8.Paula Ernst — Direct

PAULA ERNST: Okay. My name is Paula Ernst, E-R-N-S-T.

PAULA ERNST: Good afternoon.

PAULA ERNST: I'm employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I work in the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

PAULA ERNST: I'm currently the chief of what's called the Operational Projects Unit. The FBI laboratory is divided into five different sections. I work in the Forensic Response Section of that laboratory. As the chief of the unit, I oversee a unit of 35 employees, and we focus on the development of demonstrative exhibits, crime scene documentation, photography. And that's our specialty. That's the only thing that we do in the laboratory.

PAULA ERNST: I went to the University of Hartford. I graduated in 1988 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After I left college, I got a job as an accident reconstructionist. I worked for a private company in Connecticut and investigated hundreds of car accidents, transportation accidents of different sorts. And then I applied for a job with the FBI, and I entered on duty in March of 1998.

PAULA ERNST: Yes. Everyone who's brought into the laboratory goes through a training process. I came in under the title of visual information specialist, so I came in as an entry-level job. We get trained in the crime scene response methodologies, we work with the Evidence Response Team's training unit program to get trained in how to do documentation, we learn about all the different processes. There's a 12-step process of documenting a scene. And I brought a lot of experience with me, I got training in different software programs. We use a lot of software that's used in the engineering and the graphics world, like computer-aided drafting and Adobe Photoshop and all that kind of thing. So I got training in that stuff also.

PAULA ERNST: Yes. So in 2000 or so, right before 9/11 happened, there was a discussion about bringing Total Stations, or surveying equipment, into the FBI for the Evidence Response Team. As an engineer in the accident transportation world, I learned surveying with that job and brought that skill set with me. When I was hired by the FBI, they actually had a civil engineer give me a test in surveying, which I passed. As a result, we developed, with the Evidence Response Team Unit, which is within my section in the laboratory -- the Evidence Response Team Unit oversees all the ERT teams around the country. So every field office has an Evidence Response Team in their office, and under this concept they're all trained exactly the same way, the same procedures. So when we started the total station program -- it actually got running in 2002, and I am considered -- my unit is considered the subject matter experts in this technique. We are -- we work in concert with Evidence Response Team Unit, and we train and teach all the teams that have this equipment throughout the field. So I brought that expertise with me, and I keep up with my current training as a -- I was a visual information specialist in the unit. Over the past four years, I've moved into supervisory roles, and in the past two years I've been the unit chief. So I'm more of an administrator at this point in time but I do oversee all the training in this work.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, I do.

PAULA ERNST: So all the agents in the field, all the teams that we train come to our training classes. So I met Jason when he came to training in -- I believe it was Seattle, was his first training class. The other responders to the scene in Boston from other offices I've also trained through our program. All of them are trained the same way. We use the same technique. They're taught all the same codes, all of the -- the way to measure properly, how to use control points, how to bring it all together. And they are required to send every survey that they do into our office to get it checked.

PAULA ERNST: So our -- our -- we're support to the response components of the FBI, and we support all FBI field investigations in a capacity beyond what they can handle within their offices. So I -- for instance, we helped the Denver field office with the Columbine High School shooting. And I was out there for two weeks helping to document that scene. After 9/11, we went to the Pentagon and helped document that scene. All field offices can call the laboratory and ask for assistance with anything that they're doing. So we help them process scenes, document them, and then we produce demonstrative exhibits. We work with case agents and prosecutors to help tell the story of their investigation and their case.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, we did.

PAULA ERNST: So the beginning hours after something happens are a little bit confusing, but the call did come in that the Boston office was going to need assistance in processing these scenes. The ERTU, the Evidence Response Team Unit, is actually in charge of the lab team that comes out here. So I coordinated with the special agent there assigned to this project to get a handle on how big the scene was, how many people might possibly be needed and what we would have to send up here. So in that capacity, I pulled four people together the first day of the incident. Over the course of that night, as politics work their way through, we sent a team up to Boston the next morning. They came up here. So I sent somebody to support photography and I sent three people to help support documentation as graphic specialists, technical specialists. Over the course of this week in investigation it became apparent they needed more assistance. Eventually, we sent up our mobile imaging truck which is a vehicle equipped with printers and platters and computers, so we can process data on a scene and make sure we have everything. And then I also got a request that they were short photographers, so I sent up another set of photographers and another technical person to do documentation.

PAULA ERNST: So we focus on the documentation of a scene and we make sure we collect as much data as we can, not knowing what we're going to have to prepare as exhibits. So by the time my team got up here, the Boston team was already on-scene. They started with their total station process. The New York office was up here. They were getting started with their total station process. We support what they're doing. We make sure they're doing it properly. On top of that, we took hand measurements at these scenes if we couldn't get to it with a total station. A grid system was utilized at Scene A that we referenced. We also brought up laser scanning technology which is a modern version of surveying equipment that engineers use, and we laser-scanned Boylston Street all the way through Scene A and Scene B. I also got a request after the first day that we may need some imagery of the scene, so on the 17th I sent a plane. We have an aerial photographic program within my group. We sent our plane up from Virginia. It is equipped with a camera that's embedded in the belly of the plane, and this camera, it syncs in with GPS, and we take a series of high-resolution photographs. We took them all up and down Boylston Street at a certain elevation. Then we mosaic all these photographs together, and through the GPS technology, we can create a geo-referenced aerial image that's from overhead and that's to scale.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, we did.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, I do.

PAULA ERNST: This is the crime scene diagram of Boylston Street that was created by my unit.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, it is.

