Free Zombie CSU by Jonathan Maberry

Otherwise, it may be the time it takes a detective to respond from home to the station, then to the scene, but in any case usually less than an hour.”
    The Zombie Factor
     
    So far the police are going to be completely within the realm of known crime scene procedure and science. Cursory examination of the victim will show bite marks, but that is not all that rare in violent crime. There’s nothing yet that screams “zombie!”
    Since a witness provided a description, the detectives will begin their search for the assailant while at the same time overseeing the collection of evidence from the crime scene.
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    Hard Science: Cadaver Dogs
     
Just as there are specialties for police officers, there are specialties for police dogs. Some sniff out bombs, some sniff out drugs…but there is one kind specially trained to sniff out human remains.
Cadaver dogs.
These dogs were used heavily during the search for remains following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. They’re used in mine collapses, avalanches, the search for remains in wooded areas, and in a variety of ways. What a human might overlook a dog will find. In training, special chemicals are used to simulate the smell of rotting flesh.
These dogs don’t dig up remains. They locate and then alert their handler by a prearranged signal—sometimes a bark, sometimes by just sitting at a spot where something is buried.
These dogs are used instead of search and rescue (S&R) dogs because S&Rs are used to locate living humans. Cadaver dogs locate decomposing flesh.
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    J UST THE F ACTS
     
    The Manhunt
     
    In cases where a witness has been able to provide a physical description and a general direction in which the suspect has fled, an immediate search will be launched. In our scenario, the search extends to a wooded area across from the research center, though the grounds of the center will also be searched thoroughly in case the suspect doubled back, or if there is another possible witness or victim, or if the suspect had a confederate.
    In large cities, officers may be called in from elsewhere in the precinct or from adjoining precincts. In the suburbs and more rural areas, officers from neighboring towns will likely join in, and the state police may lend a hand. If available, local or state police helicopters may be requested, and if the wooded area is part of a state park system, then some forest rangers may be brought in or consulted. K-9 units will almost certainly be requested for a search in the woods, and police dogs can track through all sorts of conditions, even in rain or snow.
    A blood-covered suspect, on foot, walking in a jerky erratic fashion will not have covered a lot of ground, and unless a vehicle has picked him up, it’s very likely the manhunt will find him.
    Expert Witness
     
    The success of a manhunt depends on a variety of factors, including time of day, weather conditions, manpower, and available resources; and this will vary greatly from department to department.
    San Antonio Detective Joe McKinney offers this insight into a rural manhunt: “If it’s a small town, there simply won’t be that much manpower available to conduct a full-blown search. A town of, say, ten thousand people, may have, at most, a police department of 90 or so officers…and that’s officers of every rank, not just street officers. If you consider that a department of that size may have 15 or so officers on the street at any given time, you get an idea of the kind of resources they would be able to deploy. Another thing that would limit the scope of the manhunt is that the suspect in this case is probably known. If he broke out of a hospital (or was a test subject at a research center), chances are they have his name and date of birth and other information on file already. Every police department is going to initiate a manhunt, given the violent crime committed; however, the sense of urgency is minimized if the suspect is known beforehand. The reason