge, Rittenbach said. Its like Whac-A-Mole just trying to keep up, and it wasnt that way with opioids just five years ago.

The most common way we see a lot of the opioids and fentanyl compounds now is in counterfeit oxycodone tablets, Herz said.

Then pointing to a teeny-tiny drug sample under a protective hood, he added: Its just crazy what people are putting into these things. You just think about how much is right there compared to a lethal dose. Its enough to kill everybody in this building at least four times over.

Thats all these drug dealers really care about is making money. They dont care who overdoses or dies because once that news gets out on the street, it actually makes the product even more valuable as messed up as that is. A lot of the users have been abusing opioids for years, so the heroin doesnt do it anymore. Theyre looking for something stronger.

Remember the elephants? Well, the latest trend for illegal drug dealers is to cut their opioids with veterinarian medicines such as the deadly large-mammal synthetic opioid called Carfentanil, and more recently with the tranquilizer Xylazine. FDA-approved as a veterinary medicine, Xylazine, known on the street as tranq or the zombie drug, extends the effects of fentanyl and mimics the high of heroin. Narcan cannot reverse a Xylazine overdose, yet users continue to crave the high even while suffering from the drugs other nasty side effect: persistent infections that rot their flesh to the bone.

Sometimes people dont even know this stuff is in there, Herz said. They can be at a party and think its just a regular oxycodone tablet, but its likely not. Your age group is their prime target. They want to get you hooked young. So, if you ever hear of anybody who has these (nonprescribed oxy) or wants to get some, I implore you to stop them or it could be the last time you see them alive. Whats out there now is very scary stuff.

Sobering advice for sure, but what the DNA experts had to say next was equally sobering.

Theres just something particularly discomforting about being asked to swipe a sterile cotton swab on the inside of your cheeks before sealing it inside an envelope with your name printed out front.

It wont go anywhere, I promise, Rittenbach assured us before we entered the DNA unit. We just need your sample for quality control in case some of your DNA would shed here and we would find a foreign profile in some of our evidence.

Ohhh OK, I guess that makes sense. Even so, most of us agreed it was an unsettling, eerie feeling to be sharing something so near and dear as our own personal DNA with a state crime laboratory. (I mean, really, in what other situation would this be a good thing?)

Next, we moved into the adjacent room, where we put on amber glasses and watched in the dark as forensic DNA experts demonstrated how different light sources can make otherwise invisible stains pop into view on a tattered black tank top. Thats blood. Thats bleach. Thats saliva. Thats semen. Eww.

In this case, the clothing and stains were used only for training exercises, but when investigating a real crime, the experts said they would darken the room lights to mark the stains and then cut small samples from the fabric always preserving enough DNA for the defense team to run their tests.

As though these demonstrations werent macabre enough, things were about to get more shocking as DNA analyst, forensic scientist and state CODIS Administrator Amy Gebhardt shared the case of (her) lifetime.

It was in the fall of 2006, Gebhardt began, when a Valley City, N.D., college student was found brutally killed in her off-campus apartment. Two friends had discovered her body with a belt around her neck and a broken knife in her throat.

As is common practice, the medical examiner had taken scrapings from beneath the victims fingernails.

Now Ive worked with fingernail scrapings my entire career, and most of the time, theres very little blood DNA from the perpetrator, Gebhardt explained. Its usually mostly from the victim, but thats what made this case so rare.

The preliminary tests were showing a male had contributed significantly to the blood sample. The lab then immediately entered the profile into the FBIs Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, to see if it matched the DNA of any previous convicted offenders or arrest suspects. And they got a hit.

The DNA belonged to an unknown perpetrator who had raped a woman two years earlier in Fargo. That victim survived, but she could tell police little about her attacker other than his race.

The rest of the story is pretty crazy, Gebhardt went on to say as the wide-eyed students listened intently. She then explained how that following Monday, an overly curious man who lived in the same building as the victim had approached investigators who still were gathering evidence and taking pictures outside the apartment complex.

A man comes up to one of the BCI agents and says, So do you have any idea who this could be? Do you have any leads on who could have done such a horrible thing? Gebhardt relayed. And theyre like, Probably you. But they didnt say that.

Instead, they said, No, but were interested in collecting samples from people in the area who are willing to be elimination samples. And the guy actually said, Oh yeah, sure, no problem.

Thats what we count on: Stupidity! Its what I live for! These guys are so arrogant, and they think theyre so much better and so much smarter than everybody else, but its just beautiful.

