Page 4 - Shot In The Dark Bullet Striations

Introduction to
Shot in the Dark
elcome to Shot in the Dark, a bullet
striations lab in the Mystery of Lyle and
WLouise. A brutal murder case is unfolding
in a small Appalachian town. Already the case
spans two crime scenes and five people are dead.
When investigators discovered the second crime
scene, a remote fishing cabin where two victims
were found dead, pictures and measurements
were taken of the inside of the cabin as the first
step in the investigation. Later, the investigators
broadened their search to the outside of the cabin
where they utilized a metal detector to search
for the knife that was believed to be the murder
weapon of the female victim. Instead of the
weapon, however, a single bullet was discovered
buried in the dirt.
Later in the investigation, when the abandoned
truck was discovered in New Mexico, an empty gun
was found under a blanket behind the seat, leading
investigators to question whether the gun found
4 THE MYSTERY OF LYLE AND LOUISE
in the truck was the same gun that fired the bullet
found at the cabin scene.
In this lab, students will learn about guns, bullets,
and how striations, or striae, are created upon bullets
when they are fired. Students will then examine
previously fired bullets and perform a web quest
to learn about various features of guns and bullets.
They will then examine and measure detailed photos
of the evidence bullets, and, using the information
from their experiments, form a hypothesis about
both the origin of the bullet found at the cabin and
what happened at the scene of the crime.
Once the lab results have been analyzed, students
may conduct a mock trial to hold a suspect
accountable for their actions.
Teacher’s notes can be found at the beginning of
the manual, and copies may be freely made of all
materials for your students.