UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Before charges are filed and criminal cases head to court, much of the work begins inside the Union County Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab.
Behind secured doors, forensic investigators document, preserve, and process evidence collected from crime scenes across the county, from fingerprints and DNA to cellphones and blood samples.
Lt. Matthew Winfrey said the mission is clear.
“There are real victims, and we are trying to do everything that we can to solve these cases and put people in jail if that is where they need to be,” Winfrey said.
From one-man shop to a full forensic unit, Crime Scene Investigator Christopher McTeague said he has watched the lab evolve over nearly two decades.
“It was just me 18 years ago, a one-man shop. And the sheriff said we are going to need more people, and I said we will,” McTeague said.
Today, the lab handles much of its forensic work in-house.
“We started to do all of our fingerprint identification in-house, so we don’t have to mail those off to the state. We also do all of our digital forensics, so all of the cellphones and computers collected from crime scenes,” McTeague said.
Inside the lab, evidence is carefully packaged and processed.
“We have to package properly, document it, deal with it — it may be wet, it may be muddy, it may be blood. This is a safe place that staff knows we can bring the evidence in and get it dealt with,” McTeague said.
Investigators use specialized equipment, including a vent hood for fingerprint processing.
“This is a vent hood; it allows us to do fingerprint processing. We have various kinds of powder, and we are going to use a brush, like you see in ‘CSI,’” McTeague said as he showed WCNC Charlotte around.
They also take steps to prevent cross-contamination between cases.
“We are very conscious to make sure not only that we process things properly, but we also decontaminate it when we are done, so one case stays with one case,” he said.
The sheriff’s office has added Rapid DNA technology, allowing investigators to develop leads in about 90 minutes.
The lab also operates its own chemistry unit, where toxicology testing is performed locally.
“This instrument is what we test all our blood kits for alcohol,” said Dr. Daylarich, a forensic chemist with the sheriff’s office.
Processing DWI blood kits in-house significantly reduces wait times, officials said.
“For alcohol testing, we can usually get results back in about two weeks, as opposed to six months or longer for the state crime lab,” Daylarich said. “For all other impaired substances, that could take about four weeks for us instead of months.”
For services not performed locally, including firearm and toolmark identification, the sheriff’s office works with the State Crime Lab.
Deputies also test-fire seized weapons and send cartridge casing data to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to be entered into a national database. Investigators say that helps connect shootings across jurisdictions.
“This allows the detectives to get an enormous amount of leads, to say this gun matches back to a gun in Greensboro, and there’s a match in Gastonia,” McTeague said. “Now all detectives can all talk.”
When it comes to violent crime, the sheriff’s office points to a major milestone.
Since Sheriff Eddie Cathey took office in 2002, there have been no unsolved murders within the agency’s jurisdiction, according to the department.
Leaders say having expanded forensic capabilities locally plays a role in that record.
“We are able to bring in that evidence, handle things, and get a quicker turnaround time, and that way our detectives can follow leads quicker and we can solve these cases,” Winfrey said.
Officials say as technology evolves, so will the lab, with the goal of delivering answers for families and accountability for those responsible.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.