TBI Gives Inside Look At Forensics Lab

Описание: NewsChannel9 got an inside look at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and how agents solve crimes in East Tennessee.

When mobile crime labs arrive at a scene, they collect anything and everything from shoes to tire tracks and more to find the culprit. Sometimes investigators have to return to crimes scenes for more.

"On day three or four, we end up interviewing a witness and they make some type of statement that gives us some information. We know something more, and now we remember something we saw back at that scene that at the moment wasn't relevant at all," said Jason Locke, a TBI special agent involved in criminal investigations.

That all leads back to DNA testing and fingerprinting where officials can connect the dots. Forensics lab assistant director Mike Lyttle explained the system they tap into when they have unknown samples.

"It is a collection of known DNA profiles collected from convicted offenders of certain crimes and in Tennessee people arrested of certain crimes," said Lyttle.

TBI's halls have helped find those believed responsible for some of the highest profile investigations. In the NewsChannel9 viewing area, that includes finding TBI's most wanted fugitives like Cortez Sims, the teen accused of murder and attempted murder in Chattanooga on New Years Day. Special agents told NewsChannel9's Briona Arradondo how they catch suspects on the run.

"The large majority of it is just good old determination and getting out and talking to people, and eventually you find out," said Louis Kynkendall, a special agent involving the fugitive division. "None of us live on islands. If a fugitive wants to not be caught, don't talk to anybody, don't talk to any of your old family, don't get a girlfriend."

When it comes to homicides like the one Sims is accused of, that gun-related evidence is tested at TBI. Scientists use an indoor firing range to test a variety of things, such as how far a distance that a gun was fired.

"And then I can enter one of those cartridge cases or the images of the cartridge case into the database," explained a gun lab analyst.

When it comes to DNA, investigators said that lab testing may sometimes get backlogged for 18 weeks. But there are certain cases agents can prioritize to get results faster, officials said.

TBI officials said their forensics lab handles nearly 3,000 cases each year.

By Briona Arradondo