Date: Fri 06-Feb-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-mystery-murder-

Full Text:

Problem Solving Takes On Mystery And Suspense At NMS

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Where were you on the night of January 29, at 7:30 pm?

Students at Newtown Middle School were watching their teachers commit murder,

right in front of them on the school stage.

Solving a murder mystery may not be easy, but with the help of forensic

science, sixth graders gradually closed in on the perpetrator.

In all happened at the Blue Colonie Diner, where John Reed, Superintendent of

Schools, worked clearing tables.

He stopped, faced the packed auditorium, and held up a knife, ominously.

The room fell silent.

Dr Reed's deep voice reverberated through the hall. He said, "It will soon be

up to you to solve a murder."

Would he be the murderer? Or the victim? Or the witness? Only time would tell.

Back at the diner, Genie O'Rourke, played by Margitta Savo, kept her daughter

Katie (Jen Neves) working late, because the basketball team was just pulling

in.

Red Simms (Les Weintraub) brought his boisterous team into the diner. Steve

Hill (Chris Horan), Owen Low (Jon Pope), Craig Smith (Jay Edwards) and Sam

Mitchell (Chester Washburn) discussed their terrific win, but Mike Brown

(Chris Canfield) remained detached and uninvolved in their revelry.

Mike walked up to the counter with deliberate steps and quietly placed a bag

on the counter when Genie wasn't looking.

Genie looked over to Mike, with a look of sadness and sympathy, then turned

away without meeting his gaze.

If only Genie hadn't misplaced Mike Brown's life insurance premium, he

wouldn't be in the terrible predicament. She had offered to mail in his

insurance premium. He had counted on her. She had let him down.

Now the life insurance company was refusing to pay death benefits and it was

all her fault.

The loss of his wife in childbirth came as a terrible shock to Mike, and now,

because of Genie's mistake, he may have to quit school and quit the team, to

care for his infant son.

Mike and Genie talked, and he thanked her for her continued efforts with the

insurance company.

Mike walked over to show Selma Russo (Nell Ayn Lynch) a photo of his infant

son, then he went home to care for the baby.

Genie looked down and found the package.

Funny there was no name on it, but it looked like a great tea sampler gift,

and she could use a nice cup of tea. She asked Sam Mitchell (Chester Washburn)

if it was a gift from him.

The tag just read, "For all you've done, you deserve this." It wasn't from

Sam, and nobody knew who had left the mystery gift, except, of course, some

attentive sixth graders.

Genie gave Selma, the cook, her new basket of tea, and asked Selma to make her

a cup of tea.

She took a few sips of her tea, then started scratching her arms and

complaining about being itchy. She looked pale and tired.

Sam asked her about her diabetes, and whether her insulin level was right, but

their conversation was cut short when they saw the expression on Owen Low's

face.

Owen was mad. He had been wronged, again, and this time he wasn't going to let

the coach get away with it. Owen knew he was a star player, and Coach Simms

had just left him warming the bench.

There were talent scouts at this game and he had missed his chance to show

them what he could do, all because he wasn't one of Coach Simms' favorites.

Owen was fed up with his coach's attitude, and the coach clearly wasn't too

pleased with Owen's.

Shouts turned to shoves, and poor Genie got knocked over in the tussle. Her

head hit the counter, then the floor. She fell unconscious.

Paramedics rushed to the scene, but it was too late. Genie was dead.

The police arrived on the scene only to find a prime suspect missing.

Mike Brown had left, holding a knife, supposedly to look after the baby, but

there he was, rushing through the auditorium. Phil Hymes of the Newtown Police

Force apprehended him.

Who Done It?

Sixth grader Edmund Breitling walked into the lab, and remarked to his friend,

Matt Miller, "I know who did it. He walked off the stage with a sharp knife.

It was the guy that the police caught!"

Or was it?

Perhaps a moment of doubt sent Edmund, Matt and other middle school students

to examining tables, where fingerprints, tea samples and writing samples from

the note found on the tea package had been collected and were awaiting

forensic analysis.

Maybe Genie died from the hit to her head, or maybe there was something wrong

with her insulin. Students questioned if her tea was poisoned. Students knew

that Mike Brown had put the tea samples on the counter, but the note on the

gift basket was not signed.

Students thought that might be suspicious.

Who was it from? A dot of ink from the note made a big blob when put in

alcohol. Students examined the suspects' pen marks to see which made the same

kind of blob.

Maybe it was the tea, maybe it wasn't.

The cook could have switched teas when she made the cup of tea that Genie

drank before her death. Which type of tea was in her cup when she died?

Chris Nordstrom examined the texture of the tea leaves with a magnifying

glass. "It's definitely [sample] A. These [other two samples] are thicker, he

explained to colleague, sixth grader Carolyn Brennan. See these [sample A] are

more fine." Chris explained that "sample X is very fine."

Stacy Gordon, sixth grader, carefully smelled the herbal teas, trying to find

the sample that matched the tea served prior to Genie's death. "It's

definitely [sample] C," she said. "It doesn't smell pepperminty."

With inconclusive evidence regarding tea leaf samples, students move on to

examine fingerprints, hair, and other evidence from the murder scene.

Edmund was now confronted with new evidence that contradicted his earlier

convictions. "Selma Russo's fingerprints matched and so did Owen Low's. The

guy who walked off the stage was someone else, not Selma. The person whose

hair was found was Selma Russo. I think Selma Russo, now."

Edmund continued, "I don't think it was him [the guy who walked off the stage

with a sharp knife] because that's what they want us to think."

In a moment of reflection, Edmund paused. He said "You know, you can't always

just think that you know it. You have to investigate."

Edmund, and other young forensic scientists, will have their day in court to

present the results of their investigations in the trial of the murder suspect

for Genie O'Rourke.

Wendy Bowen and Nancy Koonce, science teachers who organized the evening, were

pleased both with the students' deductive reasoning, and their colleagues'

acting!