The FBI has a new top-secret location where agents are working on a true-life version of CSI-Denver.
Crime-scene specialists with the bureau’s Evidence Response Team are using the office as a place to analyze evidence without having to deal with interruptions and unpredictable weather.
Several of the team’s 24 members turned out Friday to show off the building renovated last fall.
The $400,000 center includes the essentials of a crime lab: a drying cabinet to hang bloody clothing, a chamber where officials can lift fingerprints, a classroom, a storage area and a laundry room.
The team already has used the resources to examine getaway vehicles in a rash of bank robberies, said Special Agent Carle Schlaff, senior team leader.
The building has an automotive lift so the evidence team can look for blood or other evidence without having to crawl under a car.
In the past, the team has had to work quickly in adverse conditions or in brutal weather while processing evidence, Schlaff said.
Now, they can bring portable evidence into the building and work at a careful pace.
Hiking equipment, fingerprint powder and a mobile office built inside a trailer are just a few of the items housed inside the building.
Most of the team members are skilled in certain areas, such as forensics or computers.
Team members usually have jobs outside the bureau because the FBI doesn’t always have a working crime scene, Schlaff said. They work on an on-call rotation and can be brought in at any time to find and process evidence.
The evidence-recovery team has gathered clues on a variety of high-profile cases, such as the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, the January 2001 capture of seven Texas escapees who fled to Colorado and the 1997 raid on the Colorado Militia in Aurora.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
