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Murder on the Beach Detective Mick Mace was called to the scene of a beach murder. Two uniformed officers were already there, piecing together the chain of events that lead to the victim's death. “she was Jina Lange," the first officer tells Mace, "a 27 year old waitress from 'Jake's Palace.' She was running from someone, but they got her. Knocked her to the ground, gashing her head, and wrapped a belt around her neck - tried to strangle her, but she didn't die when the perp thought she did. She must have crawled 20 feet or so, but she was going toward the water by mistake. When she realized this, she was probably fading in and out of consciousness, and knew she wasn't going to make it. Looks like she wrote the word "help" in the sand with her finger, but it has been partially washed away by the approaching tide. See there? The h is half gone already, and the p is missing the stem. We took some pictures for record, though."
Mick Mace looked down at the woman who lay dead, shuddering as he thought of what it must be like to die at someone else's hand. What were her last thoughts? What did this woman have to say that someone didn't want the world to hear? Suddenly, more cops arrive, with three men in tow. One, they called Jersey, was throwing a fit, his loose pants practically down to his knees in the struggle. "I wasn't with her! I bought her a drink, but she left without even saying thanks!" The other, older gentlemen, was the club owner. "Name's Shelby, detective. She was a great lady. This is a tragedy, but I will do anything to help. I saw her leave the club with that guy right there, but that's all I have." He pointed to the third man. "Yeah, so? She left with me, but only for a sec, to get some smokes from my car. She came right back, honest!"
At that moment, Mace thinks of a very important clue, and knows exactly who is responsible for Jina's death. What does he figure out?
Obvious clues don't always point to the answer. Think about it: If you were about to die by murder, wouldn't you want to let someone know who did it? I think Jina would have too. Mace realized this. When Mace saw Jina lying in the sand, he knew she had been aware that she didn't have much time left. So if you wanted help, why not shout out for help? What good does it do to write it in the sand? Wouldn't she much rather finger the person who did this to her? Mace thought so, and so realized that she had not written "help" in the sand, she had written "Shelby" to finger her killer. However since they found her a bit late, some of the letters had washed away with the waves. Shelby killed her in a fit of rage, when she found out he was stealing money from his own employees at the club.
A pair of human skeletons lie in an eternal embrace at an Neolithic archaeological dig site near Mantova, Italy, in this photo released February 6, 2007.
Archaeologists believe the couple was buried 5000-6000 years ago, their arms wrapped around each other.
This is the famous Black Sand Beach of southern Hawaii near Punaluu. (*) Sands do not always come from the beach There are sands in sandstones and they may be millions or billions of years old. The source of the sand may be long gone but how do geologists know where it came from or whether the sand accumulated in a beach, a stream or even a dune? To answer these questions we must take a closer look at the sand… a much closer look. (*) But what makes the sand black? And where did it come from? (*) But if you didn’t collect this sand yourself, how would you know it came from a beach? (*) A close up view shows this sand to be made up of tiny grains of obsidian. Obviously this beach sand was derived from volcanic rocks.
Sand texture includes:grain size sorting rounding maturity
Origins: Here is the famous Green Sand Beach found at South Point, Hawaii. (BEACH SAND) Looking north from the east side of Hawaii you can see the remnants of a cinder cone that was breached by waves.
Size: are the grains: large: > 1 mm medium approx. 0.5 - 1mm small < .5 mm QUARTZ – Clear, white, light gray grains with uneven or conchoidal fracture. The grains may be rounded or angular.
Shape: are the grains angular (young) rounded (old) Cubic young – middle aged)
The roundness of grains is related to their history of abrasion. Because quartz is a fairly hard mineral it does not become round very easily. Only after many, many years of transport along streams or the back and forth motion on beaches does quartz (or any sand particle)become round
Color: describe color and whether the grains are uniform in color
Age: Do you think that the sand sample is young, middle, old…. Sketch sample And answer the question: where do you think the sand originated. Is it Volcanic? From broken shells of sea organisms…
