When the counselors get back, they are each carrying a long tub with sand in it. Lloyd arranges the two tubs side by side on the floor. “Most people don’t realize how much information footwear evidence can provide. I need two volunteers for our next activity. How ’bout Mason and Tabitha?”
“Sure!” I say. I want to learn everything I can about footwear evidence. And not just because no one took footwear impressions at the scene of our break-and-enter.
Lloyd asks us to walk on the sand. “Just the way you’d normally walk. Without thinking about it.”
Mason and I walk through the sand, and then we all gather to examine the evidence.
We can see right away that my feet are smaller than Mason’s, but Lloyd also shows us how the tracks in the sand reveal that Mason is wearing runners and I have sandals on.
“What else do you see?” Lloyd watches for our reactions. He obviously takes being FIG seriously.
Nico raises his hand. “I see two tubs of sand!”
Lloyd ignores Nico. “I want you guys to think about the different ways people walk. A person’s walk is kind of like their signature. For example, I’ve noticed that Tabitha walks quickly, with her chin leading the way.”
I do? That’s news to me. I pat my chin. Maybe observing other people is easier than observing ourselves.
“Now, Mason takes his time when he walks.”
That, on the other hand, is definitely not news. How many hours of my life have I spent waiting for Mason to catch up to me? “I want you to look carefully. Can you find evidence of those habits in their footwear impressions?”
When Lloyd asks that question, it’s like a lightbulb goes on over my head—just like in a cartoon. When I look at my footwear impressions, I see the indentations are deeper at the toe than at the sole. Mason’s indentations are more even. How cool is that!
“There’s more,” Lloyd says. “Every shoe has unique wear indentations.” He points to a fan-shaped spot at the bottom of my left impression. “I’d say the heel of Tabatha’s left sandal is coming loose.” I kick off the sandal and turn it over. Lloyd is right. I am going to have to take my sandals to the shoe-repair guy.
Nathaniel leans over to get a closer look at the bottom of my sandal. “Wow!” he says.
Lloyd tugs on the bottom of his earlobe. “I must be hearing things—because I thought I heard Nathaniel use the word wow,” he says.
Samantha has been taking photographs of both sets of footwear impressions and uploading the files to a computer, but I know she is listening to Lloyd’s lesson. “Hey, we don’t call him FIG for nothing,” she says.
“That’s right,” Lloyd says. “Other things you can look for include materials that can get trapped on the sole of a shoe. For example, nails or wadded-up chewing gum,” he explains.
Nathaniel nods. “I once heard my dad say that one of the first thing cops do when they stop a suspect is make them hand over their shoes. Now I know why.”
“Exactly,” Lloyd says. “You don’t want to give a suspect time to change his or her shoes.”
Samantha has projected the images of our footwear impressions onto the screen. “Let’s zoom in for a closer look,” she tells us.
Samantha clicks past one or two blurry images, stopping when she gets to a sharp photograph of Mason’s footwear impressions. “Look carefully,” she says. “What do you see?”
“The Nike swish. I mean swash. I mean swoosh!” Nico calls out.
Muriel gives him a whack. “That’s not even a little bit funny,” she tells him, and Nico makes a pouty face.
“Nico’s right about the swoosh though,” Lloyd says. “We can match Mason’s footwear impressions with the information in our database—and then we should be able to determine exactly which model of Nikes he was wearing. Footwear impressions can also reveal a person’s shoe size.”
Stacey clicks her Department of Forensic Science pen. “Does that mean we can identify someone from their footwear impressions the way we can from their fingerprints?” she asks.
“No way,” Nathaniel says. “Shoes aren’t one of a kind.”
“That’s right,” Lloyd says. “Think of the thousands of pairs of runners Nike sells every year. Footwear impressions are not what we call individualizing, the way fingerprints are. Hey, have you guys ever heard of Theodore Kaczynski?”
I start to raise my hand, but then I stop myself. I have to remember that this is camp, not school. “You mean the Unabomber?” I say. “The guy who produced sixteen bombs, which injured twenty-three people and killed three others?” The Junior Encyclopedia of Forensic Science has a long entry about Theodore Kaczynski.
“Exactly. Kaczynski attached smaller soles to the bottom of his shoes as a way to confuse investigators,” Lloyd tells us.
Nathaniel nods. That makes twice in one day that Nathaniel has been impressed.