After a cocktail party last Wednesday, Chi Zhang stabbed Dr. Morpho in the neck with a pair of scissors.
He didn't do a very good job covering up his tracks, however, and evidence was left all over the Florida Museum of Natural History on Friday for CSI fans around Gainesville to examine and use to help solve the "crime" during the museum's Murder Mystery Night on Friday.
This interactive event was part of Creative B, a summer program designed to highlight the creative side of UF, and the museum's latest CSI: Crime Scene Insects exhibit, running until Jan. 17, 2011, said Tiffany Ireland, education assistant for the museum and coordinator of Murder Mystery Night.
When visitors arrived the evidence had already been gathered, and visitors were given a list of five suspects: the angry spouse, the security guard, the disgruntled donor Chi Zhang, the professional rival and the lab partner.
One suspect could be eliminated by using the evidence displayed at each of the five forensic stations: the interrogation videos, blood residue, fingerprint station, fiber station and an insect station.
Prizes were given out to those who found the correct suspect.
"The fingerprint station was my favorite," said Scott Sturgill-Trahan, a 15-year-old student at St. Francis High School. "It was the most difficult station of them all. The whole event was fun, but it was challenging, also."
Besides the evidence stations, there was another table run by Marc Trahan, representative of the Forensics Crime Unit of the Gainesville Police Department.
Trahan set up alternate-light-source technology, along with other forensics-crime-unit techniques used to help solve crimes, for the public to view. Trahan served as the expert available to answer any questions visitors might have on collecting forensic information.
For the brave visitors and artists, there was also an area devoted to maggot painting. Participants gently dipped a maggot, provided by the entomology department at UF, in paint and let it squiggle around a piece of paper.
"The maggot painting was a blast," said James Loop, a 21-year-old English major at UF. "It was nice to collaborate with an insect on a work of art."
Murder Mystery Night was free and open to the public. It ran from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m., and visitors could solve the crime at their own pace.
"We wanted to promote the Florida Museum of Natural History's exhibit, but also pertain to an older crowd, specifically UF students because of Creative B," Ireland said. "It was great to see that we got our market and had mostly students here. I hope we get to do it again, it was a lot of fun."
