It started with the disappearance of a young woman and her abusive boyfriend. Bloodstains and a bullet casing found in her apartment and remains buried in a shallow grave added to the storyline.
Gradually, the fictional plot evolved into a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary academic exercise at Community College of Aurora. Coordinated by Elizabeth Hirsh, who heads the anthropology department, the project pulled in students from archaeology to crime-scene investigation to paralegal training, as well as chemistry and biology, to employ their newly developed skills to solve the case.
The program originally was in The Denver Post on March 25.
But that was before the evidence pointing to the death of imaginary victim Sarah Hopewell had been analyzed, and before a suspect had been charged with her murder and brought to trial.
On Saturday, Hopewell’s boyfriend faced the prosecution before a judge and jury in a three-hour mock trial. With members of college’s drama club playing characters from the story, the defendant was found not guilty of murder but guilty of several lesser crimes.
There was no “right answer” to the investigation, noted Hirsh, who concocted the tale with the help of instructors from other departments.
“But secretly, in the back of our minds, they came to a conclusion that was kind of intended in how we mapped out what happened,” she said.
Student surveys so far have come back overwhelmingly positive about the experience, and already there has been talk of how even more disciplines, such as psychology and a forensic computer class, can be involved in the next murder mystery.
“We’re going to have some interesting crimes happening on the CCA campus,” she said.
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com
