Frayed news clippings from murder trials, blowups of spent bullets, and collages culled from medical textbooks adorn the corridors of the Connecticut State Forensic Science Laboratory. One of the macabre mementos is a poster-sized array of photos connected to an old attempted homicide. In a corner of the frame is a snapshot of a state trooper's jacket, badly creased and caked with dirt; in the opposite corner is a close-up of a tractor-trailer that's also in need of a wash.

A prank gone awry made that truck's driver a cop killer. "There was a process called