FL- Somer Thompson: FBI hunts for clues in Georgia landfill

10-30-2009 Florida:

Everything from taking crime scene photographs to lifting fingerprints

When FBI agent Larry Meyer heard that police found Somer Thompson’s body in a Georgia landfill last week, he mobilized a group of co-workers whose gruesome, painstaking work may reveal her killer.

Some were gun-toting agents who regularly hunt criminals on the streets of North Florida. Others included FBI support staff whose full-time jobs entail photography and data analysis.

They are all part of the Jacksonville-based FBI Evidence Response Team, a highly trained group of forensics-fascinated folk who could run circles around any CSI television star, though it’ll take more than an hour.

The team put their game faces on when they got to the Folkston landfill, focusing on finding even the smallest clue that could solve the case. It was only days later that some felt the emotional drain of recovering the body of the 7-year-old Orange Park girl.

Alex Silverstein felt it on his first day off.

“I probably hugged and kissed my kids more in that one day than I have probably in a month,” said Silverstein, 39, a 13-year agent and father of two.

Angela Hill felt it when she set eyes on her infant son. While Silverstein is a veteran of body recoveries, having worked as part of a team at the Pentagon after 9/11, this was Hill’s first.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, knowing it’s an innocent child,” said Hill, 30, an agent for 3 1/2 years. “But it’s for a greater purpose: To find evidence; to get some answers.”

The 16-person team seeks those answers through everything from taking crime scene photographs to lifting fingerprints. Their arsenal includes special lighting that spots invisible bodily fluids; a kit that lifts dust prints from a surface using an electromagnetic charge; and a machine that can vacuum human scent that is then tracked by bloodhounds.

They have a stocked equipment van and a high-tech command center vehicle. They also have a pipeline into the FBI’s state-of-the-art laboratory in Quantico, Va., where some of the evidence collected in Somer’s case is being analyzed.

But it’s the people on the team and their drive to help solve cases that make the biggest difference, said Meyer, the senior team leader and a 23-year agent.

“There’s a motivation to do more than the regular job,” said Meyer, 50.

FBI agents, analysts and other support staff who volunteer for the team get two weeks of forensics training and take follow-up classes. They are responsible for scenes on federal property and in FBI cases, such as collection of evidence during search warrants. They can spend upwards of half their normal work week on a case such as Somer’s.

They also assist smaller police agencies with evidence collection and body recovery, including another Clay County case this year in which the buried remains of a murder victim were being search for in Keystone Heights nearly 30 years after the slaying.

“I have a great deal of confidence in them,” Clay Sheriff Rick Beseler said.

Meyer said the team spent about six hours recovering Somer’s body and evidence around her, then returned two days later to collect more. They were joined at the landfill by Clay detectives and agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“At first it was a great disappointment because we all hoped to find her alive,” Meyer said.

“Then when we got up there, as emotional as it was for everyone, we had to get the job done.”

Team members also worked with Clay detectives and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at a property on Gano Avenue where Somer disappeared.

Though the team couldn’t discuss details of the case, members said they are hopeful their work will make a difference.

“Bring people to justice. There is no more noble cause than doing that,” Silverstein said. ..Source.. by Jim Schoettler