Patricia Fajen
Crime Scene Investigation
November 4, 2012
Practical Seven: Forensic Art Class in Houston
Monday morning, at a little before 8:00am, I reported to the Pines 1
Conference Room in the Woodlands, Texas. A table full of art supplies greeted me, as
well as the bright face of Lois Gibson, Houston Police Department Sketch Artist. The
class opened with some facts about forensic art, like 30% of crimes that use a sketch
artist are solved by that sketch, which is much higher than the percentage solved by
fingerprints, yet we widely collect and run prints. The thirty percent is even the low
end of the scale, various sketch artist have different percentages. These facts were
followed by stories and a slide show using some of Lois’ sketches alongside the
pictures of the assailants to show the similarities and what artists generally get
wrong. There main part of the face is usually correct, but the head shape or things
outside of that section can be harder to gather. Almost every witness would swear
to Lois that they had not seen the perpetrator, but it seems she can always get them
talking with a question about their hair.
There was one absolutely amazing story of a young girl in Del Rio, Texas. The
girl was staying at a friend’s for the night and woke in the middle of the night to find
that she and her friend were no longer along. There was man who slashed the throat
of the friend, who was sleeping on the bottom bunk and then realized that the young
girl was awake and slashed her throat as well. The man meant to kill her and
thought he had, but she faked that she was death and waited until she heard the car
drive away. She sat up, saw her friend wasn’t breathing and walked down to
neighbors house, which was very far away, to get help. The neighbors were able to
get help and get the young girl to the hospital. She was able to pick out feature and
make a sketch without being able to talk at all because she wanted to get justice; the
sketch was able to produce an arrest.
We started drawing by opening our FBI Facial Identification Catalog binder
at our seats to the designated features. The first feature was the nose, which we
drew D2-9 and D1-1. Lois showed us how everybody makes the nose too long when
they draw it until after they’ve practiced. In the Lois Gibson Institute of Forensic Art
Forensic Art Techniques Student Reference Manual, there are many useful tips on
how not to draw things, which is the only part we’ve looked at so far. The next
features we did were lips, which were followed by a single eye. After we finished
those features, we were given a list of features to refer to and make a complete
sketch of a person. In that hour of sketching we had to use all of our information to
create a sketch that would “pass the bartender test” or be easily recognizable if the
suspect had been there or not.
To start Tuesday’s class, we divided into groups of two, where one person
was the sketch artist and the other the witness. I was a witness for the first round of
sketching. Going through the process of being a witness helps you to identify with
what the witness needs to do and remember to produce a sketch. According to Lois’
textbook, “The sketch should be done on an easel with the drawing board facing
away from the witness. Thus the first part of the sketch is done out of the sight of the
witness” (Gibson, 2008, p.20). Later in the class we switched roles and so I was the
sketch artist. I learned what kinds of questions I need to ask of the witness if they
don’t tell me so that my drawing is more accurate. In my drawing, my man looked
older than the picture we were shown afterwards, though my “witness” kept saying
that was exactly how he looked, so one thing I need to ask is the age because
without that information I was no able to gauge how much shading I needed to do.
There have been cases that Lois has worked on that the victims have tried to
lie about the identities in order to protect themselves. After we reviewed some of
those cases, we looked at some cases that involve drunk witnesses. Lois said that the
FBI class, which is only available to people who are already employed by an agency,
suggests that you should not use drunk witnesses to do a sketch. “Sidewalk
princesses” or hookers can be some of the best witnesses, even when they’re on
drugs. The sketch artist should be positive to the detectives or whomever you’re
working for, because most officers don’t believe in sketch work. Victims may tell you
that the drawing is no good, but they won’t be able to judge how useful the sketch
will be. Lois said that you know when a sketch is done after you show your witness
and they say that it’s missing something but they cannot think of what it is.
The next thing we talked about in class was the difference in skulls. Skulls
differ mainly by race, but there re some races that don’t have a specific skull. The
three skull types are Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid. By looking at a skull you
case see the differences, like in Negroid skulls the teeth tend to stick our more and
be larger. Larger teeth mean larger lips on the face. This is the day that we worked
on adding teeth into the sketches instead of just doing closed lips.
Lois told her story to the class, which I heard back in June when I met her.
Lois was a model and dancer in LA and had been strangled by a man. The guy would
strangle her until she passed out and then repeat strangling her when she regained
consciousness. She was strangled four times by the man before he left. She was left
infuriated and unable to come to terms with what had happened. She did not report
the incident because she was embarrassed that it occurred to her. Much later when
driving in LA, Lois took a turn down a road and cannot tell you why she choose to
turn there, but she saw the guy being escorted out of a house by two officers. As they
came to the steps, the assailant began to fight the officers, at which point they beat
him up to control him, which made Lois happy. Another officer walked over to her
car and banged on her window to ask if she knew the man, to which she responded
she did not. It turns out the man was being arrested for 6 kilos of cocaine and would
be doing a lot of time for the drugs.
At the end of class on Wednesday Lois was called out to sketch a man that
abducted a 5-year-old girl. A local firefighter saw the guy before the girl was
abducted, so Harris County Sheriff’s Office called her out. The sketch along with the
story can be found here, http://www.khou.com/community/blogs/crimewatch/Sheriffs-office-releases-sketch-of-suspect-in-5-year-olds-abduction176778801.html and I plan on doing my current event for this coming week on this
story. On Thursday, Lois went back to meet with the 5-year-old because she was
able to convince the detective that the 5-year-old could really help with the sketch.
When Lois went to do that sketch the little girl picked the same features out of
Samantha Steinburg’s catalog and added more details such as his mohawk, which
was hidden by the hat, and his tattoo.
On Thursday and Friday in class we worked on aging and post mortem
reconstruction. These are the parts I found to be the most difficult to me because I
tend to make people look older than they actually are supposed to look. The post
mortem reconstruction is difficult because the sketch artist is either working with a
skull, which could be damaged, or from deteriorating flesh, like the Baby Grace case
out of Galveston, TX.
This class was really beneficial and a great experience for me.
Here’s a link to the video, which lead to more people enrolling in the class:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1769790477001/worlds-greatest-crime-fighter/
Gibson, Lois (2008). Forensic Art Essentials. Burlington, MA: Academic Press.