How to Eat an Elephant

If there’s one thing to learn from Karen Smith, it’s that crime scene reconstruction is not for everyone. Her keen attention to minute detail has earned Smith a stellar reputation in the industry. “In one case, the medical examiner discovered a strange bruising pattern on the victim’s scalp and they needed to know what caused it,” she explains. “Looking around the crime scene, I finally discovered the corner of a bedpost that matched the bruising. The victim had hit her head on the bedpost when she fell.”

Consider the laser-like focus one must possess to survey the chaos of a a violent crime scene and make such an obscure connection. As a crime scene reconstructionist, Smith does it every day. She’ll take the stage at CrimeCon: On the Run to demonstrate the painstaking task of reconstructing the sequence of events in a real-life murder case.

“This particular case was messed up from the get-go,” says Smith. Acting on the misguided advice of a veteran investigator, two rookie CSIs unwittingly jeopardized evidence at the scene. Realizing they were out of their depth, the team again called for reinforcements. “I ended up working for three or four days to recreate the crime scene.”

Smith goes on to describe how the gruesome scene told investigators the story of the crime, which the audience will hear about in detail. “It’s like eating an elephant,” she says. “You just have to take it one bite at a time. The evidence leads us down a path. If you break it down into small chunks, you can see patterns emerge.”

Smith will be joined at CrimeCon: On The Run by deception detection expert Steven David Lampley and Bronx Cold Case Unit investigator Joe Giacalone. Together, the three will take the audience through the major milestones in the lifecycle of an investigation: from the crime scene to the interrogation room to the cold case files.

“In the end, the audience will come away understanding how all these different teams work together to investigate cases,” Smith explains. Oh, one more thing to keep in mind: if anyone on the team misses anything, the perpetrator could walk free. “It’s a lot of pressure. If you’re not terrified, you’re not doing it right.”