LCHS Science

Reaching out to everyone and let you know about the plan for the future.

The first task is to remind everyone how to get into contact with us:

David Adkins: Livegrades and dvadkins@k12.wv.us

Debbie Adkins: Livegrades and dmadkins@k12.wv.us

Brandi Ashley: Livegrades and Bashley@k12.wv.us

Jonathan Escue: Livegrades and jescue@k12.wv.us

Kayla Adkins: Livegrades and kayla.adkins@k12.wv.us

Tiffany Baker: Livegrades and tiffany.baker@k12.wv.us

Office Hours:

The science department has chosen Wednesday to be science day. We will make sure we are available between 10-2 during that day. Don’t forget we check our messages every day and many times several times a day. Several of you have heard back from us at different times during the day. We just wanted everyone to know Science is Wednesday.

The assignments:

Each of the staff members has a digital option (livegrades, office 365, schoology, Edmodo, remind101, etc) so they will be sharing out the assignments digitally. The goal is to have the assignments returned in a way that is best for you. We have multiple options, pictures, emails, word documents, notebook paper. The returning of hard copies of the assignments will be coordinated through the help of the central office.

Do the best you can on the assignments. Ask us questions. Give it a try. Try to turn in something each week this helps us keep in contact with you, just remember do the best you can and get it to us when you can.

The future:

Many of the staff of the science department will be experimenting with new types of instruction over the next month or so. Don’t be surprised if you are asked to participate in a virtual meeting through Teams on office 365, or have a discussion board to post comments to. We are in this together and we will be better when this is over.

Thank you

LCHS Science Department

We miss you.

Forensics Packet 3 – 6th 6 Week

I miss you all so much!!!!! I hope you’re all healthy, happy & staying busy. These are some

things I’d like you to work on over the next couple of weeks to keep you active and thinking.

Impression/Animal Track Identification Activity- This year we learned about impression

evidence and conducted labs on the different types. We normally would be locating & identify

animal tracks/impressions and creating plaster casts.

Assignment:

Identify 10 impression evidence tracks around your house/area. The tracks can be from

animals, humans, machines, tools, vehicles or anything else you can think of.

To complete the assignment, you can make a list or take a picture of each impression you

identified & send to me

Use the following link to identify animal track impression evidence around your home. https://www.greenbelly.co/pages/animal-tracks-identification-guide

Serial Killer Profile: Choose one of the following serial killers to complete a serial killer

profile. Use the same format as we have in the past. You can watch documentaries (use links or

find your own) or do online research to complete.

Harold Shipman- A doctor who killed over 200 of his patients https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-KVuVjmjmU

Gary Ridgeway- The Green River Killer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bC9_Euz74

Serial Killer Profile_________________________________

Name______________________________Date_____Class___

Killer Demographics/Background (age, race,

family history, history of abuse, neglect)

Victim Selection/Demographics (age, race,

relationship to killer (stranger, targeted, relative, acquaintance) social class)

Method(s) of Killing

Criminal History/History of Violence

Motivation (sexual, anger/rage, mental illness, profit, revenge)

Forensic Evidence (be specific)

Killing Sites/Preferred Locations/Body

Disposal

Unusual/Unique Characteristics

NAMEGary Ridgway

OCCUPATIONMurderer

BIRTH DATEFebruary 18, 1949 (age 71)

PLACE OF BIRTHSalt Lake City, Utah

AKAGreen River Killer

FULL NAMEGary Leon Ridgway

ZODIAC SIGNAquarius

Gary Ridgway BiographyMurderer (1949–)

UPDATED: APR 16, 2019 · ORIGINAL: APR 27, 2017

Serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer,murdered at least 49 women in Washington state before he wascaught in 2001.

Synopsis

Serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He held ajob painting trucks for 30 years and was married three times. He began murdering women in1982 and was caught in 2001 when a DNA test revealed a match. Ridgway told investigators hekilled as many as 75-80 women along Route 99 in south King County, Washington. He wasconvicted and received multiple life sentences.

