Jessica Mendofik, a forensic scientist with BCI, demonstrates how they pull prints using ultra violet light. Visit www.sent-trib.com to watch a video.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
Crime fighting and forensic science hit a milestone with the 100-year anniversary of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
A fall ceremony at the Bowling Green State University office was followed by facility tours of the laboratories.
“You’ve helped make Ohio a better place to live for the last 100 years,” Carol O’Brien, deputy attorney general for law enforcement, said to the room of current and former staff.
The Ohio BCI has been on the cutting edge of science and investigation and on a world and national level.
“I know, from personal experience and being involved in some of the investigations, that the labs have helped identify remains of citizens of other states, so we have helped families come to closure on those situations,” O’Brien said. “We work collaboratively with investigators, scientists and latent fingerprints coming from all over the country on the database.”
She said that the investigations units have helped in the arrests of known and suspected serial killers. BCI officers provided critical investigative skills in identifying Jeffery Dahmer, Samuel Legg III and Richard Beasley.
Attorney General Dave Yost was not able to be at the Sept. 1 event in-person, but provided a recorded address.
“We have a deep seated need for fairness and justice,” Yost said. “We all know what it feels like to be wronged, to be denied justice, because it scars us for so long. The second thing to know is that justice is not a naturally occurring event.”
The BCI was started as a records bureau in 1921. It employed inmates from the Ohio Penitentiary to perform record keeping. Those records included criminal files and fingerprint records.
Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn commented on what was most important in crime scene investigation at the time of the opening of the BCI.
“Fingerprints. I think fingerprints were important evidence, even a hundred years ago. Today it’s DNA,” he said. “Yes, fingerprints, even today, are an important part of crime scene evidence, but the more we do with DNA, the quicker we turn times around, the more the database is out there. DNA is solving more and more crimes. I see DNA as being the main process and BCI is the focal point in analyzing DNA for us.”
A video, detailing the history of the BCI highlighted advances and significant moments, was shown at the ceremony.
In the 1970s special investigations introduced computers, in the 1980s the mass spectrometer was introduced and a cyber crimes unit was created in 1997. In 1998 BCI did its first DNA analysis.
The Bowling Green BCI facility was built in 2014. In 2020 the quantitative analysis of marijuana, to distinguish legalized cannabis from the illegal drug, was added.
“If you think about it, we are accurately identifying the people who engage in criminal activity. That brings justice for the victims and it gets people off the street that are dangerous and that brings safety and security to families. To have this facility in Bowling Green, what a great collaboration,” Ohio Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, said.
BGSU Police Chief Mike Campbell has also seen many benefits over the years.
“I think it has been a tremendous partnership. It has allowed us to work closely with BCI. Obviously, being across the parking lot makes it easy on us, but it has been a resource for them as well as us, not to mention the academic component. So that partnership with BGSU, from an academic perspective has also been pushing the forensics aspects of law enforcement in criminal justice has been great for our students as well, “ he said.
A behind-the-scenes tour of the facility included the latent fingerprint identification labs, the chemistry lab for marijuana testing, the trace lab and the firing range.
Forensic scientists demonstrated numerous ways to pull fingerprints from objects.
One method, demonstrated by Jessica Mendofik, used a fluorescent blue light with a dye stain and orange filter glasses to show hidden fingerprints on a seemingly clean aluminum soda can.
“Oh my, that is disgusting. You can see everything on that can,” Gavarone said.
Simultaneous ceremonies were held at other Ohio BCI locations in London and Richfield.
