Phoenix firm sells crime-solving tools

A beauty queen murdered. A professor hanged. A moldy, severed hand that led police to a man's body.

The fictional cases on crimescene.com play out more like a video game than a sales tool. The playful array of multimedia is out front on the Web site, right next to an online catalog that sells $45 extra-heavy-duty body bags and $14 metal arson cans.

Crimescene.com is a sort of eBay for forensic investigators. Local and national detectives buy equipment from the Phoenix-based company developed by a former theater major.

Any armchair gumshoe can tackle the imaginary investigations posted on the innovative Web site, courtesy of the company's team of writers and designers.

Viewers can apply their forensic knowledge to the cases based on collecting evidence, viewing video interviews, reading make-believe press clippings and sifting through stacks of concocted public records.

The cases look real. The bloody crime scene photos look real. At the least, they might rival those from video games like CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder and other mainstream forensic science games for the home computer.

Tom Arriola, who founded the company based in an office behind a burger joint at 16th Street and Osborn Road, said Crime Scene sells tools to local police departments seeking solutions to the rise in metal theft.

"Local CSI often drop in to see the latest gizmos and technology," said Arriola, who established Crime Scene after earning his MFA in theater directing from the University of Mississippi in 1994.

"It's like watching kids at a toy store," he said.

Arriola's catalog of gizmos is fascinating, especially to those infatuated with the art of forensic science. Crime Scene sells local authorities items ranging from fingerprint brushes to crime scene tape, not to mention forensic science spaghetti strap tank tops (on sale for $15).

Purple thief-detection powder, marked down online to $16, looks like something you might find at a metaphysical bookstore or head shop but it's comparable to ink tags used by department stores.

The powder is placed on a doorknob, so any burglar that touches it has to scamper away with purple stain of his crime on his hand.

Anyone could brush a thin layer on their own doorknobs in attempt to catch their own personal neighborhood thief.

The Spit Net ($7.95) - a protective mask that shields police from threatening suspects who, well, threaten to cough phlegm in their faces - is also available on the Web site.

With the rise in metal theft, Arriola said his company "has been secretly supplying municipalities and scrap metal dealers with simple tow tech tools to catch the criminals."

Low-tech or high-tech, Crime Scene is capitalizing on the public's rising interest in forensic science.

The popularity of mainstream CSI TV shows - like the one where David Caruso trolls around the underbelly of Miami, solving each of his crimes in under an hour apiece - only reinforces the average resident's desire to learn more.

Like anything online, a number of crime scenes are wide open for the public to explore.