Forensics cold case

I just finished up a photojournalism course at Texas State University. For my final project, I chronicled the opening of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the university and accompanied the graduate students to a cold case crime scene in rural Falls County where they worked with the Texas Rangers and the Department of Public Safety to recover evidence related to an unsolved murder from the mid-80s.

There doesn't seem to be a forum devoted to CSI stuff, so I'm hoping I won't be too off base in "People." Below are a few images from the set. The whole project can be viewed here. As always, any comments and suggestions are welcome.

1.

[pathetic whine]Nothing? [/pathetic whine]

Howdy neighbor! I suppose this fits the 'people' section in a sick, demented way. Regardless, these shots look like you did a good job fulfilling your journalistic approach.

jblaschke wrote in post #6865238
[pathetic whine]Nothing? [/pathetic whine]

I've been on too many crimes scenes, and this doesn't give the "feel" of any of them to me. Please don't get me wrong, its well shot, and I'm not sure that I would have done anything different, but from an insider perspective, it is missing a certain something.

Stickman, there's a reason it doesn't have that "feel" you refer to. It's a truly cold case--the murder happened sometime around 1985, and the remains weren't discovered until 2002. The recovery was rushed, with only about 50 percent of the skeleton recovered. Most of the crime scene protocols were not in effect, since the remains had been somewhat widely dispersed by animals and time in the interim. It's a unique situation, obviously.

Whiteoak, thanks. Surprisingly, the recovery had a very academic vibe going on. Because all the soft tissue was long gone and only bone and bits of clothing remained (scattered over a 20 foot radius, some on the surface, some buried a foot or two down) there was a significant removal from the reality that this poor woman had been murdered. Intellectually, we all understood that, and knew that what we were doing might help bring her killer to justice, but because the remains had "skeletonized" it was much more abstract than emotional. The professional forensic anthropologists there confirmed this--bones alone are much less "human" than bones plus soft tissue. Regardless, the grad students accomplished some valuable work. I was just fortunate enough to shoot their efforts.