ANDERSON COUNTY (WVLT) -- Crime scene investigators from across the country have been in Oak Ridge the last 10 weeks to attend a renowned state-of-the-art forensic academy.

The National Forensic Academy opened eight years ago and has doubled in size from 13 students to 26.

In Part One of our series on the academy, Volunteer TV News was allowed to tag along for special training in blood stain pattern analysis training.

The training is how forensic investigators are able to tell how, when and where a murder victim died.

To help with the training, instructors set up a mock crime scene for the students. When they first arrive, they look around but don’t move anything. Their job is to analyze what happened by the patterns left by blood stains on all surfaces.

"I usually start where the body is and work backwards," said Paulette Sutton, an instructor and crime scene expert with 30 years of experience with the Memphis Medical Examiner's office.

Sutton now teaches investigators what she has learned after years in the field.

"You have to look at the first is passive drops,” she recommends to her students, “and the different things that will affect the way a drop looks."

There are many things you can tell by how the blood appears at a crime scene. She tells students to target things that can affect a stain, the volume, how high it is and how far the blood drops. Once that is done, you can calculate the impact and understand what kind of weapon was used.

On the mock crime scene, the lowest blood spatters were supposed to show someone who was getting stabbed.

"It subdivides the blood into smaller stains,” said Sutton. “Those are spatter gunshots with more energy and more subdivision of the smaller drops."

There are also “cast off” stains, which appear when the blood comes off a weapon onto the wall or ceiling.

Connie Justice has been with the Memphis Police Department for 24 years. She has spent the last eight in the Memphis Homicide Bureau and was even featured on the hit TV show First 48.

"It's a little intimidating when you first walk in to a crime scene," said Justice.
She is learning a lot about blood stains at the academy, but the number one thing she has learned about has been teamwork.

"It's not about me,” she said. “It's a team concept; because where I'm weak someone else is strong."

Grover Huff is a Texas Ranger with Company A from Liberty, Texas. He has learned a great deal about analyzing a crime scene and using caution in the process.

"You need to be very conscious of making calls and you have to stay on top of the training,” he said.

The 10 week program is made up of more than 400 hours of training. That includes 170 hours of in-class work and 230 hours of field work. You’ll learn more about the National Forensic Academy on Wednesday, March 18th 2009.