Murder Mystery to Raise Funds for Criminal Justice Students' Travel

Fairmont State University's chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, the National Criminal Justice Honor Society, and Parables Events, LLC, are presenting "A Night of Murder Mystery Mayhem." The date of the event has been changed to Saturday, Nov. 14.

The evening entertainment will be CSI (Comedy Scene Investigation), and the event will take place at 218 Monroe St., Fairmont. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the show begins at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $40 per person, which includes dinner and dessert.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call (304) 367-4020 or (304) 367-4758 or e-mail Lennie.Shaw@fairmontstate.edu. Tickets are also available through Parables Events, LLC. Tickets are non-refundable.

Alpha Phi Sigma is the National Criminal Justice Honor Society, the only nationally recognized honor society for Criminal Justice majors and minors. To be eligible students must have a 3.2 overall grade point average and a 3.2 grade point average in their Criminal Justice courses. The honor society promotes scholarship, educational leadership, unity, and service. Epsilon Iota, Fairmont State University's local chapter, is no exception. Students participate in and sponsor service and educational activities throughout each year which help to build unity and set an example for others in the campus community. 

"The students have wanted to sponsor a murder mystery dinner for a long time. They are all criminal justice majors and minors and wanted a fun event that related to their field. It is a great opportunity to raise funds and provide the community with some good, clean entertainment," said Dr. Lennie E. Shaw, M.S., J.D., Interim Chair, Department of Social Science.

Each year, the Fairmont State Chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma holds a number of fundraisers in order to attend the Alpha Phi Sigma National Conference and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting. The meeting is held at a different location every year. Students have traveled all over the United States to locations including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Las Vegas, Boston, Seattle and Chicago.

"This year, the meeting is being held in San Diego, California, and at least seven students are planning to attend. These meetings provide an opportunity for students to make professional contacts, present papers, attend professional presentation panels, and compete on a national level in paper competitions, criminal justice knowledge tests, as well as a crime scene competition," Shaw said.

"Fairmont State's chapter, Epsilon Iota has won first and second place in the crime scene competition in the recent years. We have also had several students win scholarship awards for research papers. Last year, one of our members defeated candidates from the University of Houston-Downtown and the University of Nevada-Reno for the position of National Vice President."

Fairmont State University offers both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice. Students enrolled in the B.S. program can choose from three concentrations: Corrections, Law Enforcement and a new Digital Forensics concentration. Graduates with a B.S. in Criminal Justice are qualified for employment in city, county, state, and federal criminal justice agencies, and in the rapidly-growing private industrial security field. A number of graduates continue their education in graduate programs in criminal justice, criminology or law.  Graduates of the M.S. program are employed with the FBI, CIA, and Federal Bureau of Prisons, to name a few, or continue in a Ph.D. program.

For more information on the Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, contact Dr. Lennie E. Shaw, M.S., J.D., Interim Chair, Department of Social Science at Lennie.Shaw@fairmontstate.edu. For more information on the Master of Science in Criminal Justice, contact Dr. Deanna J. Shields, Ph.D., Dean, College of Liberal Arts at Deanna.Shields@fairmontstate.edu. Information is also located on the Criminal Justice Department's web site: http://www.fairmontstate.edu/academics/criminaljusticefsu/default.asp.