Behind the Yellow Tape: On the Road With Some of America's Hardest Working Crime Scene Investigators by Jarrett Hallcox, Amy Welch Page B

when a hotdish is served in Minnesota by Scandinavians, it just tastes better.
    The climate of Duluth can be inhospitable and is essentially smack-dab in wilderness country. Nearly 80 percent of the land in the county is uninhabited, with forests and lakes making up most of the area. Because of this lack of population and the light pollution found in most big cities, Duluth is able to partake in one of nature’s greatest events—the aurora borealis.
    However, all of this undisturbed nature has contributed to Duluth’s newfound popularity. In 2006, it was voted one of the top fifty places to live in America. Nevertheless, just like everywhere else, Duluth is not without its criminal element. Thieves, killers, and crooks, like most other animals, adapt to their environments, regardless of how cold it gets. Crime doesn’t stop on account of the weather, no matter how bad it gets or how unappetizing the continental breakfast becomes. And harsh winter conditions wreak havoc on crime scenes, as well as on crime scene investigators.
    Two of the most useful pieces of evidence left at a crime scene are usually footwear impressions left in the ground and fingerprints left on objects. The cold, snowy climate can impact both tremendously. For example, after a snowfall of more than about one-quarter of an inch, it becomes virtually impossible to get a good footwear impression. This is because with each step, the shoe carries more snow to the next impression, making the subtle characteristics of the tread impossible to discern. Furthermore, the deeper the snow gets, the more likely that prints left in the snow will cave in on themselves. Not to mention the fact that, when it’s snowing or the wind is high (and it usually is), shoe prints can be covered up by the blowing snow and hidden forever.
    A crime scene investigator will also have more trouble finding and developing fingerprints in cold weather. One obvious reason is that everybody wears gloves during the winter, so by default fewer fingerprints will be left at a scene. Couple that with the fact that cold climates are usually drier, and therefore a perp’s hands will be less oily or sweaty than usual—and in order to leave good fingerprints, hands need to be moist.
    The weather also affects how a crime scene is processed. In subzero temperatures, camera batteries wear out after taking just two or three shots, and the ink in a ballpoint pen will freeze within seconds. Bullets fired into the snow burn right through, making it nearly impossible to locate the evidence. In some cases, the Duluth CSIs had to call in the fire department to hose down an entire hillside, washing away the snow, in an effort to find spent bullets.
    And don’t forget about the toll the weather can take on an investigator. The blinding snow, the all-night crime scenes in freezing temperatures, and the lessons they have all learned about not using their mouths to hold anything. Many Duluthian CSIs have jumped out of their vehicles on a cold, icy night and put their keys into their mouths in order to free up both hands. Unfortunately, this usually results in a reenactment of the classic scene in A Christmas Story , except it’s a tongue stuck to a set of keys instead of to a flagpole.
    This wild winter weather calls for good planning, regardless of which side of the criminal justice system a person is on. Sometimes it even calls for a little old-fashioned ingenuity. This far north, the ground may be frozen solid until May, and people who die during the winter sometimes lie in state in a mausoleum until the spring thaw, when they can finally be buried in the ground. That certainly makes it difficult to bury someone you’ve just killed. The frozen tundra forces some killers to pick their season or, at the very least, buy a wood chipper (like the scene in Fargo ). Or, if they are really clever, they time it just right and catch an ice-fishing hole just ripe for a burial spot.
    “For God’s sakes,”