Portraits of Crime
In 2010, a Tucson crime scene investigator, Josh Randall, receives a dispatch call, he quickly heads to the scene informed the case is arson. The owners of the home spend their summers in Canada, so no injuries or fatalities are reported.
As Randall waits for firefighters to finish he walks around the property, he sees something peculiar. Inside the garage a vent was smashed in. Following intuition, he goes outside of the garage. He notices the outside vent was intact, but all the paint was flaked off the screws.
Alerting an onsite detective, Randall says; “I think someone took this screen off and went through here.” All signs point to a sloppy arson. The spread of the fire started from three different places.
Meanwhile, a strangely inquisitive neighbor watches the investigation and even asks Randall; “What are you doing?” and “What are you looking for?” The unusual line of questioning gives Randall a bad vibe, he and detectives make note.
Among the charred furniture and burnt walls, cables for a television lay on the floor next to the living room wall. It appears a burglary could have occurred. After the home owners were notified of the incident, they reported their television stolen.
Determined to solve this crime, Randall and detectives used a police database of recently pawned items. As expected, the TV was listed. From the pawnshop surveillance footage, the nosy neighbor was seen selling the stolen item, a month before the fire.
The arson case ruled, the neighbor broke into the vacant home through the garage vent, burglarized it, then returned to the home a month later.
“He probably got spooked thinking he was going to be caught, so goes back and tries to set the house on fire, maybe to destroy evidence,” said Randall.
The neighbor was sentenced to 12-years in prison. Case closed.
Helping solve cases is what motivates Randall in his career. Beginning in 2005, he spent eight years in the field for Tucson Crime Scene where he covered roughly 2,500 cases. Taking thousands of photographs and collecting countless fingerprints and DNA samples for forensic examination.
Today, he sits in his organized office. Four years ago, he was promoted from Crime Scene Specialist Supervisor, a position that supervises other Crime Scene Specialists, to Identification Superintendent, the overall manager of the entire Identification department. Now, Randall investigates budgets and administrative issues.
He doesn’t go out in the field much but misses the unpredictable crime scene activity. Every day he directs the small team that does his old job. With the new title, came new responsibilities and difficulties, “My biggest issues now are personnel,” he said.
Working in crime scene can take a mental toll. The small unit is the only department that examines crime scenes for all of Tucson, “These guys are responsible for close to a half a million people in the metro area,” said Randall.
When a crime against a person occurs in Tucson, like an aggravated assault, homicide, domestic violence, theft and even automobile accidents; on scene officers can make the call for an investigator.
On 24-hour rotation, 18 investigators grouped in small squads of three stand by. Once called upon, a single investigator will go to the crime scene to photograph and collect any evidence left behind.
“A lot of our new guys struggle with the idea of working overnight shifts, a lot of them have never done that before,” said Randall. Other than long, odd hours that turn investigators nocturnal. A big hurdle for most newbies, is dealing with death. Randall had to overcome that early in his career.
“Before I started I had never really seen a dead body before, realizing that those things could be a daily occurrence, that was the biggest surprise to me,” he said.
The crime scenes don’t always involve a death, however, most cases deal with the worst side of humanity, so the team does its best to help each other. It’s encouraged for employees having difficulty with the job to seek help through the psychiatric personnel. It is important for these employees to have a balanced mindset when on the job.
“It’s a little surreal, you look at that person and there’s no life left in them, but you separate that and you know you have a job to do,” said Randall.
Randall’s investigators appear to deal with this task just fine.
On a Saturday afternoon the building is occupied by a small weekend skeleton crew and investigators. The squad consists of, Alex Brauer, Jessica Leafstone and Crime Scene Specialist Supervisor, Ed Arnaud. From 2:00pm–12:00am the city of Tucson is under their watch.
Waiting for calls, the squad sits at their desks doing clerical work. Playful banter goes back and forth like any office job. Then a ding of a computer brings in the first case of the night. It’s a domestic violence call.
Randall and members of the squad all agree that domestic violence calls are the most common.
This situation sounds serious, a beaten woman was found in the fetal position in a fast food restaurant bathroom, she was taken to the emergency room. Leafstone takes the case. Loading her camera and other equipment into her van, she heads to the hospital.
For Leafstone, dealing with the mental difficulties of job is not hard. At age 27, she has been an investigator for a little over two years. Similar to Randall, she can mentally separate herself from her work. “It’s hard to explain how I do it, but I just do,” she said. “Getting the job done” comes up again as a common theme amongst Randall and his employees.
