On Thursday, October 15th Guy Olivieri, Detective for Woodbridge Police Department, came to talk to Ms. Greene and Ms. Greffer’s Forensic classes. Detective Olivieri came to Colonia High School to share his knowledge on Entomology, the study of bugs. Entomology comes in handy when deciphering how long a body has been dead. It also can give information if the body has been moved to their current position or if thats where the person died.
On top of being an entomologist, Olivieri is also a cartoon artist. When he talked to CHS’ Forensics students, he made a comic book like packet for them, by himself.
Inside the packet were pictures of creepy crawlers that don’t exactly look real. These insects included the alien caterpillar, mirror spider, owl butterfly, and more. Detective olivieri also came with real (but dead) bugs for the students to pass around.
Olivieri went over the different stages of death with the students, which is something the forensic classes hadn’t gotten to yet. He explained how much time has elapsed for each stage and how to tell. He made connections to real cases he has dealt with which the students were extremely interested in.
Forensics teacher, Ms. Cathleen Greene thought Olivieri was very informative. She wanted students to understand the idea of how Entomology is used in Forensics and what environments a student will be exposed to in a Forensics field.
Ms. Greene also found that the case studies Detective Olivieri spoke of was the most educating part about his talk.
Detective Olivieri talked a great deal about maggots, with pictures. In his “comic book,” he has the maggot life cycle. He talked about how maggots can be very influential in a toxicology report, the result of the lab procedures identifying and quantifying potential toxins the victim may have consumed, if they have fed on the victim’s blood.
Defining the stages of death, Detective Olivieri gives students examples of each
Junior, Adriana Daniel, is currently taking Forensics. She felt that “Detective Olivieri was very informational and had plenty of cool stories to tell.”
All throughout his talk, Olivieri shed some light on cases he has worked. He told the story of his first–and worst case.
It was in the early 90s and he got a call that there was an accident in a cemetery. The car had crashed into a bunch of tombstones and there was mud everywhere. When Olivieri opened the driver’s car door he came across a gruesome discovery, the driver had no head. Initially, they had NO idea where the driver’s head was or what had happened.
Detectives opened up the trunk and found the severed head and rope. After an investigation was done they determined that this was a suicide. The driver tied a rope around his neck, tied it to something, and drove. Later, they found out that he was paranoid and schizophrenic. He’d also lost his children a while ago. The driver was on a downward spiral and determined suicide was the only answer.
This is not a case Olivieri deals with on a normal day. On a normal day he deals with fights, burglaries, etc.
Any students interested in exploring Forensics as a future career path, Ms. Greene’s advice was to “get in touch with professionals and take helpful courses in college. Chemistry is extremely important.”
