CSI: The Experience

By Shelley Stepanek

Have you sat glued to the set watching CSI for years? Have you wanted to be there with actor Gil Grissom and his team? Have you wanted to take classes in forensics?

Well, now you can do it all. Debuting last year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, CSI: The Experience is there for all who want to see, feel, hear, smell, and solve. Entering a Briefing Theater to orientate the novice, and give you instructions, Grissom steps out from behind his desk. He says, "Keep an open mind," and you start your journey through one of three crime scenes.

In "A House Collided," a car has run into the living-room window. In the driver's seat is a man slumped over. The windshield is shattered, and the door is shut. Inside the room there are muddy shoeprints, drops of blood, and a stain near the sofa.

In "Who Got Served?" a woman has been found dead in an alley behind a Las Vegas motel, in the seedier part of town. By the dumpster, she is wearing a waitress uniform. There is a tire tread across her abdomen.

In "No Bones About It!" a hiker has found a human skull in the middle of the desert. Partially buried by silt and debris, the bones are scattered. There is a visible hole in the scull.

You exit and head into a huge room of crime scene photos and clues. With drawings of your investigation in front of you, you go from checking fibers, blood samples, insects, photos, dental records, and missing-persons reports. Through science and deduction of the clues, you continue, seeing fragments of possible clues.

With DNA samples from the victims, you analyze the cause of death. Natural, homicide, suicide? Can you crack the case? With the newest scientific means to solve your crime, you submit your final analysis to the FBI for positive identification.

The attraction is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with last admission at 8:30 p.m.