January 13, 2005

Unraveling the clues at Mills Lawn

Sixth-grade students Malaika Carver-Halley, left, and Allison Berry analyze evidence left at a simulated crime scene during a science residency with David Finster, a chemistry professor at Wittenberg, last week at Mills Lawn School.

By Lauren Heaton

When the crimes are committed by Colonel Mustard in the billiard room with the candlestick in the popular board game “Clue,” finding the culprit does not require detailed forensic analysis.

But a theft last week from Mills Lawn School turned 60 sleuthing sixth-graders into crime scene investigators who relied on science to solve a crime committed in their midst.

Last Tuesday morning, scientist-in-residence David Finster briefed the students on the story. A group of four business owners held a meeting at the school one evening to discuss their financial difficulties. That night, someone entered the school through a door that was propped open earlier, stole a basketball autographed by professional basketball star LeBron James and left a ransom note for $5,000. A janitor spotted the thief on the way out, and the ball was dropped in the ensuing escape, leaving a wealth of clues and evidence to analyze and suspects to implicate.

Honing their skills of careful observation and impeccable laboratory technique, the students started with the obvious: the ransom note. Finster, a chemistry professor at Wittenberg, divided the students into small groups to compare thin layer chromatography tests on the ink from the ransom note to the ink from pens belonging to each of the four suspects.

Next, while some compared soil samples from the escape path with samples from the suspects’ shoes, others had a chance to go to Wittenberg to use an infrared spectrophotometer and gas chromatography equipment to analyze plastic that was wrapped around the ball and liquid that was used to attempt to wipe away fingerprints from the crime scene.

By Thursday, when it came time for the microscopic fiber analysis and pH testing, most students thought they already knew who the guilty party was.

The team of Geoffrey Pitts and Billy Huff had suspect Robert Smithfield, a nursery owner, pinned. They suspected him from the beginning, they said, and when the ink and dirt samples matched, they felt certain they had been right.

But Malaika Carver-Halley and Allison Berry, working across the table from the two boys, felt differently.

“It’s Margaret Alden,” Allison said, referring to the restaurant owner turned suspect. Their results of their tests pointed to her, Malaika and Allison said as they dropped ammonia into a powder sample and watched for bubbling or insolvency.

They were on a mission to prove that they were right.

But Finster was quick to point out that while some evidence can be conclusive, much can only implicate and help support the work police and investigators do to find criminals. He includes a lot of false positives to teach students the danger of drawing premature conclusions and making accusations without absolute proof, he said.

Finally, and perhaps most conclusively, on the last day of Finster’s residency the students examined fingerprints from the ransom note and looked for an identical match that would lead them to one of the four suspects.

In the afternoon, when the chemical analyses were complete, Yellow Springs police officer Matt Hoying dragged in all four suspects for a thorough interrogation in front of the students.

It was Margaret Alden who finally broke down and confessed, explaining away all the false positives that may have implicated others. Geoffrey and Billy were chagrined; Allison and Malaika were affirmed.

This is the second consecutive year that Finster has volunteered to lead the sixth-graders through a weeklong scientist-in-residency program at Mills Lawn that illustrates how science helps police solve crimes. The residency, funded through the school’s Interest Learning Education and scientist-in-residence special projects budget, is something Finster feels strongly about continuing because he believes in Mills Lawn’s mission.

“The teachers here are so great, and I like to support them,” he said.

Having taught for 23 years, Finster also believes that America is falling behind in the sciences, and, he said, he wants to get younger students excited about the field so that later some may choose to pursue it as a career.

“I mention to them you can do this in real life if you go to college and take the right courses. We’re doing real science here,” he said. “There’s a good chance amongst these 60 kids that some might end up doing exactly this.”