CRESSON — A new lab at Mount Aloysius College will immerse criminology students in the “haunting realities” of crime scenes, giving them a potential edge over other job seekers in criminal justice careers, according to several officials and college graduates.

Located in the campus’ Academic Hall building, the lab is designed like an apartment and can be modified to create any stage scenario, according to Joseph Bobak, director of the college’s criminology program.

During an open house Thursday, the lab featured several stations that used mannequins to depict different types of crime scenes, such as gunshot wounds and a decomposing body.

“Now that we have this crime scene lab, we can now immerse our students in a crime scene that is almost identical to what they would see at a real scene,” Bobak said, adding that the lab allows students to practice the mechanics . investigating crime scenes and collecting evidence while strengthening their critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills.

Adam Pernelli, a police sergeant in Pittsburgh’s Third Precinct who graduated from Mount Aloysius in 2015, said it’s “definitely eye-opening” to witness crime scenes for the first time. The lab will mentally prepare students for their future careers, he said.

In his career, Pernelli was one of the officers who responded to a 2018 anti-Semitic terrorist attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The first two crime scenes Pernelli responded to as an officer were “very demanding,” he said, adding that he saw “a lot of things that I hope no one ever sees.”

Cambria County Chief Deputy Coroner Joe Hribar said he has a “good foundation” in how to investigate crime scenes after graduating from Mount Aloysius in 2012. When he was a student, the college didn’t have the hands-on opportunities that current students will benefit in the lab, he said.

“To be able to give students now a crime simulation room, to go and say this is what you get called at two in the morning and solve … it’s a big advantage for those students,” Hribar said.

In a homicide scenario, investigators have only one chance to process the scene before evidence is disturbed, he said.

“With that chance, you have to be able to do it right,” Hribar said. “You don’t want to make any mistakes or disrupt anything that could be crucial in this case.”

A new certificate has been released

The college officially launched a new four-course forensic genetic genealogy certificate on Thursday.

Hribar, an adjunct instructor for the criminology program, said Mount Aloysius is one of three universities in the country to offer the certificate, noting that the University of New Haven and Ramapo College in New Jersey offer similar certificates.

“This is a new and rapidly growing tool that law enforcement and death investigators can use,” Hribar said, adding that FIGG allows investigators to analyze DNA evidence and connect it to a suspect or unidentified person.

Forensic genetic genealogy gained popularity in 2016 when law enforcement used it to identify and arrest “Golden State Killer” Joseph James DeAngelo, Hribar said. “This was the first case that really sparked the growth of FIGG as a program,” he said.

Hribar said he recently earned his FIGG certification and is eager to share his knowledge with students “and hopefully create the next generation of FIGG practitioners to go out into the field.”

Alyscha Cutri, a junior majoring in criminology with a minor in sociology, plans to pursue forensic investigation and FIGG certificates upon graduation. She aspires to become a criminal investigator.

Curti said she has always been interested in forensics and wants to get her FIGG certificate because she is new to forensics.

“I think it’s really cool how we can find a suspect that works there,” she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.