Mount Aloysius College Opens New Crime Scene Lab | News, Sports, Work

CRESSON. A new lab at Mount Aloysius College will immerse criminology students in the “shocking reality” of crime scenes, giving them a potential advantage over other criminal justice career seekers, according to several college officials and alumni.

The lab, located in the campus’ Academic Hall building, is designed like an apartment and can be modified to create any scenario, according to Joseph Bobak, director of the college’s criminology program.

During Thursday’s open house, the lab featured several stations that used mannequins to depict different types of crime scenes, such as gunshot wounds and a decomposing body.

“Now that we have this crime scene lab, we can now immerse our students in a crime scene that is almost identical to what they would see in a real scene,” Bobak said, adding that the lab allows students to practice the mechanics. crime scene investigation and evidence gathering while strengthening your critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills.

Adam Pernelli, a sergeant with the Pittsburgh Police Department’s Third Precinct who graduated from Mount Aloysius in 2015, said witnessing a crime scene for the first time is “definitely an eye-opener.” According to him, the laboratory will mentally prepare students for their future careers.

In his career, Pernelli was one of the officers who responded to the 2018 anti-Semitic terrorist attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The first few crime scenes Pernelli responded to as an officer were “very exhausting,” he said, adding that he saw “a lot of things that hopefully no one will ever see again.”

Joe Gribar, Cumbria County’s chief deputy coroner, said that after graduating from Mount Aloysius in 2012, he had a “good foundation” in how to investigate crime scenes. When he was a student, the college did not have the practical opportunities that today’s students have. will be useful in the laboratory, he said.

“Being able to give students now a simulated crime room to just walk in and say this is what you get called to at two in the morning and solve it … it’s a huge advantage for those students,” Hribar said.

In a homicide scenario, investigators have only one chance to work the scene before evidence is seized, he said.

“With this one chance, you have to be able to get it right,” Hribar said. “You don’t want to make any mistakes or break anything that could be crucial to the case.”

A new certificate has been launched

On Thursday, the college officially launched a new four-course forensic genetic genealogy certificate.

Gribar, an adjunct professor in the criminology program, said Mount Aloysius is one of three universities in the country to offer the certificate, noting that the University of New Haven and Ramapo College in New Jersey offer similar certificates.

“This is a new and rapidly growing tool for law enforcement and death investigators to use,” Hrybar said, adding that FIGG allows investigators to analyze DNA evidence and link it to a suspect or unidentified person.

Forensic genetic genealogy gained traction in 2016 when law enforcement used it to identify and arrest “Golden State Killer” Joseph James DeAngelo, Hribar said. “That was the first case that really led to the growth of FIGG as a program,” he said.

Gribar said he recently received his FIGG certification and is eager to share his knowledge with students “and hopefully train the next generation of FIGG practitioners to go into the field.”

Alisha Kutri, a junior majoring in criminology with a minor in sociology, plans to pursue forensic investigation and FIGG certifications after graduation. She dreams of becoming a forensic investigator.

Kurti said she has always been interested in forensics and wants to get certified by FIGG as it is a new thing in forensics.

“I think it’s pretty cool how we can find a suspect that works there,” she said.

Mirror staff member Matt Churella at 814-946-7520.