"I've got bones for Thursday."

It's pretty safe to say those words won't be heard anywhere else on campus at Florida SouthWestern State College.

But that's something you might hear in professor Dennis Fahey's crime scene technology class. They were spoken by Shawn Dahl, one of Fahey's former students who is now enrolled in a graduate program at FGCU.

The class for FSW's crime scene technology associate degree program is small in size, but it has some toys that few other organizations in the state — maybe even the country — have access to, including many law enforcement offices.

Hands-on analysis

Fahey's students have access to automated fingerprint identification system (commonly known as AFIS) software, state-of-the-art microscopes and a cutting-edge laser scanner that can create 3D images of crime scenes.

He takes students to "crime scene island"  —  a small swatch of land on FSW's campus where crime scenes are staged. There, students may dig up a manikin covered in pork ribs — to attract insects and produce an authentic smell.

Florida SouthWestern State College students Tara Sahagian, left, and Melissa Uhl, right, work along with graduate student Shawn Dahl and Professor Dennis Fahey while learning cutting edge crime scene investigation technology while viewing a 3D computer model of a classroom during class on Tuesday.

In building B just above Fahey's lab, there's an apartment. But no one lives there. Instead, manikins go there to die. The room is furnished with a dusty TV set, old book shelves, a lava lamp and a painting of a clown. A pair of manikins rest on top of an old bed, awaiting staged untimely demises.

Fahey's lab is a tidy room with rows of microscopes, bins labeled "latent chemicals" or "crime scene props," multiple computers, a fingerprint scanner and the latest in 3D measurement technology.

That technology is a FARO series laser scanner. Using a mirror, it sends out a laser that scans an area. Millions of points of data are stored on the device's computer, which can then be uploaded, creating an image of what was scanned. That image can be manipulated using software. The images it recreates are near photograph quality, but give users the freedom to move around in three-dimensions and take measurements of anything in the scan, as well as other applications.

The distance from a bullet shell casing to a body, for example, is one such application, Fahey said. When three of Fahey's students were manipulating a scan they took last week, they could see a wall clock's hands change, since each scan takes a few minutes to complete.

The machine retails for about $125,000, according to John Meyer, dean of the school of business and technology. FSW used grant money to get it and, according to Fahey, the college is the first in the five-county area to acquire one. Neither Cape Coral nor Fort Myers police departments have these scanners, according to spokesmen. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman said their Fort Myers office does not one of these scanners, but they have four across the state.

Florida SouthWestern State College student Tara Sahagian works with cutting edge crime scene investigation technology while viewing a 3D computer model of a classroom during class on Tuesday.

It's not just details that the machine makes easier, Fahey said. It saves time. Instead of shutting Interstate 75 down for hours to take photographs and measurements, the machine can scan the scene in less than a hour, lessening road closure times and providing more accurate information, he said.

Slideshows put together using the scans create what Fahey calls the "CSI effect" for jurors when it comes to the courtroom. Named for the popular TV show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," Fahey said jurors nowadays "want to be entertained." Since they are not taken to crime scenes "99 percent of the time," this technology can offer a glimpse. "We've taken the jury and put them at the scene," he said.

New applications

The FARO laser scanner was not originally intended to be used to analyze crime scenes, Fahey said. When he took a training class, it was him and 11 engineers, he said. Since the scans allow users to see through walls and move through space with freedom, architects and engineers use the scanner in building-infrastructure planning. "Crime scene, it was an afterthought," Fahey said.

The professional applications for the crime scene technology program are many, said Meyer. People looking at careers in criminal justice, law or public safety administration should have some familiarity with how crime scene analysis works. "They need to know how to not goof it up," he said.

Since the FARO technology is still new, students who get time with it should have a leg up in the job market.

Shawn Dahl, a former Fahey student and current FGCU graduate student, is hoping to get more time with the FARO scanner. Short of a career in academia, he is looking into law enforcement, possibly in the medical examiner's office, he said.

But for now, he's hoping to incorporate information culled from these 3D scans into his thesis, he said. "It's absolutely unbelievable," to have access to this type of equipment in a local school, Dahl said.

"This is so cool," said Tara Sahagian, who, along with Melissa Yuhl and Dahl, were manipulating the scans for the first time last Tuesday.

"They take to it like fish to water," Fahey said.

As Dahl sees it, the scans most practical application is measurements. Exact depth of bodies or human remains ("Not to be gross," he said) is much easier using these scans and will leave crime scenes in better condition. It allows users to "examine evidence relative to other evidence," he said.

As for those "human-like" bones Dahl secured for class: They will be buried on crime scene island for students to exhume.

FORT MYERS - It appears millions of attempts by hackers to steal trade secrets of biofuel company Algenol won't be stopping any time soon.

Algenol — a company perfecting the refinement of algae into clean fuel and located in San Carlos Park off Alico Road in Lee County — has been in hackers' crosshairs, mostly from China, for at least two years, said CEO Paul Woods.

Woods has been making his complaints more vocal and more frequent, he said, but he believes they are falling on deaf ears.

"Well over a year ago we went to the DOE (Department of Energy) and asked for military-grade firewall equipment," he said. "They essentially ignored my request."