Background

Gary Leon Ridgway was born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Raised near Seattle'sPaci�c Highway, a deprived neighborhood near SeaTac airport, Ridgway was a poor student andwas sent to Vietnam after high school. When he returned, he got a job painting trucks, which hekept for 30 years. Though he married three times and was fanatical about religion, Ridgway was afrequent customer of prostitutes.

Green River Killings

Ridgway's slayings began in 1982, when young runaways and prostitutes began disappearing from state Route 99 in south King County, Washington. Hebrought many of them to his home and strangled them, then left them in woodsy, remote sites. The �rst few bodies turned up along the now-notoriousGreen River.

Dubbed the Green River Killer, Ridgway eluded the law until 2001, when King County sheri� Dave Reichert, the �rst o�cer assigned to the case in 1982,called a meeting to re-examine evidence using newly developed DNA-testing technology. The analysis produced a match between evidence from thevictims and Ridgway, and he was charged with four counts of aggravated murder in December 2001. Ridgway eventually pleaded guilty to 49 counts ofaggravated �rst-degree murder.

Multiple Life Sentences

Facing the prospect of execution, Ridgway made a deal with investigators to revealed where he'd hidden the bodies of several of the young womenwho'd never been found while also agreeing to plead guilty to any future cases where his confession could be substantiated by evidence. He wassentenced to life in prison in December 2003, having committed more murders than any serial killer in U.S. history.

An additional body was found in 2011, with Ridgway receiving another life sentence. In 2013, he claimed in an interview with a news media outlet thathe had murdered 75-80 women, with speculation over Ridgway was telling the truth or seeking further attention.

Citation Information

Article Title

Gary Ridgway Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website

URL

https://www.biography.com/crime-�gure/gary-ridgway

Access Date

April 23, 2020

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

February 14, 2020

Original Published Date

April 2, 2014

NAMEHarold Shipman

BIRTH DATEJanuary 14, 1946

DEATH DATEJanuary 13, 2004

EDUCATIONLeeds University

PLACE OF BIRTHNottingham, England

PLACE OF DEATHWake�eld, England

FULL NAMEHarold Fredrick Shipman

Harold Shipman Biography(1946–2004)

UPDATED: FEB 14, 2020 · ORIGINAL: APR 27, 2017

British serial killer Harold Shipman, who worked in England as amedical doctor, killed over 200 of his patients before his arrest in1998.

Who Was Harold Shipman?

British serial killer Harold Shipman attended Leeds School of Medicine and began workingas a physician in 1970. Between then and his arrest in 1998, he killed at least 215 andpossibly as many as 260 of his patients, injecting them with lethal doses of painkillers.

Early Life

Born the middle child into a working-class family on January 14, 1946, Harold FrederickShipman, known as "Fred", was the favorite child of his domineering mother, Vera. Sheinstilled in him an early sense of superiority that tainted most of his later relationships,leaving him an isolated adolescent with few friends.

When his mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he willingly oversaw her care asshe declined, fascinated by the positive e�ect that the administration of morphine had onher su�ering, until she succumbed to the disease on June 21, 1963. Devastated by herdeath, he was determined to go to medical school, and he was admitted to LeedsUniversity medical school for training two years later, having failed his entrance exams �rsttime, before serving his hospital internship.

Still a loner, he met his future wife, Primrose, at the age of 19, and they were married when she was 17, and �ve months pregnant with their �rstchild.

By 1974, he was a father of two and had joined a medical practice in Todmorden, Yorkshire, where he initially thrived as a family practitioner,before allegedly becoming addicted to the painkiller Pethidine. He forged prescriptions for large amounts of the drug, and he was forced to leavethe practice when caught by his medical colleagues in 1975, at which time he entered a drug rehab program. In the subsequent inquiry, hereceived a small �ne and a conviction for forgery.

A few years later, Shipman was accepted onto the sta� at Donneybrook Medical Centre in Hyde, where he ingratiated himself as a hardworkingdoctor, who enjoyed the trust of patients and colleagues alike, although he had a reputation for arrogance amongst junior sta�. He remained onsta� there for almost two decades, and his behavior incurred only minor interest from other healthcare professionals.

