The night is empty of a moon. A shot rings out. A body falls. There is a
victim, a suspect and a weapon. CSI arrives, the crime is solved, the bad guy goes
to jail and everybody else goes home for a good night's sleep. Well, not quite.
What's real and what's not when writing the crime scene? Let's look
at a few flaws.
1. Not all Bad Guys are Dark and Mysterious.
Dark, beady-eyed, dirty hair, messy clothes, we all know the type. It makes the
criminal easy to pick out of a line-up, right? Wrong. The reality is bad guys
(and gals) come in as many shapes, sizes, characters and profiles as there are human
beings. You can't tell a criminal just by looking at him or her.
2. Not all wounds bleed visibly and profusely.
Just because someone is injured, it doesn't mean they'll bleed over all everything in
sight. It depends so much on the type of wound, the instrument that inflicted the
wound, where the wound is located, gravity, temperature, medications,
humidity...it's a long list. But unlike the movies, just because someone is
stabbed, it doesn't mean the victim will develop a huge crimson stain and leave a trail of
blood droplets behind them. Some wounds may be extensive but cause little outward
bleeding. A closed head wound is one example. What if the victim is in six
feet of snow? He or she may bleed less than someone with the very same wound but
spread out on a beach in the middle of summer. Think about the differences
between an ice pick, serrated steak knife and a hollow point bullet. Each will cause
different kinds, sizes and types of wounds and different amounts of blood loss in
different people.
3. Suspects rarely confess at the scene of the crime or when confronted with
evidence.
Example: A man shot his lover, several people witnessed the act, and the man fully
admitted he shot her but swore all the way to medium security prison after his trial that
he didn't kill her. Both the coroner and the jury seemed to conclude the single
gunshot wound to the victim's head was fatal. The suspect never gave a
"confession."
4. Not all bodies are the victims.
Example: The husband roughs up his wife. She grabs the first thing she sees, a
bowling ball, and strikes at him in self-defense (no pun intended). He falls, she
panics and runs to police to report he is beating her. She files abuse charges.
It's not until later she discovers she delivered the final strike of his tenth
frame. (Okay, pun intended.) Who's the victim? Who's the suspect? You've
got the body. You've got names, you're writing the report but on which report do you
list the victim? The suspect?
5. Not all stabbing victims die on the spot.
Actually a large number of stabbing victims stagger backwards in an attempt to
escape their assailant. If the victim is able to move at all, during or after the
attack, they will try to escape the assailant and the area where they were injured.
They have usually touched or covered their wound with their hands, then as they
stumble away they often leave hand prints and smears along their escape route on walls,
floors, doorknobs and more.
6. Not all blood at crime scenes is always human.
What if a victim's family has pets or animals living in the house? Let's say one day
the dog and cat take after each other. There's likely to be some kind of blood
letting event. What does a dog do when it sees its master? Wags it
tail-against the wall, the floor, the couch...you name it. But, there will be traces
of blood, even minute, which can be detected. The beauty of a CSI unit is that they
can run a test that is human specific. The test will only react to human blood, not
ape, not dog, not Iguana-only human blood. Arriving at a crime scene, blood may be
present on the walls, floor, etc. but it doesn't always mean it belongs to the victim.
7. Cause of death is determined by a pathologist or coroner, not CSI.
This is probably one of the most common mistakes I see in writing. Crime Scene Teams
are to collect, preserve and process crime scene evidence. Even if the wounds are
obviously mortal to the body or the body has obviously been deceased for some time, CSI
cannot officially pronounce the body "dead". Only a coroner or pathologist
can make that call.
8. Gunshot victims rarely catapult backwards when shot.
If a victim is shot in the abdomen, he or she will tend to initially feel like the wind
has been knocked out of them, then bend over as the pain signal reaches the brain.
If someone is shot point black in the chest with a shotgun, yes, it's possible they
might catapult backwards to some degree. But, I have yet to read a case where the
victim was thrown 30 feet across a room from a gunshot.
9. Just because it fluoresces when sprayed with Luminol, it doesn't mean it's blood.
Yes, it looks great when Luminol is sprayed on a stain then exposed to an ALS (alternate
light source such as black light) and it glows like Christmas. Unfortunately, blood
isn't the only thing with which Luminol reacts. Luminol does react with the heme of
blood but it can also react with copper salts, potato chips, dog urine and so much more,
especially metal based.
10. CSI doesn't solve the crime.
CSI collects, preserves and processes evidence from the crime scene. Although crime
scene evidence is crucial to building a case, it is usually the detectives, deputies, or
criminal investigators who do the actual interviewing of suspects and witnesses.
It's their job to investigate the crime. Crime scene evidence is only one
part of big picture of a crime. The evidence itself is just one component.
Is it real? Is it fiction? The beauty of fiction is that we
can write a story with any details we want. But sometimes it helps to know what's
fact and what's just television drama. I hope explaining the ten fatal flaws listed
above help explain the difference.
Becci Clayton (w/a Becci Davis) has ten years experience in law enforcement and is
married to a "real" CSI agent. She is the romance fiction guide at
About.com and the new publisher of Bridges Magazine (www.bridgesmag.com), a print
magazine focused on the needs of today's readers and writers of romantic and women's
fiction.
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