New Haven Independent

Lee walked into the library at Troup Middle School’s swing space on Leeder Hill Road Monday and started right in on the Q&A. He arrived a little early, even before News Channel 8’s Jocelyn Mamenta got there to introduce him.

He tossed into the crowd tiny gold-colored replicas of police badges like the one pictured for everyone who asked a question or tried to answer one of his.

Like, “How old do you think I am?” When the kids shouted out ages like 65 and 69 (he confessed later to being 69), he acted hurt and said, “What about 21?” The kids who shouted out “21!” all got badges.

Later he told them, “Do you know what I wanted to be when I was young? A basketball player.” But he said his coach told him he’d have to grow a couple of feet. The kids squealed with delight when he described his efforts — fruitless, in the end — to stretch himself out. Click here for his amusing explanation (even bringing in DNA) and his wisdom to “find your limit, then set the goal, and strive for the best.”

According to his bio, Dr. Lee is currently the Chief Emeritus for the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, Division of Scientific Services and was the Commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Connecticut from 1998 to 2000 and served as Chief Criminologist for the State of Connecticut from 1979 to 2000. It adds that he was the driving force in establishing a modern Major Crime Squad concept and State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Connecticut.
But he’s been all over the world, helping to solve more than 8,000 crimes in such places as England, Bosnia, Canada, China, Brunei, Bermuda, Singapore, the Middle East and South America.

The students, mostly members of the school system’s talented and gifted program who have been studying forensics, asked questions about Dr. Lee’s first case, hardest case, oldest case and more. Before the program started, Cassidy Munden (pictured), a sixth grade TAG student from Sheridan Academy, said she might make a career of forensic science. Click here for her comment.

Lee noted that his oldest case was that of Penny Serra, a 21-year-old woman who was killed in a New Haven parking garage in 1973. After several false arrests and dead ends, Edward Grant of Waterbury was convicted of her murder in 2002 and is serving a 20-year sentence.

He also described a recent success story — the 1993 murder of seven people in Chicago in a fried chicken place. Click here to listen.

When he misunderstood one girl’s question about his hardest case to be a question about what was the hardest thing for him, he replied that the death of his mother a few years ago at age 106 was his most difficult moment. He said that after his father died, she raised all 13 of her children as a single mom without a high school education, and she saw every one of her children earn a doctorate. It that’s a little hyperbolic, one could forgive him the exaggeration. The point was that she worked hard and valued education, so much so that on her centennial birthday, she asked that a scholarship be established in her name. Click here for some other comments about his mom.

And Bishop Woods’ fourth grade TAGster Christopher Walker (pictured to the left and in back) wondered if what they show on CSI is realistic. Click here for his comment.