As I walked into my Bio-Medical class on a typical Tuesday afternoon, the last thing I expected was to walk into a crime scene. Splatters of crimson on the floor dotted my path as I walked into the room. There lied a skeleton, belonging to a woman named Anna Garcia. She was dead.

The crime scene was blocked off from the rest of the room with caution tape. I saw markers all over the crime scene, signifying the different pieces of evidence. There was a table with multiple items on it including unused paper towels, a bottle of alcohol that was almost empty, a forehead thermometer, a red mug with pens and a miniature American flag, a succulent, air purifier, post it notes, strands of blonde hair, and smeared blood. In the middle of the crime scene, was in fact Anna Garcia.

Anna lied there on her right side with blood on her nose and clumpy, bloody vomit coming out of her mouth. The smell of vinegar hung in the air. Next to the vomit was two teeth and more blood spatter. There was a mysterious fingerprint on her head, maybe her own or a suspect’s. Even though there was a heat wave, Anna had on a long, brown trench coat lined with black buttons. Her left hand held a paper towel and her left knee was dislocated.

Surrounding Anna, there were two circular pills coated red, an empty syringe, and empty candy wrappers. One a York Peppermint Patty wrapper and the other a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup wrapper. Students ran around the room bending down, taking pictures of the crime scene and writing down observations on their lab notebooks. While students came up with different theories, like “I think she died because of an overdose” or “I think she died because she had a peanut allergy and ate a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup”, the cause of Anna Garcia’s death remained unknown. Little did I know, the solving of this mystery was a big assignment I would have to work on for the duration of the year.