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Ripped from the (old) headlines
Horrific Crime Scene Revisited revisits 1970s crime
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The Horrific Crime Scene Revisited, an annual educational exhibit where visitors can explore and examine a re-created murder scene and make their own determinations based on the forensic evidence that is presented, is returning for its third year to the UW–Platteville Forensic Investigation Crime Scene House today from noon to 8 p.m.

Because of the nature of the exhibit, it is not recommended for young children. The event is free and open to the public.
The event drew approximately 500 people and attracted nationwide press coverage last year.

This year’s exhibit will re-create a murder that occurred in Wisconsin in the late 1970s, though the case will be kept secret until the event begins. The crime scene exhibit will be staged as accurately as possible. The format has changed slightly from previous years and will be even more interactive for visitors.

The Criminal Justice Association, a student organization open to all UW–Platteville criminal justice and forensic investigation majors and minors, is sponsoring the event. The UW–Platteville Alumni Association, criminal justice department and the forensic investigation program are providing funding for the event.

“This experience will encourage people to examine and think about the evidence that is presented at the re-created crime scene,” said Danny Wipperfurth, president of the Criminal Justice Association and a junior criminal justice major with an emphasis in law enforcement at UW–Platteville from Verona. “People won’t have any preconceived ideas about what happened when they first arrive, so they will have to analyze the evidence as it is presented and try to make a determination about the case.”

“The Horrific Crime Scene Revisited helps the public better understand what goes into homicide investigations, especially the more brutal ones,” said Jed Neumann, member of the Criminal Justice Association and a senior forensic investigation major at UW–Platteville from Rochester, Minn. “This is an actual murder case that most people may have heard about, though they may not know all of the details about the evidence that was at the crime scene. The re-created crime scene will shed light on additional evidence and crime scene details that the media didn’t share with the public at the time of the murder.”

Diana Johnson, assistant professor for the UW–Platteville criminal justice department’s forensic investigation program, and Dana Cecil, lecturer for the UW–Platteville criminal justice department, are co-founders and co-organizers of the event and are serving in an advisory capacity at this year’s event.

“The Horrific Crime Scene Revisited event is an opportunity for us to showcase our Forensic Investigation Crime Scene House,” said Cecil. “The FICSH is a unique feature of our university and this special event is an excellent opportunity for students, prospective students, alumni, community members and visitors to see what our criminal justice department and forensic investigation program offers.”

“This event counteracts what we call ‘the CSI effect,’” said Johnson. “There’s no glamour here. It is purely an educational experience that shows what officers and forensic investigators have to deal with when they are investigating a major crime scene. The exhibit is an excellent way to help visitors better understand the technical intricacies of forensic and crime scene investigation.”

UW–Platteville’s FICSH, which opened in 2010, is a rare resource in the U.S. There are only a few crime scene houses associated with universities.

This distinctive facility provides a hands-on opportunity for UW–Platteville students to gain knowledge of the procedures followed in crime scenes using important principles such as photography, latent fingerprint development techniques, footwear impressions and evidence documentation, collection and preservation. There are currently more than 850 students enrolled in UW-Platteville’s criminal justice and forensic investigation programs.

Visitors may provide their own transportation to the crime scene house, located at 29065 College Farm Road ,Platteville, or shuttles will provide free transportation, leaving from the Pine Street loop adjacent to Ullsvik Hall at 2, 3 and 4 p.m., and returning at 3, 4 and 5 p.m.

For more information about the Forensic Investigation Crime Scene House, go to www.uwplatt.edu/cj/house or contact the UW–Platteville criminal justice department, 342-1622, forensichouse@uwplatt.edu.

Cuts threatening use of local food
School lunches
LFPA cuts_Spring Creek Cattle Company
SPRING CREEK CATTLE COMPANY is one of the local suppliers of food for the North Crawford Foodservice Program. Cancellation of federal funding will impact both the school district and the local agricultural business. Here, Bart and Amy Mitchell are seen with the beef cattle on pasture in the background. Spring Creeks Cattle Company is a family partnership between three brothers, their families, and their parents.