The investigators collect his sample, along with elimination DNA from the victims dad, her boyfriend and a couple of other friends, then drive from Valley City to Bismarck to hand-deliver the samples to the lab by midafternoon.

Just three hours earlier, Gebhardts supervisor and then-CODIS director had left for a meeting in Arizona.

We knew they were driving these samples up, so I quit what I was doing and got them on the instrument right away. Its almost midnight. Im burned out. Im fried, but Im going to check the instrument one more time before I go home.

I look AND ITS HIM! IT MATCHES HIM! Oh my God! Im freaking out. Im alone in this small room. Im pacing. My hair on the back of my neck is standing up. Im shaking, and Im about to cry.

Moments later, Gebhardt wakes her boss with a phone call only to be directed to run the tests all over again. They must be certain none of the samples had gotten mixed up. Nope, by 4:30 the next morning, she gets the same results.

This was an especially horrific crime, and now they know who did it.

We said, This is your guy, Mo Maurice Gibbs. They arrested him by 6:30 that evening and had a TV press conference by 10:30 that night, she said.

Come to find out, she added, the suspect coached youth basketball and also worked at the jail, where he later was accused and convicted of assaulting several female inmates. He was shutting off the cameras to their cells.

Her voice cutting out and now in tears, Gebhardt tells the students, Thats why I say this is a case of a lifetime. I guess my reason for sharing this case is to tell you that all these little steps so clinical and sterile, piece by piece, the data, the profiles, the peak heights and all the statistics sometimes it all comes together so beautifully.

Then, almost in a single breath, she blurts out: This job, Im going to tell you, is dark. You should not be looking for semen in a diaper or on an Ariel, Little Mermaid blanket. There are horrible things that happen in this state. Do not let our general good nature and low crime statistics fool you. Bad things that never make the news are happening in this state all the time. This is real life. Ive been here for 25 years, and there are days Im burnt out.

I was probably like you in my 20s, morbidly curious. I was Yes, give me all of it. But it wears on you, and thats not something I expected. Thats why Im telling you to be prepared. Keep your mental health a priority. Find ways to rejuvenate, recharge and keep perspective because in this job, you are immersed 100 percent of the time in the worst of humanity. It is rewarding and it is wonderful, but IT IS DARK.

Finally, pausing to catch her breath, she asks, Do you have any questions?

Somber and silent, the students have nothing to say.

I honestly didnt know what to expect from the field trip, but it certainly was eye-opening.

On the long ride home, Iancu tells me shes always looking for ways to add value to the student experience.

I love what I do and I can teach my courses, but we really have to think further than the academic training. What are my students going to do after they graduate? I feel responsible for their future, she said. Im always thinking How can I improve? What can I add? What types of scholarships are out there? What sort of collaborations can I find?

I want my students to be able to network and make these connections. The most important goal for me with the crime lab and other hands-on experiences is to give these students their best chance to get hired in this profession.

And what insight did the four students Monatukwa, Wellens, Eviota and Ras gain from hearing about real-life crime cases and seeing forensic science in action?

Monatukwa said it was extremely valuable to learn what the labs are looking for in potential hires as far as specific education and training not to mention, she was able to compile some great questions for her next-day interview in Colorado. And as an undergrad teaching assistant, she also was keenly interested in how the experts communicated the science to people with different levels of background and understanding.

Im trying to learn how to be a teacher at the same time Im trying to learn how to be a forensic scientist, so watching how they might explain something to a layperson, or jury, was fascinating, Monatukwa said. I think you actually added value by being here and representing that layperson. Plus, all kinds of cross-networking happened on this trip, and I really enjoyed that.

For Wellens: People learn in a lot of different ways, and I think the hands-on experience can help a lot of people better grasp what theyre studying. Its kind of a different experience when youre actually doing the work vs. just reading about the work. It makes me more excited to get to work in the lab setting.

Eviota agreed: I thought it was really cool to see how this CSI stuff actually works. In my mind, I was still thinking of everything in kind of sci-fi style with these big machines doing a lot of different things. This brought everything down to earth for me.

And Ras summed it up this way: Today was so much fun and so inspiring. Everyone was so passionate about what they do, and it made me more passionate. Were so lucky to have someone like Lavinia whos pulling strings everywhere to get students experiences theyd never get anywhere else. I absolutely loved it. Today just solidified how awesome forensic science is.

READ PAST FORENSIC SCIENCE STORIES: A little fly told herand Was it the knife, the candlestick or the rope?

Charlene Rittenbach points out some visual cues often spotted by investigators when trying to first identify suspected illegal drugs. Photo by Janelle Vonasek/UND Today.

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