monkeylizard

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Truth proved to be stranger than fiction for a high school criminology class investigating a fake crime scene when the students discovered a real body during a field trip.

Teacher Sue Messenger had been creating mock crime scenes with fake skeletons and other evidence for more than 20 years to give students in her forensics courses a firsthand look at what crime scene investigators do.

On Monday, however, 29 students from St. Thomas Aquinas High School got more of a jolt they expected when they discovered the real body in Fort Lauderdale's Holiday Park.

"The first thing we thought was, 'That's a real good dummy she set up,'" said student Juan Cantor, 15.

"I think they kind of went into shock and disbelief," Messenger said. "What are the odds that we would be out here?"

Police on Tuesday identified the body as David Wayne Bodie, 45, a homeless man who apparently died of natural causes.