Skeletal remains were discovered Wednesday morning in the woods behind Motlow College.
Fortunately, it was a class project for students in the criminology course taught by Dayron Deaton-Owens and the anatomy-physiology course taught by Gregg Garrison.
“We came up with the crime scene idea so students could utilize skills from both classes,” said Deaton-Owens.
Students from the criminology class had to first analyze the scene and look for evidence. Yellow crime scene tape marked off the area. Potential clues were scattered around the woods, but students were not told what was a clue and what wasn’t.
“We had a strangulation device on the scene,” said Deaton-Owens. “Hopefully they will look at it and determine there’s blood.”
After the scene was processed, the evidence was turned over to students in the anatomy-physiology course. They were to determine from the remains if the person was male or female and to look for missing bones.
“The students will put the skeleton together,” said Garrison. “They’re pretty good at that.”
The project was a chance to teach students outside of the normal classroom setting. The instructors used the case of Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, as the basis for their investigation and placed clues accordingly.
Ridgway is the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, having been convicted of murdering 49 women in Washington state in the 1980s and ’90s.
However, it is believed that number could exceed 70. Most of his victims were believed to be prostitutes and other women in vulnerable situations. He killed by strangulation.