At the Maryland State Police Crime Lab, tragedy comes in brown paper wrapping.
From the gun that ended the fight between a husband and wife to the cells of a rapist who has attacked an elderly woman, this gray concrete building in Baltimore County is a repository for evidence in Maryland's crimes.
It is the place where police from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore send the bloody clothes, guns, drugs and DNA samples to be examined under microscopes, hoping to prove what happened in the state's most puzzling and horrifying cases.
"The truth is in the evidence," said Jay Tobin, the crime lab's new director. "The story isn't complete until you know what it shows."
In a year, more than 17,600 cases are processed here. With new laws requiring more evidence to be saved and more evidence to be processed, the lab next to Maryland State Police headquarters in Pikesville has outgrown its space. The lab has annexed nearby office space, in addition to satellite offices in Berlin and Hagerstown.
Groundbreaking on a $23.5 million, 65,000-square-foot lab on Milford Mill Road is scheduled in the fall. But in the perpetually cramped quarters in Pikesville, all bets are that the new building will be too small before its scheduled opening in March 2005.
The current lab's main building has several rooms that look like high school science classrooms, filled with rows of microscopes, scales and glass beakers.
There are some sophisticated instruments to determine the chemical makeup of substances and computers to begin the process of mapping genetic codes. Databases track the DNA of convicted felons, unidentified crime suspects and registered guns sold in Maryland.
Some police departments - including Baltimore County and Baltimore City - have crime labs, but many jurisdictions rely on the state to process their evidence, especially DNA samples.
The state police crime lab is one of three nationally accredited labs in Maryland - a distinction that is important in court and in the forensic science field.
Its scientists recently testified in the high-profile killings of two tourists in Ocean City. Prosecutors routinely call them to testify about evidence in rapes, robberies, burglaries and drunken-driving accidents.
Just as a witness tells police important details about a crime, this civilian staff helps tell detectives what has happened. It is an exacting, exhausting pursuit - involving specks of genetic material, constant peer reviews of lab work and ever-changing technology that produces some results proven to be accurate within a one-in-56 quadrillion margin.
