Maine high school students participate in mock crime scene

WATERVILLE, Maine (WABI) - High school students from across the state are exploring possible careers in criminal justice or forensic science.

The students were analyzing a mock crime scene at Thomas college.

The students developed fingerprints, foot ware impressions and gathered fibers and hairs for evidence with the help of Dr. Alicia Wilcox.

Wilcox is an associate professor of criminal justice at the college.

She says she hopes the students leave the session with confidence that they do great in this field if they choose.

”Very important work. I was able to start this morning when talking about some cases that we were able to solve by barefoot impressions left at Homicide scenes. Sometimes the smallest needle in the haystack can become really important.”

“It’s really interesting while I want to go to school and become a lawyer, being able to have this background knowledge is really helpful, but it’s also really entertaining and figuring out all these different things. What it’s really like, not just from TV shows.”

“It’s fun to get to like see future students kind of interact and like kind of like the sparks going of like interested in this field and it’s nice for them to like get like experience and how things are gonna run so they didn’t not like kind of surprised or shocked how like our classes normally run.”

Wilcox says part of the class is debunking myths from television shows like CSI.

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