Brook Bell, CSI

She is a senior crime scene investigator with the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab. She has been with them since July of 2017, for almost 6 years. Senior investigator requires at least 5 years of experience, crime scene certification through the International Association for Identification, and a certain number of training hours toward specializing in a forensic discipline.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Master of Arts in Biology and a Master of Science degree in Forensic Science from the University of CO at CO Springs, completed an internal training program on call 24/7 for 6 months, was required to complete relevant readings, perform practical exercises, and work with an investigator until it was determined she could work alone, and has completed training courses in crime scene reconstruction, crime scene investigation, trajectory documentation, shooting incident reconstruction, bloodstain pattern analysis, chemical enhancement of blood, photography, and latent print processing. She has been qualified as an expert in El Paso County and in federal court. She has testified 34 times and been qualified 22 times. This witness is qualified as an expert in crime scene investigation.

Background

As a CSI her primary responsibility is to document and process crime scenes and ultimately she is responsible for the identification, collection, and preservation of the evidence for future testing and to assist with investigative leads.
This takes longer than it does on TV.
She receives briefings from detectives, police officers, and other members of a particular investigation to get an idea of what she’s looking for at a crime scene.
It’s beneficial to have some idea of what you’re going to before you start the investigation. It’s the most common situation. You tend to have an idea of what type of investigation or crime has occurred.
On 1/29/2020 Bell responded to the Stauch home.
Prior to that the information Bell had was that an 11 year old child had gone missing two days prior.
The only information was that the investigators had reason to believe he may be the victim of a homicide.
She received a case briefing and a timeline of events.
When she got to the scene the 11 year old child had been missing for 2 days. He had reportedly gone to a friends house and didn’t return home and was reported missing that Monday around 7 PM. Officers responded around 10 PM that evening. On the 29th investigators did a search of the residence and told her an incident had occurred on the 26th in which Gannon was playing video games in the basement living room. A candle was knocked over and damaged the carpet and couch.
She was told about the carpet that had been burned, cut, and covered.
Eventually she received information that Gannon’s stepmother Letecia had contacted an individual about the carpet repair and that that individual came to the house and she was sexually assaulted in Gannon’s room and he had been kidnapped.
She focused on the downstairs living room where the burned carpet was as well as Gannon’s room.
She was looking for evidence using an alternate light source which shows biological fluids like urine, saliva, and semen.
Exhibits 373 - 441, 711.
E373 is a photo of street from across the street from the Stauch home.

It shows 6627 and 6643 Mandan

E374 is a direct photo of the front of the Stauch home.

A bright yellow chair is on the porch.

E375 is a photo of a shoe rack on a tile floor from the entryway or the laundry room of the Stauch home.
E376 is a photo of the top of the washer or dryer.

A pair of shoes with pink stains on the white soles is on top. The shoes were swabbed on January 28th.

E377 is a closeup of the shoes.

They are very pink stained.

E379 is a photo of the garage.

They were not initially looking for blood in the garage but a deputy located possible bloodstains.

E380 is another photo in the garage.

You can see the steps; there are markers on the floor that show possible bloodstains - one on the step and two more on the floor

Juror issue

Juror 12 did not realize that she knew Stefanie Happ. She did not recognize the name on the witness list. They will do some questioning at the end of the day.

Continuing with Brook Bell

E380 is still up.
There is a blue bucket in the garage full of yellow softballs.
E381 is a photo of the top step looking down from the laundry room showing one of the possible blood stains.
This was visible blood, it did not need BLUESTAR.
E382 is a closeup photo of the possible bloodstains on the top step.
The bloodstain was collected by using a swab.
E383 is a photo showing the bloodstains on the garage floor.
E384 is a closeup.
E385 is another closeup.

These appear to be consistent with transfer stains not droplets.

A transfer stain is when blood is deposited from one surface onto another.
E387 is a photo in the backyard on the east side of the house showing the dumpster.

The trash cans were searched on 1/28/2020.

E388 is a photo of the basement living room looking southwest.

The burn area on the carpet is on the right side of the corner. An area rug is on top of the area.

E389 is another photo of the basement living room showing the area rug and corner of the couch as well as the blankets in a pile with burn debris on them.
E390 is a closeup of the pile of blankets.
E391 is a photo of the blue and white blanket with a scale showing the size of burn debris.
E392 is a closeup of the burn mark.
E393 is a photo of a watermelon blanket.
E394 is a photo of a blanket bunched around burn debris.
E395 is the couch in the basement living room.

The removed carpet is directly in front of the couch. There is wax damage on the left side of the couch and charring as well.

E396 is a photo of the southwest corner of the living room showing the TV.
E397 is a photo of a pillow.