Crimes

The local undertaker noticed that Dr. Shipman's patients seemed to be dying at an unusually high rate, and exhibited similar poses in death:most were fully clothed, and usually sitting up or reclining on a settee. He was concerned enough to approach Shipman about this directly, whoreassured him that there was nothing to be concerned about. Later, another medical colleague, Dr. Susan Booth, also found the similaritydisturbing, and the local coroner's o�ce was alerted, who then contacted the police.

A covert investigation followed, but Shipman was cleared, as it appeared that his records were in order. The inquiry failed to contact the GeneralMedical Council, or check criminal records, which would have yielded evidence of Shipman's previous record. Later, a more thoroughinvestigation revealed that Shipman altered the medical records of his patients to corroborate their causes of death.

Hiding behind his status as a caring, family doctor, it is almost impossible to establish exactly when Shipman began killing his patients, or indeedexactly how many died at his hands, and his denial of all charges did nothing to assist the authorities. Indeed, his killing spree was only broughtto an end thanks to the determination of Angela Woodru�, the daughter of one of his victims, who refused to accept the explanations given forher mother's death.

Kathleen Grundy, an active, wealthy 81-year-old widow, was found dead in her home on June 24, 1998, following an earlier visit by Shipman.Woodru� was advised by Shipman that an autopsy was not required, and Grundy was buried in accordance with her daughter's wishes.

Woodru� was a lawyer, and had always handled her mother's a�airs, so it was with some surprise that she discovered that another will existed,leaving the bulk of her mother's estate to Dr. Shipman. Woodru� was convinced the document was a forgery, and that Shipman had murderedher mother, forging the will to bene�t from her death. She alerted the local police, where Detective Superintendent Bernard Postles quickly cameto the same conclusion upon examination of the evidence.

Grundy's body was exhumed, and a post-mortem revealed that she had died of a morphine overdose, administered within three hours of herdeath, precisely within the timeframe of Shipman's visit to her. Shipman's home was raided, yielding medical records, an odd collection ofjewelry, and an old typewriter which proved to be the instrument upon which Grundy's forged will had been produced.

It was immediately apparent to the police, from the medical records seized, that the case would extend further than the single death in question,and priority was given to those deaths it would be most productive to investigate, namely victims who had not been cremated, and who had diedfollowing a home visit by Shipman, which were given priority.

Shipman had urged families to cremate their relatives in a large number of cases, stressing that no further investigation of their deaths wasnecessary, even in instances where these relatives had died of causes previously unknown to the families. In situations where they did raisequestions, Shipman would provide computerized medical notes that corroborated his cause of death pronouncements.

Trial and Aftermath

Police later established that Shipman would, in most cases, alter these medical notes directly after killing the patient, to ensure that his accountmatched the historical records. What Shipman had failed to grasp was that each alteration of the records would be time stamped by thecomputer, enabling police to ascertain exactly which records had been altered.

Following extensive investigations, which included numerous exhumations and autopsies, the police charged Shipman with 15 individual countsof murder on September 7, 1998, as well as one count of forgery.

Shipman's trial commenced in Preston Crown Court on October 5, 1999. Attempts by his defense council to have Shipman tried in three separatephases, i.e. cases with physical evidence, cases without and the Grundy case (where the forgery di�erentiated it from other cases), as well as tohave damning evidence relating to Shipman's fraudulent accumulation of morphine and other drugs, were thrown out, and the trial proceededon the 16 charges included in the indictment.

The prosecution asserted that Shipman had killed the 15 patients because he enjoyed exercising control over life and death, and dismissed anyclaims that he had been acting compassionately, as none of his victims were su�ering a terminal illness.

Woodru� appeared as the �rst witness. Her forthright manner and account of her unremitting determination to get to the truth impressed thejury, and attempts by Shipman's defense to undermine her were largely unsuccessful.

