The Burned Grade Book

The Burned Grade Book

The time sure has flown by. I joined the Army Criminal Investigation (Command) Division (CID) in 1975 and retired from the Army in 1991 after 21 years with the Army.

Just after finishing my one year Army CID apprenticeship in Stuttgart, Germany, was assigned to the CID at Ft. Ord, CA.

While at Ft. Ord, worked on the General Crimes Team and later on the Drug Suppression Team (DST).

One day received a call about a break-in and arson at an elementary school on Ft. Ord. Drove out to the school (one arson one CID Agent) and talked to the principal of the school and the teacher whose room was broken into and damaged.

The only thing damaged was her grade book and portions of the school damaged by water from the fire sprinkler system.

This seemed like a student may have broken in and burned the grade book. Only the grade book was burned, there was broken glass on the floor on the inside of the classroom.

The teacher's desk drawer had been pried open, and the grade book removed. The grade book was placed on the teacher’s desk and set on fire.

The door to the classroom was still locked when the teacher arrived, so the arsonist must have entered and left by way of the class room window.

The smoke set off the fire alarm and the sprinkler system put out the fire before the fire department arrived.

The damage to the school was major since the sprinkler system activated all over the building soaking the entire contents of all the rooms.

No one talked to had any idea who would have done such a terrible thing. Checked out the classroom (photographs, sketch, evidence) and then moved out to the area outside the classroom while the Fire Department folks did their thing.

There just was not much to go on, obtained a list of students, who attended class in the damaged classroom to them later since school was canceled for the day due to the fire.

We had broken glass, a burned grade book, and of course a soaked school, no prints, and a big mess.
While walking out to my car after the crime scene examination, a little girl and her girl friend asked me who got hurt. Told her no one was hurt, the little girl then asked, if no one got hurt, whose blood is that on the sidewalk? She pointed to the sidewalk about fifty yards away. Sure enough there was a trail of blood on the sidewalk near the street in front of the school.

There was no blood on the broken window or the broken glass on the floor, and none near the area outside the window to the room broken into. Got the name of the little girl and her friend and thanked them for their help.

Had no leads till the trail of blood was noticed, blood trail was a good one and led down the sidewalk away from the school.

 Could not believe this; it was almost like a silly movie one might see on television.
Followed the trail of blood for about five blocks right up to the front door of a house. Rang the doorbell and a 9 year old boy, who had a blood soaked bandaged on his left fore arm answered the door.

Identified myself as an Army CID Agent and asked to speak to his parents. He started crying and said, I did it, I did it. Felt so sorry for him, but his mother and father did not seem to be as forgiving.

Turned out this young man received a B from his teacher and did not know how he was going to explain it to his parents. He broke into the school and set the grade book on fire to get rid of the B.
Yes, just another day in the life of an Army CID Agent in the wild wild west at Ft. Ord, CA.

Thought you all might like to know some of the cases the CID worked at Ft. Ord, CA were not all about shoot outs, drugs and murder.