WAYNE, Neb. -- From CSI to Criminal Minds, many people watch true crime TV, but that's not always what happens in real life. Middle and High School students got to experience what a real crime scene looks like with a staged incident at the Wayne State College CSI Lab.

Tara Wiles, an instructor at Wayne State College, talked about the interest people have in crime scene investigation and how this camp provides an educational experience for the students.

“People already have an extreme interest in true crime, and this gives people an opportunity to get in a scene and work like an actual detective or like a forensic investigator,” Wiles said. “And It’s fun, but it’s also a great learning opportunity.”

Kinsely, a student from Platteview, described how the day went and what crime the students had to solve.

“The scene that we had, there was a dead body and we had to figure out who was the witness, who was murdered, and who found the body, and who was innocent,” Kinsely said.

Two camps were held on June 22 with the 7 through 9 graders in the morning and the 10 through 12 graders in the afternoon. The camps created a mock crime scene which set up a murder and the students were tasked to gather clues and solve the case.

Rola, a student from Lincoln Southeast, enjoyed the camp because of the challenges she faced throughout the day piecing information together.

“We had to learn a bunch of information from scrap,” Rola said. “That’s what made it hard, but that’s also what made it worth it to come here. It’s like, ‘Oh, I get to figure this out, I don’t just have this information handed to me.”

Before being an instructor at the college, Wiles attended Wayne State, became a probation officer after graduating, and gained experience as a forensic technician.

With the rise of true crime television, Wiles wants to educate students on what happens in real life versus what happens in a fictional setting.

“One of my goals is to really separate what is reality and what you see on TV,” Wiles said. “I put a lot of focus on that. This is how we do it in real life, so that people aren’t mistaken about what they know and what they don’t know.”

Wiles said after two years of conducting the camp, she plans to continue holding the camp for future law enforcement and detectives in Nebraska.

So, did the next great detective attend the college’s CSI camp?

“I’d say a lot of these kids had a certain level of promise that I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years they come back and say, 'Hey, I made it to detective,'” Wiles said.

The camp was held at the CSI lab on campus which was built in 2018 for the criminal justice program.