With the federal government defunding programs around the country, it appears the North Crawford School District Food Service department will feel the impact.

Programs that fund food service at North Crawford, like the Local Food for Schools (LFS) and the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant, had their funds frozen on March 7, when the USDA announced they would be terminating those programs. 

For North Crawford, this means they have lost funding for purchasing food from local farms, something that the food service department has prided itself on. This summer, the district is covered for their efforts in serving local food. 

25% sourced locally

North Crawford Food Service Director Jen Kapinus said in story published last summer that about 25% of the food served at the school is local, and specifically beef, pork, and apples are the most commonly locally sourced.

Now, that 25% is likely to drop, depending on the department’s next steps, which will have a large impact on the future of the school and the food service department.

Because of the timing of the USDA’s announcement, the food service department will have very little flexibility in the coming school year. In February, commodity orders are due, while the grant money comes in during May. Since, commodities were ordered with the assurance of getting this money in May, the department will have to figure out how to get the food still needed.

“We can no longer make the purchases we planned,” Kapinus said. “We planned ahead for two years, and there’s no money for that now.”

Having to find food to replace the planned purchases is not the only trouble with these cuts. It will also put a strain on the budget and the local farmers who provide for the program, and it will cause the department to move backwards in quality.  

Cuts strain district

These cuts also put a strain on the district because they now need to work through existing suppliers to get food that they typically would not get from them. 

“(The budget cuts) result in us having to look elsewhere,” North Crawford Superintendent Brandon Munson said.

It is not just the school district feeling the impact of the cuts. Good partnerships with our local families and farmers are being lost.

Although Munson believes it won’t hurt them too badly financially, Harry Young, of Young Family Farms LLC, who has been providing meat to the district since 2020, is sad to see these programs go. 

Young noted the impact on the local economy. It supported farmers in the area and kept that money local. 

“It was a good program,” Young said. “It got fresher food to the kids, that was more nutritious than what could be bought through the supply chain.”

Since higher quality food costs more, the department will have to compromise the quality of the food they are purchasing. Aside from the nutritional benefits of higher quality food, higher quality ingredients tend to make the food taste better. 

While the department gets more local food than nearby schools, and students enjoy the food, many already feel that what they are being served is more processed than they would like it to be.

Kapinus believes that the reduction in quality will affect meal participation, which the program relies on to be able to serve the students the best they can. 

Meal participation is often a domino effect. When more students eat the food, the program has a bigger budget to buy better food, which leads to more participation, but if the quality goes down, less students will eat, which will shrink the budget, which leads to even lower quality and, therefore, less participation.

Kapinus is hopeful that, through donations and possible fundraising, the department can continue to serve high-quality meals to students, but it will take a lot of hard work and support. 

It can be difficult to rely on such variable methods, though. The district recently received a donation from a local farm, but there is so much to be cautious about with donations, especially with meat. It also is not consistent. Both fundraising and donations cannot be planned for ahead of time because if the needs are not met, the meals can’t be made.

Despite these hurdles, the department is doing what they can to serve the best meals with what is available to them, but there will have to be a decline in quality because of the cost of food.

“There will definitely be a compromise,” Kapinus said, “but we will continue to do as much scratch cooking as possible, and we are trying to find a happy medium between hyper-local and hyper-processed.”

Kapinus is working to prepare for the future, despite the funding losses, but it is unclear what will happen as time goes on, especially with the federal government aiming to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. 

With bad news after bad news for the food service department, a glimmer of hope has come in the form of school lunch debt forgiveness.

Through School Lunch Fairy, a national program based in Florida, The North Crawford School District will be receiving a donation to cover a portion of school lunch debt owed. 

School Lunch Fairy is a charity organization that uses donated funds from all over the country to support school districts struggling with school lunch debt and sets up emergency lunch funds to provide struggling students with free lunches before they fall into debt. 

With the donation this program will give the district, it puts the food service department in a better standing and relieves some of struggling students’ financial stress.

This program gives Kapinus and the food service department hope for where they are headed, even when things the future is unpredictable.