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Abstract
In this interrupted case, students take on the role of a trainee forensic chemist completing their final performance test in a toxicology laboratory. The trainee’s performance test involves a healthy man who was found dead in his apartment. Numerous pill bottles around the apartment lead investigators to suspect that one or more of the pharmaceutical compounds could have contributed to his death. In the role of the trainee, students must consider two different liquid-liquid extraction methods and two different capillary zone electrophoresis methods to determine if any of the pharmaceuticals are found in the victim’s blood. The case was developed for an upper-level forensic chemistry course as part of a section on acid/base chemistry, extractions, and separation techniques used in forensic chemistry. The case could also be used in an analytical or instrumental analysis course.