Arriving in the emergency room, officers and doctors examine the frail woman. Writhing in pain, she has bruises along her arms and legs. Her eyelids are purple and her lips are swollen. Leafstone waits for the briefing and approval from the officer to take photographs. During the briefing, an officer informs there was strangulation.
Leafstone is given access to the woman. She photos each arm, each leg, the bruises on her face, the red marks on her neck and exploded blood vessels in her right eye. The officer holds a ruler next to the abrasions for scale in the photographs. Leafstone’s soft voice guides the woman to look and turn in certain directions to get specific shots.
Randall says this part can be difficult for domestic violence survivors, that being photographed can make them feel like they’re re-living it.
Leafstone reads aloud a DNA collection consent form. Strangulation is a felony in the state of Arizona and collecting swabs from the woman’s neck, Leafstone is collecting two types of DNA, the victim’s and potentially the person who strangled her.
She doesn’t have to agree to a buccal collection, swabbing the inside of the mouth, because her DNA would be in the Tucson Police Department database. However, consenting helps Crime Scene accurately do their job.
The woman agrees holding back tears. The cotton swabs from her neck bruises, mouth and detailed images will be used later if this case goes to trial. Each image and DNA sample is indisputable evidence of the crime that took place.
For investigators, getting the job done means putting aside feelings, to focus on the task at hand. By collecting evidence correctly, the perpetrator is more likely to get the correct and just punishment. After photographing the woman, Leafstone reloads the van and drives to the police station to photograph the suspect.
Other members of this squad are also unfazed by the unending crime. “Nothing really surprises me,” says Brauer. In his late twenties, he’s been in the field for almost four years. Feeling confident and prepared, he feels the department have given him the tools to do the job.
Arnaud, 20-year TPD veteran, loves the job and says it’s about helping the citizens, “We can make a difference,” he says.
Later that night, a call comes in for a shooting in South Tucson. Leafstone heads out again to photograph the scene. The street was sectioned off with yellow police tape. At the center, a backpack and pile of bloody clothes. Paramedics already took the victim to a nearby hospital, all that’s left is the aftermath for Leafstone to piece together.
Officers, point out a bloody trail leading from the clothes to the side of a nearby building. Beside the structure, bullet holes mark the wall and bullet cases are spread out along the ground.
Leafstone has to photograph the clothes, every bullet hole, every weapon and traces of blood around the scene. There is a lot of evidence, supervisor Arnaud arrives to assist and swab the blood for DNA testing.
For a few hours, the two investigators mark and photo every piece of evidence. The point is to build a recreation of the scene through pictures. If this shooting leads to a court case these images will be examined by legal teams and a jury. Nothing can be missed by Leafstone and Arnaud.
The time spent investigating crimes help close many cases, but there have been times where Crime Scene’s best efforts go unrewarded. For Randall, the Isabel Celis case comes to mind.
In 2012, the 6-year-old girl was kidnapped from her Tucson home, her body wasn’t found until last year.
Randall was one of the investigators and spent days examining her home in 2012. His unit invested a lot of time and resources to locate the girl, but to this day that case is unsolved.
Even though Randall has seen years of crime and violence in Tucson, he still loves the city, “I don’t let any of the negativity affect me.” Randall has a fulfilling home life that brings stability. He hopes to one day teach and train local law enforcement, reflecting on what keeps people in this work, he says, “I think the positivity is what you do this for.”
Snippets of other crimes also hang around in Randall’s memories, driving around Tucson he occasionally sees locations of past crimes scenes. Like most law enforcement, he uses humor to deal with it. Joking with his girlfriend, he’ll point out convenience stores and tell her how many times he’s worked there. He even jokes, “I’ve been to every strip club in Tucson, just not off duty.”
Randall isn’t the only one with lasting memories. The office contains a binder called “Photobook of Interesting Cases,” the collage of images is not for the weak stomached. At times crime scenes can be grisly. Just listing dead bodies and horrific injuries would be an oversimplification. For Randall, its part of his responsibility to make sure his team can handle it.
Part of the recruiting and hiring process includes polygraph tests, lengthy psychological examinations and Randall takes them on a field trip to the morgue to fingerprint and photograph a deceased body.
The process is not for shock value, but to assess how comfortable a new hire works with the deceased. “Some people get a little nervous, a little shaky,” says Randall, “yet they still separate those feelings and get the job done.”
Randall is a big proponent of this type of training since it was not always available to his team. When he became superintendent, he made sure that investigators would have proper preparation since they witness the same scenes as first responders.
The morgue test has been implemented by Randall the past four years and everyone has successfully passed, so far.
For the superintendent it’s simple, “You either handle it or you don’t, and I think most people that get into this do a fine job at it.”