5.Kristen Koch — Direct

KRISTEN KOCH: Okay. Kristen Koch, K-O-C-H.

KRISTEN KOCH: The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston.

KRISTEN KOCH: As a special agent.

KRISTEN KOCH: Eleven and a half years.

KRISTEN KOCH: Sure. I have a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Boston University and I have a master's degree in forensic science with a concentration in molecular biology from George Washington University.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes, I worked for Cellmark Diagnostics in Germantown, Maryland, as a lab assistant and then a DNA analyst.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes, I have.

KRISTEN KOCH: I am assigned to our Organized Crime Squad as an investigator, I am also on our Evidence Response Team, and I serve as a team leader, and I am also a firearms instructor.

KRISTEN KOCH: We -- our team is comprised of approximately 32 individuals, and it's broken into four components of eight teams. So I serve as the team leader for one of those four teams. And my responsibility is to oversee my group of team members when we process crime scenes.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes. I attended our 80-hour basic course in Quantico, Virginia. I have attended a two-day post-blast training course provided by the ATF. I've also had advanced training in both fingerprint processing and -- actually, two fingerprint -- advanced courses in fingerprint processing.

KRISTEN KOCH: Probably -- I'm trying to think over the years -- 50 to 100, somewhere in there.

KRISTEN KOCH: I was the individual that set up and oversaw the evidence collection, or processing center, that we established at the Black Falcon Pier in South Boston.

KRISTEN KOCH: Basically it was an empty warehouse approximately the size of two football fields and there were some tables and chairs.

KRISTEN KOCH: Pretty much from the beginning set everything up, get anything that we needed out there. So as far as supplies: Pens, pencils, you know, bags, gloves, anything that we would need usually to -- you know, crime scene tape, evidence tape, you know, printers, computers. So we started from scratch and basically built that up to basically be able to accept all the evidence that we were collecting in the field. And then it also included staffing up with personnel, so that would be other members of the Evidence Response Team such as myself. We had members from the Massachusetts State Crime Scene Services Section as well as the Boston Police Crime Scene Unit to assist us. We had evidence technicians both from our office and from around the country that came in and assisted us with that evidence collection. And then separately from my role but using the same facility was -- our Computer Analysis Response Team set up a video review section also in the same space.

KRISTEN KOCH: It was approximately 9 p.m. on April 15th.

KRISTEN KOCH: In the first couple of days I was probably there about 22 hours a day. The warehouse itself and the center was staffed 24 hours, seven days a week. There were lots of personnel there both to help assist with the evidence as well as we had security provided by Massport police because that's their property, as well as state police and Boston police.

KRISTEN KOCH: Sure. So once the evidence is collected at the crime scene, whether that was at Boylston, whether that was evidence that we received from the number of the hospitals in the area that were treating patients, whether that was from the medical examiner's office, search warrants that we conducted following the bombing, any type of evidence, Black Falcon would serve as the central location point for the collection of all of that evidence.

KRISTEN KOCH: Once it came into Black Falcon Pier -- it depended on what type of evidence it was. If it was coming directly from Boylston Street, that evidence would be reviewed by myself along with special agents and chemists from the laboratory to determine what were priority items of evidence that needed to be sent to the laboratory. If it was digital evidence, that would just be logged in to our computer system and then the individuals from the Computer Analysis Response Team would come and take that evidence for review. If it was evidence that was coming from the hospital, a lot of that evidence was still very wet and bloody and needed to be dried. You can't just leave bloody evidence in paper -- or plastic bags, for that matter; the evidence needed to be dried out, separated from any type of cell phones or valuable evidence such as money that might be in with the clothing that came from the patients, and then repackaged once that evidence was dried out. And so from that point, then it would be -- all the different types of evidence would then -- could then be determined where it needed to go, if it was needed to go to the laboratory or held for storage at that point.

