Anatomy of a crime scene

"That's got to be a grave."

Stuart Smith, member of the Flathead County sheriff's posse, pointed to a patch of ground as a group of people clustered around him.

"How do you know?" Kathy Taylor asked.

Smith knelt and gestured to an area that had been marked with flags less than an hour earlier.

"The sod's been cut," he said, pointing out near-perfect lines where the roots of the grass had been sliced.

Taylor, forensic anthropologist with the King County Medical Examiner's Office in Washington, nodded, then asked the group what to do next. Someone suggested simply lifting the sod off, like a crumbly, grassy lid, but Taylor stopped them.

"Are you sure it's cut all the way around?" she asked.

Carmen Ramirez and Jim Schneider, reserve deputies with the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, dropped to their knees beside Smith. They gingerly traced the edges where the sod had been cut. There were only three sides; whoever had dug the hole had left one side attached, like a hinge.

They carefully flipped the sod onto a tarp, revealing disturbed dirt underneath. A couple of blades of grass poked up from the soil, streaks of green that would never grow under a layer of sod.

Someone obviously had dug a hole here. The carefully replaced sod cover and the absence of dirt piles around the hole suggested they'd buried something they didn't want found.

On Friday and Saturday, more than 30 people from various agencies across Western Montana gathered at the Flathead County Search and Rescue Office to learn the basics of crime-scene investigation. Search and Rescue from North Valley and Flathead, Lake and Missoula counties were joined by members of the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, the Kalispell Police Department and the National Park Service.

Three experts from the Seattle area taught the class. In addition to Taylor, Kathleen Decker, a tracker and detective with the King County Sheriff's Major Crime Unit, and her supervisor, Sgt. Mark Toner, led the training.

Kim Gilmore and Janet Yatchak, president and vice president of Flathead County SAR, were determined to bring the class to Kalispell after attending similar training in Red Lodge a couple of years ago.

"Right away we started talking about bringing it back," Yatchak said.

Decker, Toner and Taylor have taught similar classes throughout the Northwest and were glad to provide instruction. Friday night was the classroom part of the training; participants learned about processing crime scenes. On Saturday, it was time to put the classroom learning to work.

Class members were told that local law-enforcement officials had retrieved a bone, which the forensic anthropologist confirmed had been buried. Law enforcement also had received calls about a suspicious person repeatedly visiting the yard behind the SAR office.

When they'd been briefed, participants went to work.

First, trackers swept the scene in slow, deliberate steps, searching for footprints, disturbed soil and anything else that might prove useful in unraveling the mystery. Everything suspicious or out of place was flagged.

Next, it was time to call in the dogs. Scent-discriminating dogs are specially trained to distinguish between live odors and those from cadavers.

Four dogs showed interest in a number of areas. Some of them corresponded with places flagged by the trackers. Others were completely new.

The area indicated by Smith had been flagged by dogs and trackers. When the sod cover was removed, Ramirez and Schneider began sifting through the dirt, layer by careful layer, with trowels and gloved hands. Smith stood nearby with a digital camera, ready to photograph the evidence as it was unearthed.

He didn't have to wait long. After removing only a couple of inches of soil, Ramirez uncovered something hard and white. Using a paintbrush, she swept more dirt away, revealing what most agreed was probably a skull.

They couldn't be certain, though, until they'd gotten a little deeper. As Ramirez and Schneider continued their careful excavation, two more people sifted the dirt through a screen, searching for any evidence the diggers might have missed.

It was a long, slow process - one that took most of the day. But when it comes to this kind of work, the old adage is true: Haste really does make waste.

"You walk onto a scene and it's like, wow. It's overwhelming," said Rod Vestre, deputy with Flathead County. "You have to be so patient and work so slow. You need to take your time. Time is so important."

Finally, after hours of sweeping, sifting and sweating, the team uncovered a skeleton prone in the grave. A rope was wrapped around the neck and ankles, and the femurs - thighbones - and a pair of shoes lay atop the ribs, indicating the killer had bent the victim's legs back.

This likely was done to save space, Taylor said. If the body was folded up, the killer wouldn't have to dig such a long hole.

Three more graves and a couple of holes containing evidence were unearthed Saturday. Each had been carefully dug the day before by Gilmore, Yatchak and the team from Seattle. The bones were actual human bones, supplied by Taylor's office.

Animal bones were scattered across another part of the yard. The class practiced looking for "surface scatter" by forming a straight line, elbow to elbow, and walking slowly, focusing on the ground directly in front of them.

Typically, SAR members wouldn't process a crime scene, Yatchak said. Their job usually involves finding missing people, but learning to identify potential crime scenes was a valuable skill. And in a real mass-murder situation, with circumstances similar to those in Saturday's training, they might be needed.

"I wouldn't assume that you guys as SAR people are never going to work a scene," Taylor said.

When the training was finished, Toner praised the SAR volunteers for their work. The whole class had been exceptional, he said, but the people who were there and not getting paid for it deserved a lot of credit.

"The dedication and involvement that the volunteers give on these things continually inspires me," he said. "Hats off to you folks."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.