​Instructor: Amy Santoro, MFS, CBPA, CSCSA     
Course length: 24 hours

This three-day (24-hour) Advanced Crime Scene Investigations course is designed for crime scene investigators, technicians, and detectives who have a moderate level of experience working in the field of crime scene investigations.
 
Topics:
Day 1:  Advanced Biological Evidence Processing (8 hours):
  • Students will learn the scientific underpinnings of presumptive and confirmatory tests for blood, semen, and saliva. Students will learn how to better explain the reactions while testifying in a court of law.  (lecture)
  • Implementing a non-destructive blood searching workflow: students will learn the best way to process scenes when searching for latent blood to ensure the best possible sample is collected for DNA analysis.  (lecture and hands on)
  • Students will evaluate complex overlapping bloodstain patterns and evaluate stains for collection.  (lecture and hands on)
  • Students will earn about sequential processing with regard to biological evidence and chemical enhancement.

Day 2: Processing Sexual Assault Scenes: Beyond the Bed Sheets (8 hours):
  • Building on the skills they learned on day one, students will learn about processing major sexual assault crime scenes, including scenes from prolonged/consistent sexual abuse.
  • Students will learn how to systematically search and process evidence for the presence of seminal fluid with the goal of selecting the best stains for laboratory DNA analysis and streamlining the evidence submission process.  (lecture and hands on)
  • Students will learn about advanced on-scene dead body processing in sexually motivated homicides, including developing latent prints from human skin.
 
Day 3: Processing Major Scenes (8 hours):
  • Students will learn how to prepare for mass fatality scenes (including homicides of multiple persons/mass shootings).
  • Students will learn a systematic approach for dealing with bullet damage in major crime scenes, including scenes with multiple areas of damage on various substrates.  A methodology for tracing bullet flight path and "road mapping" corresponding damage will be discussed. 
  • Students will learn how to evaluate potential firearms evidence on scene, how to evaluate fired projectiles to associate them to areas of damage present within the scene, and how to triage evidence for forensic laboratory analysis, and how to triage evidence to gather information about the minimum number of firearms involved in an event.
  • Advanced persons processing lecture: discussion about processing witnesses, suspects, and victims as it relates to sexual assaults and homicides.  Topics will include sequential processing of potential shooters and ALS photography of assault victims (to document trace and biological evidence as well as latent/healed injuries). 
Amy Santoro, MFS, CBPA, CSCSA  
Holding ​a Bachelor of Science degree in Forensics and a Master of Science in Forensic Science,  Amy Santoro is recognized by the International Association for Identification as a Certified Crime Scene Analyst. ​ 

Amy enjoys teaching and has taught courses in crime scene investigation and forensic photography to law enforcement and forensic practitioners. She is also an adjunct university professor, teaching undergraduate classes in forensic biology and general forensic science.

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