I bet you didn’t know that we have staff in the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources that help solve crime.
Heather Hanna, Phil Bradley and Dr. Jeff Reid are in the North Carolina Geological Survey and spend most of their time in creeks and streams in central North Carolina mapping bedrock geology. The data they gather is typically used by county planners, developers, groundwater professionals and others on all types of construction and groundwater projects.
But all three geologists and their colleagues have been called upon in recent years to use their skills analyzing Piedmont soils to solve a couple of murders.
In the first case, Raleigh police called upon Hanna and her colleagues in the North Carolina Program for Forensic Sciences at N.C. State University to compare mineral and soil material from the clothing of a murder suspect with material from the crime scene. The scientists found strong similarities between mica on the suspect’s clothes and the place where police found the body of Anthony Bowling. We later learned from a juror that the soil analysis and the trial testimony of Hanna helped convict Jordan Peterson of first-degree murder.
In the second case, staff members in the state geological survey were called upon in 2006 after a woman was abducted from a parking garage in downtown Raleigh. The victim, Cynthia Moreland, was later killed. After getting a call from authorities, Jim Simons, who directs the state Division of Land Resources where staff with the geological survey work, assembled his scientists to piece together a connection between soil found on the victim’s car and the crime scene miles away. As they worked to build a case, the prime suspect, Antonio Davon Chance, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
The same staff members are already working to help solve other cases. Stay tuned.