PARKERSBURG - Two area graduates were part of a college crime scene investigation team that recently took second place in a state competition.
Glenville State College criminal justice majors Kyla Spencer, a junior from Williamstown; Aaron Parsons, a senior from Walton in Roane County; and Garrett Rinehart, a sophomore from Cumberland, Md., traveled to Marshall University on Oct. 25 where they finished second among 14 teams in a crime scene investigation competition during the West Virginia Criminal Justice Educators Association's annual conference.
The Glenville team was tied for first place at the end of the competition but lost in a tie breaker, which put the students in second place. The Glenville State team are members of the Glenville State College Sigma Pi Xi Criminal Justice Honor Society.
"The competition and the conference as a whole was a great learning experience. We got to see how our training matched up with other criminal justice students," Parsons said. "There were a lot of law enforcement professionals on hand to provide us with information about getting started in the criminal justice field."
Each team was required to investigate a staged crime scene that involved a stabbing murder and drug activity. The students had to collect and evaluate evidence from the scene and complete a written report.
Finally, each team made a PowerPoint presentation of their hypothesis and conclusion.
"The crime scene competition really showed me how important it is to pay attention to every little detail," said Spencer. "We found some evidence that other teams did not and they discovered some that we did not. The training that we are receiving at GSC really prepared us well for this challenge."
The Glenville State team is making plans to compete in a crime scene contest in April at the American Criminal Justice Association's 76th National Conference at Valley Forge, Pa.
