MWA members, mystery aficionados and the intellectually curious gathered on October 25 at the Morristown & Morris Township Public Library in Morristown, NJ, for “Unlocking the Secrets of the Dead: Forensics,” a panel discussion moderated by MWA-NY President Nev March. The expert panel featured Lt. Art Weisgerber, the Commanding Officer of the Crime Scene/Identification Unit at the Norwalk, CT, Police Department; Dr. Lauren Thoma, M.D. the Deputy County Medical Examiner, Middlesex Regional Medical Examiner’s Office; and Associate Teaching Prof. Kimberlee Moran, Rutgers-Camden Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. The event explored the fascinating world of forensics and how scientific methods are used to help solve crimes. The discussion also looked at how forensics are portrayed in books.
Questions were raised about the inquest process versus the police and medical investigation, cold cases, autopsies, and poisons, as well as the astonishing enhancements in fingerprinting.
It was a lively panel, and the slide presentation by Lt. Weisgerber was fantastic. His comments and entertaining asides were delightful and kept everyone engaged.
The audience was riveted by Dr. Thoma’s descriptions of the preservation of evidence and the cold cases that Prof. Moran mentioned. Attendees learned that time of death is grossly mischaracterized in fiction, and many factors can cause this aspect to be an incorrect estimate. While the science of forensics has improved significantly, the fact that forensics units are funded locally creates a wide disparity in county capabilities. This can be a contributing factor to why only 50 percent of homicides are solved annually. However, phone records, ATM and bank records, video footage, fingerprinting, vast advances in DNA technology, and a host of other developments help to ensure that culprits pay for their crimes and victims receive justice.