Chris Banyas
Staff Writer
The following situation sounds like a script for a holiday episode of CSI, but it is the very real experience of Donald Wyckoff.
Imagine standing before the scene of a murder. It is your job to process the evidence left behind. The murderer is still somewhere in the area, and your police escort has left to find him.
As you go about your work, you hear knocking on the front door.
The night before Halloween, you can only hope it is trick-or-treaters at the door.
Born in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1952, Wyckoff was destined to have a life of travel and intensity.
“My father was a pilot in the Air Force. So I grew up all over the U.S.,” Wyckoff said. “My father was both a fighter pilot and a bomber pilot.”
Later a world-traveler, Wyckoff wasn’t allowed to travel overseas while his father was in the military because the only postings were in war and conflict zones.
Growing up, Wyckoff attended three high schools, eventually ending up at Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, Calif., where he was a member of the swim team.
Wyckoff hasn’t forgotten what his coach taught the team.
“To work hard and to believe in yourself, that you could do things that you may not have thought you could do. What’s important about that is that he believed in you as well,” said Wyckoff. “We were okay swimmers when he first got us. By the time I had left there, and the rest of the team then continued on, they were state champions.”
After finishing high school in Texas, Wyckoff started college in Indiana as a pre-med major. He attended a small college known for its high placement rates into the Indiana University School of Medicine.
By his sophomore year, Wyckoff knew medical school was not right for him.
“I had spent some time with my uncle who was a doctor, and I quite frankly didn’t like being around dying people at the time,” said Wyckoff.
Sophomore year saw Wyckoff change majors to biology, and undertake another journey.
“I left college one afternoon, it was the Thursday before Easter vacation started, and hitchhiked to New York City,” said Wyckoff.
The trip was the result of a bet. Wyckoff had to travel to New York City, then on to California, and then back to Indiana.
“For $20 I had to pick up a little statue of the Statue of Liberty to prove that I had been to New York City, and I had to get something off of the Santa Monica pier in L.A., and I did it all in about 11 days,” said Wyckoff.
Wyckoff later moved to Idaho to attend graduate school at Idaho State University. He soon began work with the state crime lab in Pocatello, where he remained for over 20 years.
“We handled everything that you could imagine that goes on in the state, from general DUIs all the way up to first-degree murder. We would analyze evidence,” said Wyckoff.
While working his way up to manager, Wyckoff earned several degrees in engineering from ISU.
“There were a couple of instances over the years that were pretty shocking to me. Some people may have to go and deal with things by talking to other people, or maybe going to counseling. I never felt like I needed to do that,” said Wyckoff.
In the aftermath of the Kosovo War, Wyckoff was sent to that country as part of his job.
“We built a crime lab in Kosovo and what was important about that is not only the training we provided gave the people the opportunity to deal with their own life now from that point on, but to deal with some war crimes that had occurred,” he said. “About a third of the population of the country had been murdered by the Serbs during the war.”
Recently Wyckoff has worked with the American Society of Crime Lab Directors / Laboratory Accreditation Board, a company that offers accreditations to labs around the world.
Wyckoff is currently working on his MBA at ISU.
Shortly after moving to Pocatello, he met the woman who would become his wife. The couple has been married for 35 years.
“When my wife and I fully retire we’ll probably jump on a ship and I’ll take her to places that I’ve been to that she hasn’t had the opportunity to go to,” said Wyckoff.
