By Teresa Brummett

Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD – Six forensics students were conducting a strip search at Lincoln Land on April 23.  

Students walked to a wooded area, turned around and walked straight back over the same ground. After covering the whole area going back and forth in this method, they walked it yet again from a diagonal trajectory. All of this assured every bit of the search area was scoured several times.  

The students were conducting the search as part of Lincoln Land Community College’s Introduction to Forensics class. Students become the Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) in this class, as they are trying to unravel the evidence laid out by their professor, Randall Rue.

Rue, a retired lieutenant with the Illinois State Police for 26½ years, joined the college’s police department eight years ago. He has taught Introduction to Forensics for the past three years.   

Rue re-creates crime scenes like one might see on TV programs such as CSI.  

Crime scene investigators looking for evidence act like a person putting together a puzzle, Rue said. Once you find the right puzzle piece, everything starts to click.  

About 19 students joined Rue at what is called the “Crime Scene Simulation cottage.” It is a small building behind Sangamon Hall built by construction students to conduct crime scene investigations. The facility offers a real-life scenario of what it would be like to work as a CSI.

Students use similar equipment and techniques to a CSI. Students interested in becoming CSIs, or the like, would use this class as a base for continuing down such a career path.

“I really like this class, because you get a lot of extra knowledge and Professor Rue is an amazing teacher,” said student Kelli Roseberry, who wants to further her career in restorative justice.

Once the students entered the cottage, they must examine every detail – from the largest to the smallest – in order to solve the case, Rue said.  

Don’t go to a crime scene and expect it to just be cut and dry, Rue said. Part of being a CSI is finding good evidence to figure out what happened.

Usually only one or two CSI’s work a scene. Rue said that fewer people leads to less chance of contamination.  

Everything that a CSI does during the collecting of evidence has to be very specific, he said. Items have to be bagged then tagged. So being a professional during this process is very important because mislabeling anything could lead to the guilty going free.

Being a CSI can be very tedious work, Rue said, but it also can be rewarding when you know that something you collected brought someone’s death to justice.  

Rue said the class seems to be getting more popular every year, with all the television shows about the profession. He also said his current students seem to be really enjoying it.  

It takes a lot of effort to make the crime scenes realistic.  

Rue volunteers his wife, a nurse to set up the scenes.  

She knows how to make everything look realistic. So when it comes to making fake body parts for crime scenes, they seem to make the perfect team. They’ll cook up bloody creations in their kitchen, grossing out students by its realism.  

Rue said students need to know the gruesomeness of a crime scene. It can get worse than what they have seen here, he said. A scene can also be emotionally disturbing, especially when children are involved, Rue said. These students need a little preparation for the real thing.  

Rue warns the grounds crew when he is setting up these realistic scenes. But it’s not just to prevent a misunderstanding. A couple years ago, Rue said he had set up some blood splatter in a grassy area, and the grounds crew mowed over it.  

The class is so large, Rue breaks the students into groups, allowing each team five minutes to collect evidence in the cottage.

Inside the cottage, students found a mannequin with blood and a placenta between her legs. Using Luminol on the floor, it glowed blue in the outline of a newborn’s body, hinting at yet another clue that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye.  

Rue said his class gets to use a lot of the equipment that a real CSI would get to use.  

Rue explained about a plastic-type film that is shown in the hallway near his office. When placed in a metal frame, electricity runs through it and pulls up lint and other particles. A shoe print from the carpet became visible.  

That’s something the human eye wouldn’t have been able to do, Rue said. And that’s just part of the job of a CSI.  

As part of the mock crime scene, students later found a newborn baby’s body outside. All the evidence further lead the class to a hunting cabin, where they found a man dead from an apparent suicide. But the students didn’t all agree.  

While the students were working, they were clearly enjoying the chance to try their hand at an investigation. While many of them aspire to become CSIs, the class is open to anyone interested in the subject.  

“This class has been the most fun,” said student Ernest Young, who is considering a criminal lawyer profession. “You get to spend more time at the crime scenes and seeing the dead bodies are the best. Besides, it makes you think outside of the box when looking for evidence.”  

Austin Ingesoll, who has been a part-time Lincoln Land student for three years, said Introduction to Forensics has been interesting, but he likes the second half of class. That is when the crime scenes go outside.  

Ingesoll plans on furthering his career as a police officer.  

Roseberry also said that there will definitely be a twist and that makes it fun to learn!

Some students said the class and Rue has inspired them to consider a career in criminal investigations.

Teresa Brummett can be reached at [email protected].

Gallery • 20 Photos

Students in Randy Rue's forensics class work on a crime scene investigation. The class gets a chance to try their hand at a simulated crime.