There is charred material on the pillow.

E398 is a closeup of that photo.
E399 is the pillow.
E400 is a photo from the west wall of the living room showing the loveseat and blankets as well as the storage room with the door open.
E401 is a photo of the entry way to the storage room.
E402 is a photo of the storage room with all the boxes; taken from the entry way.

You can see carpet in the storage room.

E403 is a photo of the inside of the storage room depicting the furnace and water heater.
E404 is another photo of the inside of the storage room showing more of the floor.

There is a box that has Amazon tape on it. It was collected later on 2/21/2020.

The purpose of the response on 2/21/2020 was to remove everything from the storage room and search it for blood.
E405 is a photo of the north wall of the storage room.

The entry way is behind the photographer. A gun box is visible for the M&P Bodyguard. A red suitcase and a small section of carpet are in the room. Nothing was moved to take better photos.

State asks if a pink suitcase was in the storage room later.
A clear tub with purple handle was also collected on 2/21/2020. The tub had possible bloodstains on it later. There was possible blood on the Amazon box as well.
E406 is a photo of the southeast corner of the storage room.

You can see a red suitcase, the piece of carpet, and the clear tub with purple handle.

E407 is a photo of items in the storage room after objects have been moved.

A larger section of carpet was mostly covered in the previous photographs.

Bell never saw a large olive green suitcase in the storage room.
E408 is a closer photo of the top of the red suitcase.
Later, that carpet was unrolled and opened.
E409 is a photo of the top of the red suitcase with carpet debris and carpet fibers on top.
E410 is a photo of the carpet pulled out.

it was rolled and folded. Concealed inside the fold was a smaller piece of carpet with a possible blood stain.

E411 is a closeup of the possible bloodstain with a scale in the photo.
E412 is a cut of carpet.
E413 is the small piece of carpet.
E411 is the large piece.
The carpet in E411 has a saturation stain, possibly transfer.
E414 is a picture of two sections of cut carpet joined together showing they match
E415 is a photo of the square of carpet in front of the couch.

The carpet and padding were cut out. There were burn and char marks in the padding.

E416 is a piece of carpet inside the square; it was under an area rug
This damage was inconsistent with a candle spill. It must be very hot and sustained heat to light a carpet on fire.
Swabs were taken from the living room due to BLUESTAR reactions.
Bell swabbed an area on the carpet in the cut out square.
A detective mentioned an unusual odor in Gannon’s room near the center and near the light switch.
She detected an odor but could not place it as traditional bleach or cleaning products.
There was an odor of urine throughout the basement.
There were two dog crates in the basement.
Sergeant Hubbel wanted to remove and search all of the items in the basement storage room.
There was interest in some saws in the garage.
A board recovered in the Palmer Lake area had blood on it. A corner of the particle board was missing and not found in the basement.
E418 is a picture of the entry to the basement storage room.

It is more organized and you can see more of the floor.

E419 is an additional photo inside the storage room.
E420 is the same angle but higher showing on top of the clear tub with the purple handle.
E421 is the tub removed from the storage room and placed in the basement living room to be inspected with flashlights
E422 is a photo taken during processing in the lab of the clear tub.
E423 is the plastic tub.
E424 is a photo taken in the lab with sticker scales showing the sizes of stains visible on the tub.
E425 is another photo with a different stain on the tub.
E426 is another photo of the stain on the tub.
E427 are visible stains on a different part of the tub.
E428 is showing a stain on the right side underneath the lid.
E429 is a photo closer up of a stain.
E430 is another closeup of a stain with a scale.
E431 is another closeup of bloodstains.
These appear to be transfer stains, you can see visible swipe marks.
E432 is the same stain just a wider shot.
This tub was sent to a DNA analyst, Bell did not swab the bloodstains.
E433 is a photo of the cardboard Amazon box.

Inside are two Apple iPhones. Two sides of the box were stained with blood.

E434 is a photo in the lab of the box.
E435 is the box.
E436 is a closeup of two stains to the left of the Amazon tape.

They are transfer stains.

E437 is a closer photo of the lower stain to the left of the tape.
E438 is the opposite side of the box with some transfer stains on it.
E439 is a photo of the storage room floor,

Sharpie marks have been made on the floor from circling BLUESTAR reactions due to a camera malfunction. The reaction was observed by 4 individuals.

E440 is a photo of the storage room floor.

You can see the marks and some of the spray. The areas span the entire floor from the furnace to the other wall near where the red suitcase, carpet, and clear tub were.

E441 is a photo of the northeast corner with the sump pump visible.

You can see sharpie circles and some of the liquid spray marks.