Nancy Cabelus: Bringing Forth Justice Is there a forensic nurse crime scene detective in the house?

ancy Cabelus, ping, , , MSN, RN, DABFN, carjacking, bank robbery, and is not a typical other violent crimes. Cabelus has nurse. Nor is she a been a nurse these 19 years and typical law enforce- a Connecticut state trooper for Nment official. She is a forensic 18 of those, having passed the nurse, at the forefront of an state police examination while exciting emerging specialty, and she was in school. While also a crime scene detective on nursing and law enforcement the Connecticut State Police work might seem an unlikely collects forensic evidence at Central District Major Crime combination, the dual areas of crime scenes, and her ability to Squad in Meriden, covering one- expertise work well together in consider matters from the per- third of the state, encompassing her unique career. spective of a nurse makes her a approximately 70 towns and “Nursing skills make you better detective. “I take my nurs- cities. She is the only woman look at things a little more criti- ing skills and help reconstruct and nurse on the team, which cally,” says Cabelus. In working things. The skills come into play investigates homicide, kidnap- on the major crime squad, she all the time,” she says. Cabelus has remained an active RN throughout her law enforce- ment career, working per diem to keep her skills honed and to con- tinue her involvement in a field that she loves. Before becoming a detective nine years ago, Cabelus worked as an RN at a nursing home on the weekends while serving on the security detail of the Connecticut governor at the time, Republican Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. After four years of service, she became a detective and worked on the Casino Licensing and Operations Unit, a job at which, she says, “I got a taste of investigations, but wanted to do bigger stuff, and put my nursing skills to work.” Two years later, when she went to work in major crime, her wish was realized. At the same time, Cabelus learned about forensic nursing at One critical difference between dealing with the stress of nursing and with that of law enforcement is that ‘nurses have a conference, and her interest was support groups; cops don’t,’ says forensic nurse Nancy Cabelus, MSN, RN, DABFN, whose specialty is death investigation. piqued. In 1997 she joined the International Association of

94 AJN ▼ September 2004 ▼ Vol. 104, No. 9 http://www.nursingcenter.com Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners Changing the nature of the medical examination of victims.

missionary zeal for forensic nursing drop cloth so that any debris, grass, or Afirst seized Virginia Lynch, MSN, RN, other evidence will fall onto the sheet. You FAAFS, FAAFN, when she was a nursing need to put the underpants in a separate student working with rape victims. “I saw bag.” According to Skog, when a SANE is working on a case of rape, prosecution Beryl Skog, MEd, RN, a sexual assault that survivors of violent crimes were often in nurse examiner (SANE), says that when the hands of emergency room physicians is more likely to be successful. a SANE is working on a case of rape, with no forensic training,” she says, “and As important as training in evidence prosecution is more likely to be successful. that the failure to preserve specimens for collection is it’s professional education forensic science evaluation often resulted in and sensitivity that forensic nurses bring to tion. An elderly woman in a senior center a miscarriage of justice. I wanted to find a law enforcement. A police officer might was found with a male neighbor––his solution and have been trying to do that for fail to recognize a diabetic coma, for pants down, her diaper removed, and her the last 25 years.” instance, says Lynch; nurses are also blouse open. “The victim was so dis- Now, thousands of forensic nurses skilled in psychosocial intervention. “Any tressed by being found that she was across the country collect evidence in the time you’re working with victims of rape, speechless,” Skog says. “Everyone was aftermath of , perform death investi- you’re dealing with emotional trauma. seeing this as a sexual assault.” But Skog gations, and work with victims of acci- Even if the patient is dead, you’re dealing and a rape crisis counselor spent a few dents and crimes. Sexual assault nurse with the emotional trauma of family, minutes alone with the woman and dis- examiners (SANEs) have been changing friends, and colleagues. Police officers covered that the man was the woman’s the nature of the medical examination of and doctors are not trained in this.” Such companion. rape victims. “We used to have problems sensitivity is crucial after a rape has been Forensic nursing can be difficult but with the medical staff in a hospital doing committed––the examination process also fulfilling for those attracted to it. As what they always do,” says Beryl Skog, should involve many things, from asking Lynch says, “We deal with some of the MEd, RN, who works as a SANE in about the specifics of the rape, to comb- darkest aspects of the human experience: Bergen County, New Jersey. “Getting vic- ing the victim’s hair and swabbing the sexual assault, domestic violence, elder tims undressed, taking their blood pres- mouth for evidence, to wiping the external abuse, and crimes against children. sure—all that interferes with the evidence genitalia for specimens. We deal with the perpetrators of violent collection. You have to get them Skog recalls one case in which a crimes. And we chose to do this.” undressed on a sheet of paper like a nurse’s sensitivity helped to clarify a situa- —Emmeline Chang

Forensic Nurses to learn more, The most interesting case An expert in dealing with the and founded the Connecticut Cabelus has worked on is also significant and unique types of chapter of the association in one of the most brutal, a case stress that characterize work in 2001. In 2002 she earned a mas- of triple homicide in which a the field, Cabelus wrote, with ter’s degree in forensic nursing woman and her two children Katherine Zimmer, MSN, RN, at Quinnipiac University in were stabbed to death in their “Psychological Effects of Hamden, Connecticut, as a sleep three years ago. When a Violence on Forensic Nurses,” member of the first graduating suspect in the case was arrested an article published in the class of the program in which a week later, he confessed to November 2003 issue of the she is now an adjunct professor. the murder of a woman who Journal of Psychosocial Nursing Her specialty is death investi- had disappeared two months and Mental Health Services. gation, and in 2003 she became prior; he then led investigators One critical difference between the first Connecticut resident to to her body. Cabelus attended coping with the stress of nursing receive certification as a death the autopsies of all four victims and with that of law enforce- investigator from the American and worked on the case, which ment is that “nurses have sup- Board of Medicolegal Death is expected to go to trial this port groups; cops don’t,” says Investigators. Cabelus also uses month. Because it involved Cabelus. Then how does she her training to teach death the murder of children, she cope with the onslaught of vio- investigation techniques and found it to be a particularly lence to which she is exposed at forensic nursing at community difficult case. “It sort of work? “The secret is to travel, colleges in Connecticut and at changes you when you see play hard, hang out with the Florida Risk Management the aftermath of that type friends. I like to laugh a Institute in Largo. of violence,” she says. lot.”––Lisa Poliak ▼ [email protected] AJN ▼ September 2004 ▼ Vol. 104, No. 9 95