Next, the government pathologist led the court through the gruesome post mortem �ndings, where morphine toxicity was the cause of death inmost instances.

Thereafter, �ngerprint analysis of the forged will showed that Grundy had never handled the will, and her signature was dismissed by ahandwriting expert as a crude forgery.

A police computer analyst then testi�ed how Shipman had altered his computer records to create symptoms that his dead patients never had, inmost cases within hours of their deaths.

As the trial progressed onto other victims and the accounts of their relatives, the pattern of Shipman's behavior became much clearer. A lack ofcompassion, disregard for the wishes of attending relatives and reluctance to attempt to revive patients were bad enough, but another fraud alsocame to light: he would pretend to call the emergency services in the presence of relatives, then cancel the call out when the patient wasdiscovered to be dead. Telephone records showed that no actual calls were made.

Finally, evidence of his drug hoarding was introduced, with false prescribing to patients who didn't require morphine, over-prescribing to otherswho did, as well as proof of his visits to the homes of the recently deceased to collect up unused drug supplies for "disposal".

Shipman's haughty demeanor throughout the trial did nothing to assist his defense in painting a picture of a dedicated healthcare professional.Despite their attempts, his arrogance and constantly changing stories, when caught out in obvious lies, did nothing to endear him to the jury.

Following a meticulous summation by the judge, and a caution to the jury that no one had actually witnessed Shipman kill any of his patients, thejury were su�ciently convinced by the testimony and evidence presented, and unanimously found Shipman guilty on all charges: 15 counts ofmurder and one of forgery, on the afternoon of January 31, 2000.

The judge passed �fteen life sentences, as well as a four-year sentence for forgery, which he commuted to a "whole life" sentence, e�ectivelyremoving any possibility of parole. Shipman was incarcerated at Durham Prison.

The fact that a doctor had killed 15 patients sent a shudder through the medical community, but this was to prove insigni�cant in light of furtherinvestigations that delved more deeply into his patient case list history.

A clinical audit conducted by Professor Richard Baker, of the University of Leicester, examined the number and pattern of deaths in Shipman'spractice and compared them with those of other practitioners. It found that rates of death amongst his elderly patients were signi�cantly higher,clustered at certain times of day and that Shipman was in attendance in a disproportionately high number of cases. The audit goes on toestimate that he may have been responsible for the deaths of at least 236 patients over a 24-year period.

Separately, an inquiry commission chaired by High Court Judge, Dame Janet Smith, examined the records of 500 patients who died while inShipman's care, and the 2,000-page report concluded that it was likely that he had murdered at least 218 of his patients, although this numberwas o�ered by Dame Janet as an estimation, rather than a precise calculation, as certain cases presented insu�cient evidence to allow forcertainty.

The commission further speculated that Shipman might have been "addicted to killing", and was critical of police investigation procedures,claiming that the lack of experience of the investigating o�cers resulted in missed opportunities to bring Shipman to justice earlier.

He may, in fact, have taken his �rst victim within months of obtaining his license to practice medicine, 67-year-old Margaret Thompson, who diedin March 1971 while recovering from a stroke, but deaths prior to 1975 were never o�cially proven.

Whatever the exact number, the sheer scale of his murderous activities meant that Shipman was catapulted from British patient killer to themost proli�c known serial killer in the world. He remained at Durham Prison throughout these investigations, maintaining his innocence, and wasstaunchly defended by his wife Primrose and family. He was moved to Wake�eld Prison in June 2003, which made visits from his family easier.

On January 13, 2004, Shipman was discovered hanging in his prison cell at Wake�eld, having used bed sheets tied to the window bars of his cell.

There remains some mystery about the whereabouts of his remains, with some claiming that his body is still in a She�eld Morgue, while othersbelieve that his family have custody of his body, believing that he may have been murdered in his cell, and wishing to delay his interment pendingfurther tests.

Citation Information

Article Title

Harold Shipman Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website

URL

https://www.biography.com/crime-�gure/harold-shipman

Access Date

April 23, 2020

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

February 14, 2020

Original Published Date

April 2, 2014