science and technology branch
supported investigations into the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. It found a handgun buried in 3 inches of silt in a rushing, muddy North Carolina River. And after the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics, these divers even spent many nights checking for possible explosive devices on the underwater structure of a massive stand for 15,000 spectators.
a dangerous criminal off the streets. That’s what makes every day here interesting and worthwhile.”
Underwater Search and Evidence Response Teams (USERTs)
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Investigative and Prosecutive Graphic Unit (IPGU)
Top: Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team used scanners and submersible remote operated vehicles to map the area around the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minn., after its collapse in August 2007 to look for victims. Above: An FBI diver prepares a small remote operated vehicle (ROV) for operation. The ROV, the smaller of two that divers brought to the site, was able to explore areas underwater that divers might enter to look for victims or evidence. detect debris in mud and silt, metal detectors that work underwater, dry suits with full face masks and communicators so divers can talk to each other as well as operations above the surface. Their miniature remote-controlled submarines can send real-time color video to the surface for immediate identification and can make videotapes of underwater searches for future uses. Since this unit was formed in 1982, it has been called to scour a 40-square-mile patch of ocean floor to recover the remains of all 230 victims and airplane parts from the TWA Flight 800 explosion. It
Just hours after the Oklahoma City bombing, an FBI Laboratory forensic artist sketched a suspect based on eyewitness accounts at a Junction City, Kan., truck rental shop. Agents began showing the drawing around town, and employees at a local motel recognized him immediately – that was Timothy McVeigh. And it was enough to keep police from releasing McVeigh from an Oklahoma jail where he was being held on unrelated charges. But what makes the Lab’s forensic artists any different from a police department sketch artist? These professionals consist of a team of visual information specialists with backgrounds ranging from fine arts to mechanical engineering, and they not only work with faces, but create crime scene reconstructions, animated and interactive two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital models, diagrams, maps, charts, and other visual aids to help solve cases. They can take dated pictures of suspects and victims, apply facial age progression and photo retouching to show what the people might look like today with a beard, a different hair style, and so forth. They can reconstruct a face using skeletal
Courtesy of FBI
Diving may sound like a fun vacation activity in the Caribbean, but what happens when you’re looking for a body, a murder weapon, or other incriminating evidence instead of tropical fish? Or if a ship or harbor is attacked by terrorists? The FBI dive teams know the difference. These underwater experts can find clues and map out crime scenes not only in traditional bodies of water, but under ice, around piers and bridges, and under extreme conditions. Take, for instance, the Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse on Aug. 1, 2007. Early in the investigation, the FBI and the U.S. Navy sent teams of divers to map the scene in a strong zero-visibility current strewn with bridge debris. “If we can see our hands in front of our face, that’s good visibility,” Supervisory Special Agent Kevin Horn, program manager of USERT said at the time. The teams used sonar, underwater cameras, and remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to map the debris field and look for passageways in and around “the pile” for divers to search for victims and forensic evidence. The divers are used to working under the worst circumstances – having been dispatched to Iraq – but the debris field in the Mississippi River was a world of its own. “The entanglement risk was just constant,” Horn reported. Their technology is top-notch: Side-scan sonar machines that can
Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity
7/9/08 5:45:28 PM