The Crime Scene is Calling
Written and Photographed by Hope, March 26, 2025
Ariana Arnold
When I was younger, my imagination was wild and thought anything could be true, whether it was fictional or not. So, even wild crime shows - animated or realistic - I thought could be fully true. Because of that, I could never watch something and not be freaked out.
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But that’s ok; some people are built that way. Others love the stories and the thrill in shows like that. These were things that senior forensic science major, Ariana Arnold, was able to watch and even transform into something she might want to do in the future.
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Arnold knew what she wanted to do since she was in eighth grade, but where did this come from? Simple answer: it was through watching true crime shows such as ‘Dateline’ or ‘Snapped’ with her mom.
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Arnold has always had such a close relationship with her nuclear family. During this last semester, when I was getting to know her, she proved family was big to her, considering she had gone home almost every weekend.
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But before college, something she would do with her mom was watch the new episodes of ‘Dateline’ every Friday and during the week, they would watch ones they hadn’t seen.
While Arnold is at college, they still find time during the school year to watch these shows together.
​“I just developed a love for true crime and seeing how people were able to help behind the scenes really inspired me to pursue that path,” Arnold said. “I was watching one day, and a forensic scientist caught my eye. So I kind of looked into that a little bit, and I decided.” ​
Before Arnold attended Union, she lived in Southern California and went to Vanguard University. While she attended, she unfortunately wasn’t a forensic science major because it wasn’t offered. So the next best bet at the time was being a biology major. ​
Her reason for transferring schools wasn’t the typical ‘I don’t believe what they are teaching’ or ‘nah, the education wasn’t good.’ It was because of how close she was to her family.
​Arnold’s dad had found a job in Tennessee which meant her family also was moving there. ​
“I want to be with my family because family's really big for me. So I moved out here with them,” Arnold said. “It was definitely a God thing because I had never heard of Union University in my life. Then all of a sudden, Union had a forensics program extremely close to where I live now, which I've always wanted to do.”​
She had shared that it was one of the best things that happened to her and from how she said it, she didn’t sound disappointed.
Now that Arnold is at Union, it has opened doors of opportunities that she believed she wouldn’t have gotten at Vanguard.​
“In my organic chemistry class, I am learning how to use machines such as the GCMS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry), HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography), NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), and more.”​
Let me just say, once she started naming the machines, I was lost. It sounded so high tech and foreign. I guess that’s what it feels like for older folks to try to use a Macbook without growing up with one. As my own dad would say ‘It’s all Greek to me.’ So for me, all of these machines were Greek to me!​
While my eyes went big, her face was smiling - maybe it was partially because of the machine or maybe it was because of the goofy look on my face.​
After she named these machines, she ended up touching on which machine was her favorite. It was the 300 mHz (megahertz) NMR.Her only reasoning for why it is her favorite is because, “it’s fun!” I didn’t know if that counted as a full reason, but sometimes the shortest reasoning is still a reason.​
Afterwards, she added that it gives good information about the compound that she is working with.​The 300 mHz NMRt is a mini MRI machine. Both an MRI machine and the 300 mHz NMR have a subject that is put between magnets that spin to figure out what is inside.​
Besides the fancy machines, Arnold has been in multiple different labs and social classes which have all helped strengthen her skills.​
“The social classes that you have to take, like social deviance, you just learn a lot about people and the world and the way it works,” Arnold said. “The biochemistry labs helped me with learning about different things about the body, and I really enjoy those labs, and those are things that I will be working with in my future.”​
Now, one of her favorite labs is one that many science majors enjoy: the one that works with nylon.​
By mixing some chemicals - hexamethylenediamine, adipoyl chloride, and then sodium hydroxide in a beaker- and using a copper wire, you are able to pull some synthesized nylon strings out.
“We synthesized nylon and we had a competition,” Arnold said. “Mine was a meter long.”​
Basically, the longer the strand, the better. Why? Because it was about the amount they made because of the efficiency of synthesis, user error, and quality of chemicals.​With lots of scientific learning and using fancy machines, there is no doubt that forensic science is a challenging major.​
I wanted to know what Arnold felt was the most challenging, but I also wanted to know what was rewarding to her as well.
The simple answer for what Arnold found most challenging, as I mentioned earlier, was a lot of science, specifically the amount of chemistry classes. But, the rewarding part was something I was not expecting.​
“When you are doing well and you start understanding, it's very enjoyable to learn about all these different things,” Arnold said. “It really is fun to learn about these things, and it's just amazing. Like the way the body works and the chemicals and the way that the Lord designed everything to work.” ​
As someone who isn’t in chemistry and labs a lot, I focus on the creativity aspect in an external view point. Scientists of all sorts look at the internal part looking at the wonders of what can make us.
​While all this is interesting, something I wanted to know was where she wanted to go after graduation and what she wanted to do in the long run, something seniors like Arnold should start looking at.
Afterward college, she would love to either work with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) or the FBI. Both her long term goal and what she wants to do are similar and for a fun reason.​
​“I'm more than willing to work for a local police department, but the dream is the TBI or the FBI,” Arnold said. “For the long term, being a special agent in the TBI would be very cool, because I'd be literally called a special agent.” ​
I was not surprised at all when she mentioned being called a special agent. I don’t know how to explain why it wouldn’t surprise me, maybe it’s her bubbly personality, or maybe the fact she is such a cool person that it fits her. ​
Besides her interest coming from tv shows, Arnold made it clear there was another reason:
“I've always wanted to help people, but I just thought that maybe being on the front lines, such as a nurse or a doctor would be too difficult for me to do,” Arnold said. “ I thought, well, maybe I can help behind the scenes.”
Arnold would still be helping people, just not necessarily through the actual patient interaction, mentioning, “I would still be able to help people by giving justice for people who have passed on and maybe don't have as many people to advocate for them and giving closure to their grieving families.”
That was something that really stood out to me because it was a different way of looking at what she could do with her major.I thought forensics scientists would just show up on crime scenes and gather samples - like they do in the movies - but that obviously isn’t the right way to view occupations. Arnold revealed they do more than that.
Besides testing samples in a lab, their occupation involves them possibly testifying in court, having a strong work ethic for hours on end, and even a strong mentality.
“You also have to have a tough stomach, because you're gonna see things that aren't fun. You might see children, and you're gonna see murders and other things like that,” Arnold said. “While it's a little grotesque and it's not always fun, you speak for these victims and give them and their family justice.”
While working hard to finish this semester, as well as having the heart to help people and loving what she is doing in her classes, I see the passion and the fire with what she wants to do. Because of this I truly believe Arnold will be successful wherever she will go next.