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Galloway, N.J. — Branna Foy audibly gasped as she toured �鶹��ý’s new Forensics Lab, which made its debut this week.

As the Criminal Justice major from Brick Township passed an autopsy table heading into the mock crime scene area, she noticed yellow “Do Not Cross” tape, blood spatters on the floor and a mannequin on its back with a knife protruding from its torso.

She couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m very happy the lab is here. I’m so excited. It looks so awesome. It’s the first time I’ve seen it fully complete and I’m just really excited to be able to use it,” said the junior whose concentration is in Forensics Investigation and who hopes to work for the Ocean County Sheriff's Office in the future.

The lab likely won’t stay looking new for long.

“Don’t expect this room to stay this clean and new once we start doing blood spatter analysis,” Criminal Justice Teaching Specialist Barbara LeClair told Foy.

LeClair and fellow �鶹��ý teaching specialist Bill Dineen have pushed for years to get a larger forensics lab since the program outgrew its previous space.

“This affords us more of an opportunity to conduct experiments,” Dineen said. “It’s more practical, and that’s what we were looking for — practicality.”

Marissa Levy, the dean of �鶹��ý’s School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said the expanded lab is part of a long-term plan to improve the forensics program. The university currently offers Forensic Psychology and Forensic Investigation as concentrations within the Criminal Justice major. The percentage of Criminal Justice students in those concentrations has risen from 24.4% in 2016 to 44.3% in 2025.

�鶹��ý also has a Forensic Science Certificate Program designed for Criminal Justice majors and current students and alumni in select programs.

“We have been working to improve our forensics program for nearly 30 years,” Levy said. “We first did that incrementally with portable fingerprint kits and later with temporary lab space. Now, we have a beautiful space with permanent features including a room to analyze blood spatter and technology to support medicolegal investigations.”

Dineen said that in addition to a mock crime scene space, the lab will allow students to use fuming hoods to get fingerprints off objects, photograph objects with different colored lights, use microscopes to perform hair and fiber analysis and analyze blood spatter patterns and ballistic evidence trajectories.

“We try to touch every component within the forensic space, some more in-depth than others, but we will give the students at least an introduction to it,” he said.

Junior Criminal Justice major Hailey Corvino, of Toms River, said there’s no doubt the new lab will help her move toward her goal of becoming a crime scene investigator after she graduates.

“That’s my dream. That’s my passion. To help families get the answers they need. That they are entitled to when tragedy strikes. I want to make communities feel safer,” she said.

Dineen said the new space will also allow the forensics program to grow and invest in new and better technology as it becomes available.

“We’ll be building it out as we go,” he said. “As we go forward, this place will allow us to adapt to any changes.”

“The new lab is definitely a big steppingstone in growing the program,” LeClair said. “This is modern. This is new. It’s in its infancy, but it’s only going to be expanded. We want students to actually be able to do these things.” 

-- Story by Mark Melhorn, photos by Susan Allen