THERE WAS A CRIME COMMITED IN VEGAS

I just got back from Las Vegas and wanted to share my trip with you. However, we have all seen the big pretty Casinos, heard the gambling stories and read the reviews of the shows.

I wanted to share a different part of Vegas with you.

I went to the CSI Experience at the MGM. Since I had not heard of this before I figured most of you hadn't either.

It clearly says, NO PHOTOS but you know me, sometimes I click away in places I shouldn't be. Yet, this can lead to not so great photos. So, please excuse the quality of the following photos.

Come along, join me as we go through the CSI Experience and see if we can solve one of three crimes the Las Vegas CSI is working on.

The case assigned to us was a car crash. The car crashed into a house and in the drivers seat was a dead man.

A car owned by the man behind the wheel. He was also the owner of the house. At first glance it appears that this is nothing more then an accident. No crime was committed.

Yet, we all know that sometimes the more you look at something, the more you find things that don't match up.

Like blood outside of the car. It appears as if someone walked in it and something was dragged through the blood.

Do you see the beer bottle? Could the driver have been drinking?

Looking at the car it's self you see a cracked windshield with blood on the inside.

The driver must have hit his head. Also, blood on the car hood, hand prints and molding with blood drops. How could that be?

If the driver was inside the car at all times, then how could blood be on the outside of the car.

Time to check the blood and see if everything matches up. Also, what about the finger prints and hand prints? Who do they belong to?

We must check the blood on the floor and the footprint could give us a clue too.

Dusting the beer bottle and checking DNA on the saliva give us some answers. The saliva matches the man behind the wheel but the finger prints don't.

Strange.

We also found out the prints on the hood of the car don't match the dead man either.

Plus we found out, there is a big wound on the right rear side of his head. Nothing in the front.

If he had hit the windshield then how did he get that injury? How did blood get on the windshield?

The blood on the outside of the car and on the windshield, the floor and over on the couch pillow all match up to the man behind the wheel. How did it get there?

This is becoming stranger and stranger as the investigation goes on.

There was a piece of fiber in the wound on his head. Let's go to the lab and see if we can match it to anything.

Yes, it matches the pillow his blood was found on. How did it get in his wound?

At the lab we also found the foot print, we saw, does not match up to his shoes he was wearing. Nor do they match up to any he owns.

We also checked his blood levels. No drugs or alcohol in his system at all.

So let's see. All the blood matches the deceased, the saliva on the beer bottle matches up yet he has no alcohol in his system.

The finger prints and shoe print do match him.

It's time to go see what the autopsy report shows.

The X-Rays clearly show a blunt force trauma on the right side of his head. The Coroner says this was the cause of the death. He died instantly.

Checking inside the body we discover he had just eaten some pizza shortly before he died. Other then that, no other injuries were found.

As a side note, the way they show the autopsy is to show films over the body. So it appears you are looking inside a body, layer by layer.

Here we can see the skull and where the injury that killed him was.

We also know he died shortly before 2:00am.

Now that we gathered everything up, it's time to solve the crime. But wait! Do we have enough evidence to do so?

Let's go back and check the records at the lab one more time. How about if we input the data about the shoe print into the system and see if we can find out what kind of shoe it was. Yes! It's a size 11 New Balance shoe.

What about the finger prints? We know they don't belong to him. Could they belong to the pizza man? Did he somehow kill this man?

No, they belong to the brother of the deceased. He also has a record showing he was arrested before for DUI.

But that still doesn't explain how the blood of the deceased got outside of the car, how his saliva got on the beer bottle when he wasn't drinking and how he died from a blunt force trauma to the side of his head. Or does it?

Can you figure it out? What actually happened here? Was it just an accident or did we stumble upon a cover up of a of a murder? What do you think?

It's time to go to the boss and go over everything we have. Gil Grissom will know if we were able to solve the mystery or not.



Before he comes in, take a look around his office. This guys has some strange stuff in there.

Oh wait, sit down. Here he comes. He wants to hear my report and what I think or rather can explain happened here.

OK here goes nothing. If I am right, I will get my diploma. If not, well I'm back on the streets of Vegas with no job.

I have found, the man behind the wheel was the owner of both the house and the car. I believe he was home, ordered a pizza which was delivered. He then ate some, turned the TV on and fell asleep on the couch.(the fiber from the pillow found in his wound explains this)

He had loaned his car to his brother who went out drinking and was on his way back to return the car when he lost control, crashed through the wall and hit his brother, killing him.

Since he had a history of DUI he knew he would end up in prison for a long time and so he got out of the car. The beer bottle he had been drinking fell out of the car with blood dripping from his own wound on his head where he hit the windshield. The blood dripped on the floor and as he walked his shoe prints were made.

He then dragged his brother over to the car and put him in the drivers seat and put he seat belt on him making it appear he was driving. He then fled the scene.

Mr. Grissom was pleased with what I had reported. However, he wanted more.

If it was his brother who was actually driving and he had bled on the floor from a wound he received from hitting the windshield then why did the lab report a match of the blood on the floor and windshield to the deceased? Also, what about the saliva matching the deceased?

No problem, I could explain that. They were twins. The DNA in twins are the same. So even though the blood at the scene came from two people, the DNA matches up and appears as if it was only from one person. The same with the saliva on the beer bottle.

Yet, even though twins do share the same DNA they DO NOT share the same finger prints and the prints on the outside of the car match up to the brothers. He had put his hands down on the hood when he was walking over to the couch to pick up his brother's body.

My findings were, this was in fact an accident that happened. It resulted from the brother being drunk and crashing into the house of his brothers and killing him. In order to avoid being arrested the brother got out of the car, put the deceased into the drivers seat and fled the scene.

Therefore, the brother should be arrested, charged with felony drunk driving and manslaughter. Also, felony hit and run.

Case closed!

Mr. Grissom was thrilled I had picked up on all the clues, did a great job and earned my diploma. He made me an accredited CSI agent.

How about you? Did you figure it out?

I thought this was a fun, interesting and different way to spend some time while in Las Vegas. There are other crimes waiting to be solved. So, if you find yourself in Las Vegas, you may want to stop in and see if you can lend a hand.