KRISTEN KOCH: Not from Boylston Street. It was pretty much the -- most of the evidence that we were handling or packaging would be evidence coming from the hospitals, because a lot of that was just placed in bags by the hospital personnel. Or, for instance, digital evidence was coming in from all different types of law enforcement agencies where people would, for instance, bring in their cell phone and say, "I have a photograph that might be useful. Here it is," hand it to their local police department. They would bring it to us, so then we would then package that up properly. Most of the -- all of the evidence that was coming from either the crime scene at Boylston Street or other search warrants came to us already packaged, labeled and sealed properly, so we didn't have to do anything further with that other than send it to the laboratory if necessary.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes. So we would take a look at all of the bags. And so we -- most of the evidence tape that we use is red so it's very visible and very easy to see that it had evidence tape that is sealed. You just do a quick inspection of the bag. And then we're very familiar with the -- we label all of our items of evidence, the bags themselves, with seven different things, items, and you just take a quick read to make sure that all seven of those things were printed on the bag or the can or box, whatever it came in.

KRISTEN KOCH: So what we do -- the items themselves were provided with a number at whichever scene it was coming from. We would then take that number, it would -- the information along with our chain of custody would be entered into the computer system. It's assigned a bar code for tracking purposes, and our evidence system also assigns it what we call a 1B number. And so that number is just another individual number that is placed on the bag or on the item containing the evidence along with the bar code.

KRISTEN KOCH: Sure. The chain of custody is basically a way for us to determine who has handled every item of evidence from the time it's collected all the way until the final disposition. So, for instance, the chain of custody from evidence at Boylston Street would have been initiated from the people that collect it there. It's a form we fill out. They sign their name, they put the date and the time. When they bring it to me at Black Falcon Pier, I write on the received line that I received it, I put the date and time. Then when it gets transported down to the laboratory, then we note on the chain of custody the date and the time that the item was transported to the lab. Then the laboratory initiates their own chain of custody at the lab, and then once the item is sent back after processing and it goes back into our evidence, the evidence control people would then also then put their name, date and time that they received it. So it's a way to make sure that the evidence has been in the control and custody of the FBI or the investigating agency the entire time.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yeah. I mean, it's basically by taking a look at the chain of custody and then also taking a look at the item that contains the evidence itself. So whether it's a bag or a can, it would be sealed with evidence tape, and a date and an initial of the person that sealed it is on the evidence tape itself. And so you can inspect the bag, you can look at the initials, you can see that that matches up with whose name is on the chain of custody. And if for some reason the bag or can or whatever were opened, then you'd know that there might be an issue. But as long as the seal is intact and there aren't any other holes or anything like that in the bag, then you know that it has been maintained properly.

KRISTEN KOCH: Until -- I think we closed operations there around May 1st.

KRISTEN KOCH: I think there were approximately 3,000.

KRISTEN KOCH: In the first week the FBI -- what I would do is once the bomb technicians and the chemists determined what items would need to be sent to the laboratory, the FBI has aircraft, and they would have two flights a day, approximately, in that first week. So then I would take the items designated to be sent to the laboratory, I would drive it to Logan Airport, out onto the tarmac, and physically personally put it onto the bureau aircraft which is flown by special agents, and then that flight would go down to Manassas, Virginia, and laboratory personnel would pick that evidence up.

KRISTEN KOCH: So the entrance to the facility itself was on the water side of the warehouse. That entire section of the pier was secure access guarded by both a Massport police officer and a Massachusetts state trooper, so only law enforcement personnel were allowed in. There was also another Boston police officer posted at the door to the facility itself with a sign-in sheet, so anybody who came and went would sign in. And so basically, there was really no way for the public, for the media or anybody to get access to the entrances and exits of that facility.

KRISTEN KOCH: So you can see that it has the item number from the scene, it describes what it is, it has the names of the individuals that collected this particular item of evidence. And then you can see there's a bar code on here which is put on when it came to the Black Falcon Pier, as well as the 1B number. And the other markings over here in this section are the markings that are put on the item when it's received by the laboratory. You can also see through the plastic the red evidence tape, and around and on the evidence tape are the initials of the individuals that would have sealed this particular item.

KRISTEN KOCH: Sure. So it would be reflected on the chain of custody. There's a section, purpose of why you took that item into your custody. So, for instance, one of the purposes would be storage, another one would be review. So if an agent or an analyst took this item out to review it or look at it or analyze it, they would note in there either "review" or "analysis," and then they would open the item. When they were finished with the item, they would reseal it and put new evidence tape on it. And you would be able to see basically by the layers of the evidence tape and the initials and dates that are on there that it matched up to the chain of custody. It would be reflected there.

KRISTEN KOCH: As far as?

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes; that's correct.

KRISTEN KOCH: Yes.