Sierra Brothwell

801-209-0091
3082 w. 4745 s. Taylorsville, UT 84129
Munchkin3082@hotmail.com
The Summer of Crime and Drugs
West Valley, Utah, May 4, 2016 -- Crime scene investigative shows have all be the craze for the last
decade, but have you ever wanted to actually explore the inner working of the modern lab? Well, for
the last summer Sierra Brothwell did just that. She worked at the Utah State Crime Lab located in
Salt Lake City, Utah every Thursday. Sierra performed reagent tests, collected paint samples, and
cataloged controlled substances.
The reagent tests are used by everyone in the lab to test controlled substance samples that come in
the lab. The reagents cause the chemicals to change different colors to determine the type of
substance. Her mentor and Sierra went to a junkyard to collect the paint samples that were required
to be added to the national paint database. They had to collect over 75 paint samples from cars that
were built newer than 2010. Sierra also had to catalog all the controlled substances that are present
in the lab for presentations. Making sure that all was recorded and that none was missing.
Throughout Sierras summer of crime and drugs she learned an important thing; That no matter the
time and no matter the place, but forensic science will always find out the truth. She discovered this
truth by reading and discovering that one of the forensic scientist that she was working with was a
serial perpetrator. He had multiple background checks and had been working with the criminal lab for
over 15 years. However, during that time he was sexually abuse children. He was finally caught by
another agencys work, but the truth was found.
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