This class was murder

It might not have rivaled “NCIS” or “Law & Order” in edge-of-your-seat plot, but Saturday’s murder mystery at Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center still had detectives pouring over the crime scene with all the grit and intensity of the real thing.

“Detectives” is a slight exaggeration. More like detective wanna-be’s. Ten high school students took up the challenge in a regional crime scene investigation contest.

Overseen by Myron Travis, Criminal Justice instructor at Sno-Isle, and officers from several local police departments, the mystery entailed a murder victim mannequin sprawled on the floor, surrounded by blood splatter, bullet casings, a white powder in a baggie, and several C-notes.

Also, he had a bloody knife in his hand. He went down fighting.

According to Travis, himself a former Mukilteo Police officer, most tech school students are members of SkillsUSA, a workforce development organization for students. According to their website, they “empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members.”

Saturday’s crime investigation was a regional SkillsUSA contest. The winners – Claire Rivers, whose home school is Kamiak High, and Grace Barker, whose home school is Jackson High – earned the opportunity to compete in the state competition at Clover Park Technical College in April.

Travis’s Criminal Justice class at Sno-Isle currently has 49 students interested in criminal justice careers. All but seven are females. Besides careers in police work, students are interested in law, the FBI and other law enforcement careers, he said.

“So this is the foundation for introducing them to real world, real life exposure to what it's like to be a police officer, what it's like to work in those industries,” Travis said. “We try to be consistent with real world, real life experiences as it relates to police work.”

The increase in females moving into law enforcement careers played out Saturday, too, when the students broke up into teams to study clues – all of them girls.

Travis said part of the reason may be the changing job descriptions in police work and related careers.

“As police work becomes more technical-based, it’s attracting more females,’ Travis said. “This course also includes college credit.” More females are going to college, while male enrollment is dropping.

‘If you can run and shoot and fight the bad guys, it attracts more males,” he said. “But more technical writing and similar skills attract more females.”

Still, even the girls were drawn to criminal justice careers by growing up with popular crime shows when action usually overshadowed the lab work and other detailed-oriented tasks needed to solve mysteries.

One of the student teams – Jimena Soltero from Mariner High and Nadia Nechyporuk and Kailyann Deneker, both from Everett High – said TV shows first drew their interest.

“I wanted to do crime scene investigations since I was 8 years old,” Deneker said. “I watched all the crime shows.”

Whatever their motivation, Officer Eleseana Quintanar of the Edmonds Police Department said she was encouraged to see more females interested in criminal justice careers.

Quintanar, who joined the Edmonds force three years ago, said her father was in law enforcement, and that inspired her. Now she’d like to inspire the next generation, especially females and minorities.

That’s part of the reason she agreed to judge Saturday’s competition. “I wanted to be part of the effort to attract minority women and women of color,” Quintanar said, “being someone you can look up to, seeing people that look like them.”

Detective Eric Ofori of the Mukilteo Police Department, another judge, said he got into police work because he wanted to know “how best to help my community.”

Seeing young people interested in similar careers cheered him.
“I’m absolutely encouraged by the kids,” he said. “It’s a real positive for us to be here and help guide them. It’s inspiring.”

Saturday’s contest required students to undertake a range of tasks, including evidence collection, fingerprint identification, crime scene mapping, interpretation and processing, and other skills.

Coming up with a hypothesis of what actually happened? That wasn’t part of this contest. Just like in some of those TV police shows, you readers are left to come up with your own theory. Cue the butler.