On June 2, 2007, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith left her home in Overland Park, Kans. to go to a mall. After she failed to return that evening, Smith’s family found her car in a parking lot. A Target shopping bag and her purse, minus her cell phone and ATM card, were inside.
Over the next few days crime investigators in a lab near Minneapolis helped police crack the case. They scrutinized surveillance footage from cameras in and around the store. It showed a man who left Target shortly before Smith confronting the young woman. After enhancing the images on their computers, the snoops were able to get a decent look at the suspect and his vehicle, details that helped police identify Edwin Hall, 27, who was arrested the same day Smith’s body was found near Longview Lake, Mo. He will go on trial for her murder this year.
The investigators are in the employ of Target Forensic Services. Their crime lab would count as sophisticated if run by a police force. But this one, incongruously, is owned by a retail chain.
Read the rest of this fascinating Forbes story about how Target developed into a CSI powerhouse.
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