Mya Woodard gathers around a crime lab window with the rest of her classmates, peering through the diamond-wired glass for a glimpse at a forensic specimen. Two severed hands float in a jar of formaldehyde. They were from a case in the 1970s, used to identify a Jane Doe. When she was put to rest, the hands stayed in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center.
“They were all green and wrinkly,” Mya says after the tour.
Winding through the hallways, the students of the Plant City Youth CSI Program get to see what life in a real crime lab looks like. Along with Mya, 13, her two sisters, Shilea, 16, and Nyasha, 12, and classmates Alan Henderson, 13, and Eddie Williams, 12, the group is impressed.
“It was pretty fun,” Eddie says. “It was interesting.”
Past the main doors, the students spy a sliver of a fault where all evidence is processed and checked out to be analyzed. Across the hall, a demonstrator fires three bullets into a water tank for testing.
Before they went in for their 90-minute tour, Nyasha was excited to see the fingerprinting process. But, it was the Firearms Section that captivated her. Through another crime-lab window, Nyasha watches as the technician places weights on the end of the gun to test how much force it would take for it to go off if it was dropped.
“I liked the gun part,” Nyasha says. “It was cool when she tested it to see if it would shoot.”
And the students aren’t the only one with questions. State Rep. Dan Raulerson and two of his staffers, Robyn Bryant and Amber Smith, helped organize the trip and attended, as well.
“What kind of evidence occurs the most?” Raulerson asks.
The students lean in for the answer. Spokesperson Tonya Woytek tells them its drugs. Most of the local FDLE’s cases are drug-related. About 90 a month.
As the tour continues, she tells tells them about DNA. But the students already know some of the information.
“There’s two people that have the same DNA,” Woytek says. “Do you know who?”
“Twins!” Mya says.
They’ve had a great teacher. William Thomas runs the Youth CSI Program. After more than 35 years in law enforcement, Thomas has noticed a disturbing trend. Many of his applicants couldn’t pass their background checks.
“I’m trying to get them interested in understanding what it is,” Thomas said. “The biggest thing is to let them understand that the things they do today can affect them later.”
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.