Blog 3 - Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office Tour & Decomposition Presentation

This week, we went to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. I had already been on the tour of the CCMEO from last year, and nothing changed from what my Forensics class saw. During this tour, we did not get to speak with Scott, the fingerprinting tech at the CCMEO. When we arrived, our tour guide, Chris, gave everyone the rundown of what we would and might see. Fun fact: more men pass out at the morgue than women. Our first stop was the viewing room, which is where the family or loved ones of the deceased identify the body behind a screen. The next place we went was the basement. This is where the body coolers, the garage, and decomp room/suite are. They like to say it's a suite because they're fancy like that. We got to see into the body cooler. Usually, the morgue is great about not having any cadaver faces showing, but this time, there was one, and he looked like he might have come from the hospital because there was a tube sticking out of his mouth. It was a brief look. I enjoyed being able to see into one of the coolers again. There is also the garage. Chris explained how if there is a body in a car, it comes through the garage and gets fingerprinted, and the body gets taken out. We also went upstairs to the toxicology lab. We got to hear about all the different things they must do when testing and identifying a substance. They also have crime scenes set up for students to come through and examine; they are all based on actual cases that have come through. We got to walk through these and try to figure them out. Some people were spot on, and others needed more information to connect all the dots. I used these scenes to inspire the crime scenes I would make the following week. When we got back from the CCMEO, I gave my presentation on the decomposition process.