This was after Woods discovered his company had been the target of hacks some 200,000 times in a four-month span, which he called "stunning" for the private company that employs about 100 people.

Related: Did hackers in China target Lee County company?

After that number soared to more than 39 million attacks, Woods was floored. "It is so staggering," he said.

Over the past two or three years, there has been an increase in hackers searching for edges when it comes to business, said Ernesto Rojas, a professor at the University of Houston Clear Lake who specializes in legal issues related to digital forensics.

"It's well-understood that information is valuable," he said.

Businesses employing hackers to steal secrets from the competition has seen a substantial increase over the past few years, he said.

When it comes to fighting such practices in court, the chance of success is much lower when one company is overseas, Rojas said. "It becomes a law enforcement issue and can be hit or miss."

He could not recall of any company successfully fighting China in court when it comes to cases such as Algenol's.

The company has spent about $500,000 on firewalls and is looking for other ways to bolster security, Woods said. Algenol's director of information technology, Jack Voth, was at a security conference in San Francisco and was unavailable for comment Monday.

In the past few days, Algenol's servers have been targeted by hackers based in China more than 50,000 times, Woods said. That's on top of hacks originating from Taiwan (more than 20,000) and Korea (12,000) over that same time.

While the origin and nature of the hacks remains murky, Woods is no less concerned.

"What's definitely happening is this: It's getting worse," he said. "Significantly worse."

An investigation into the attacks — the goal of which Woods believes is to steal secrets about the process Algenol uses — revealed one source from servers within Alibaba, a Chinese online commerce company.

The mega-company — two portals of which had more sales in 2012 than Amazon.com and eBay.com combined — has denied the attacks and said its own servers have been the victim of hacking, according to a Washington Post report.

This answer does not satisfy Woods.

If Alibaba's servers were hacked, Woods said the company should know the attacks' origins.

"If you want me to believe it wasn't you, show me," he said.

A court case in China would prove fruitless, as half of the attacks are coming "directly" from sources tied to the People's Liberation Army, China's military arm, Woods said.

So Woods continues looking for answers.

Why Algenol? Woods believes because of its unique standing in the biofuel community. His is the only company that has industrialized biofuel at or below market price, he said.

The company's process enables production of ethanol, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for around $1.27 per gallon using "proprietary algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and saltwater at production levels of 8,000 total gallons of liquid fuel per acre per year," according to its website.

"This is something that was built here," Woods said of the technology at Algenol. "Americans have the right for it not to be stolen."

The high cost of fuel makes the process Algenol employs highly-desirable, Woods said. The results are transparent, it's the methodology Woods is so fiercely protective of.

"That's our secret sauce. The road map to do things, that's what I care about," he said.

Even if the methods Algenol uses to turn algae into fuel were stolen, spies would need the specific algae as well, which is under lock and key, Woods said.

"They're going to have to steal it the old-fashioned way," he said. "We have armed guards, and we will shoot you."

CAPE CORAL - The story of a missing Marine's ring has been shared across the globe, as far as Germany.

With more than 136,000 Facebook shares and 2,700 comments, it struck a chord with people online.

Much of the credit goes to Patti O'Brien, of Cape Coral, who authored the Nov. 3 post about the missing ring and did what she said was the least she could to reunite the ring with its owner.

Tuesday—Veterans Day, fittingly—O'Brien and the parents of the young Marine who owns the ring met for the first time, at the very place the ring was lost.

"I can't tell you how thankful we are," said Ben Comtois, 39, of Cape Coral. Over the past few days, Ben reached out to local media, including the News-Press, after the story of the missing ring began to spread.

The ring was lost last month during Cape Coral Bike Night and was found by O'Brien's daughter and her fiance.

Ben and Jessica's son lost the ring when he stashed it in a shirt pocket. "Marine's aren't allowed to put things in their pants pockets," Jessica said.

When their son—whose name the Comtoises have asked to withhold due to security concerns—took off the shirt, Jessica folded it and the ring started its journey.

The family didn't know the ring was lost until at least a day later, Ben said. They kept the story to themselves, growing more and more resigned that it was lost forever.

Every step of the way, O'Brien could have done something different and the ring would have remained lost. First, she held onto it, Ben said. Then, she wrote a Facebook post about it. Most importantly, she sent it to the United States Marine Corps Facebook page, as well as any nearby bases she could think of.

"I had no idea so many people would respond," she said. O'Brien got responses from all over the country and even abroad, she said. A number of people sent her messages, hoping it was a long-lost ring of theirs. "I could tell it wasn't theirs," she said.

But Ben had information about the ring that had not been released. Once O'Brien was given this information, including a photo of a replica ring that Jessica had, she knew she had found the rightful owners.

Jessica said she had been texting her 18-year-old son, who is in training in North Carolina and is due home for Christmas, about the news and he was hysterical that the story had gotten this big. "He's excited, surprised. He can't believe it's all over," she said of the search.

As for it all happening on Veterans Day, Ben said it means a lot. "My father was a vet. Her [Jessica's] family, all our family." He said it was difficult to send their son off to boot camp just a few months ago.

And, with the exception of regular phone calls and the occasional holiday visit, the Comtoises miss their son greatly. "It was almost like getting a piece of him back," Ben said.