Campers Learn About Crime Investigation at CSI Camp

Campers at the University of New Haven are wrapping up another season of the university’s CSI Academy. 

During two, one-week sessions, high school students from around the region come to the West Haven campus to learn about careers in crime scene investigation, forensics and criminal justice. 

The camp aims to give kids something close to real world experience by showing them the sometimes graphic reality of careers investigating crimes. 

The camp culminates at UNH’s crime scene house, where several lifelike crime scenarios — including a murder-suicide and a drug deal gone wrong — are staged and students must analyze the scenes and figure out what may have happened.

“They have to process this death scene. Some may be a natural death, some may be a suicide, some may be a homicide. They’re going to have to determine what it is through the evidence, through information from the medical examiner’s office, through the forensic lab” said camp instructor Peter Massey, a former Hamden Police officer.

Many of the students said they want to pursue careers in the fields they learned about in camp.

“I really like blood and DNA and all of that stuff, so I would really like to work in a lab analyzing blood samples,” Samantha Markham, a rising senior at Jonathan Law High School, said.

“I’ve learned that this job is a lot more graphic than I had originally signed up for. But overall the whole science behind it is really cool,” said Nicole Catarino, a rising junior at Rahm High School.

To learn more about UNH’s CSI program, visit the school's website.

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