PAULA ERNST: Yes. So we used -- we collect all the data that the Evidence Response Teams collect at these scenes. So we get all the photographs, we get all the surveying data, we get all the photo logs, we get the evidence logs. Everything that's collected, we get copies of all that data, and we compile all this data and we cross-referenced and checked it with our scan data and our aerial imagery to make sure that everything was accurate and lining up.

PAULA ERNST: It means that we measured the width of the road, we measured where all the trees are located, we measured the checked and lined up the stripes that are in the road. Everything that's in the road as it normally is there, we use those known locations of things to create the diagram. The survey teams that survey, they put common points between their two surveys so that we can tie all the data that they collected together. We take all that raw data that's collected and overlay it onto the aerial image and line it all up. Then we add in with the computer-aided drafting all the hand measurements. I believe my team also got blueprints from some of the facilities to help us with how big each building is. So when I say it's to scale, we measured it with the same technology that civil engineers use. We drew it up in our computer-aided drafting programs and made sure that it was drawn to the scale that you see. So if we took measurements on the computer back in our office, the road is actually the width of the road that it should be, the stripes are the right length, the buildings are the right sizes.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, I do.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, it is.

PAULA ERNST: Yes. So as a unit chief, I'm responsible for all the work product that our unit develops. Over the course of the production time, I get updates on where we are and I also make sure it's peer-reviewed. And then I also in this case did some checks and balances myself, took some spot measurements off the diagram, compared it to the known data that we had and ensured it was right.

PAULA ERNST: So a peer review is when one of my graphics people who's a visual information specialist drew up this diagram. I had another visual information specialist within the program check the work of the other visual information specialist.

PAULA ERNST: So we took the survey data that Jason would have explained earlier, and where you see a dot on the diagram is the location of a piece of evidence that was collected at the scene. So as the evidence gets marked and surveyed in, the dots represent the different types of evidence that were collected at that scene and where it was found.

PAULA ERNST: A Q number.

PAULA ERNST: So while we're in the field, everything that gets marked is marked with an evidence response number at the scene. That evidence number is then cross-referenced with what the number is in the survey. When it comes to the FBI laboratory, those evidence numbers are given Q numbers. So we had a spreadsheet where we cross-referenced all these numbers, so we knew that Q Number 129 was that particular piece of evidence in the survey.

PAULA ERNST: Yes. And if we -- there are some items that we were unable to specifically locate due to the -- being moved at the scene. Some items are grouped. If it was not specifically located, it is referenced in this exhibit that it was approximated or generalized.

PAULA ERNST: So on the right side of the screen is a list of the FBI laboratory numbers of all these pieces of evidence. These are the pieces of evidence that -- so when we create these exhibits, we work with the case agents and the task force in that field office. So in this case we worked with Boston. Of all the things that were found at the scene, these are the ones that were important to this part of the case. So the laboratory numbers are the Q numbers. There's a description. The evidence description is carried on from the evidence logs through what that piece of evidence is. And then the dots are colorized to organize them as to what different types of evidence they are.

PAULA ERNST: Correct. So if -- as you hover over each significant item, the Q number for that item comes up. That is linked to the actual photographs of that item, both the ones taken in the field and the ones taken back at the laboratory. So you can see where that piece of evidence is located and then you can click to see exactly what it is.

PAULA ERNST: So it's the same system of checks and balances. We actually had the field office crosscheck all the photographs against the Q numbers. They became our peer reviewers for this part of the project, and then I also had the items checked at the laboratory.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, it is.

PAULA ERNST: So if you click on the assembly materials, those are only the items that are related to what we classified as assembly materials. The scene is also divided. It's not the whole street. So we broke the street up into three different zones so that would be more viewable on the screen. So at this time for this scene, those are only those items related to assembly materials. There's also -- you could break it apart by the other categories listed, so concealment items, container items, explosive residue and fragmentation and the fusing system, those are all linked to those categories and those categories only.

PAULA ERNST: Correct.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, it was.

PAULA ERNST: Yes, this is the same diagram as in the other exhibit.

PAULA ERNST: Oh, the placement of the cameras, some of them were surveyed in by the survey team, some of them were located by someone actually walking around and telling us where they were, some of them -- everything we do is cross-referenced back to the photographs. In addition to the laser scanning that we did up and down Boylston Street, we took pictures, spherical photography all up and down Boylston Street. I think we also did spherical video. So spherical photography is high-resolution photography from one location. They use it now in like architectural and real estate sites. And you can look all the way around the photograph and zoom in on things. We also did video up and down the street to ensure that if we didn't know where something was, we could find it in the photographs.

PAULA ERNST: So laser scanning is the newest technology in the surveying world that we utilize. When surveying firms -- you see them along the side of a highway. They use a device, and it measures one point at a time. That's how they're laying out your roads, that's how they're laying out your property lines for your house. We use that same exact technology to document what we find at different scenes. Laser scanning is a whole step above regular surveying. It's a device that -- we can place a laser scanner in the middle of this room. The laser spins around in 360 degrees and reflects off of every object that it sees. It's built in such a way that both of these devices that were used use the mathematics of trigonometry to figure out spatial relationships of things, and they come up with X, Y and Z coordinates for all of these objects. So everything that we documented at the scene we do in a three-dimensional world. It's a true space world. So if the distance from me to you is 30 feet, it will be measured that way by this laser device. And you have to move the laser device around multiple stations in order to get all the different sides of things. So we measured probably 36 different positions along just one of these scenes to get enough scan data so that when we merged it all together, we have a total visual point cloud of what that scene looks like.

PAULA ERNST: I would say approximately a couple hundred.

PAULA ERNST: There are much more images than there are items because there are multiple photographs for each item. There are photographs from the scene itself and also the photographs from the laboratory when it came back. So there are hundreds of photographs in this exhibit.