Port St. Lucie's Crime Scene Investigations unit has been busy this year

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - The Port St. Lucie Police Department's CSI detectives have been busier than ever this year, combing through evidence and working on a number of high profile cases.

There are only a handful of people who make up the Crime Scene Investigations unit, and it's what they are doing behind the scenes that is helping solve crimes in Port St. Lucie.

"We look for blood on items and we look for fingerprints," said Joel Harrison-Smith, a CSI detective.

They may not know what happened or what's around the next corner, but it is their job to figure it out by piece by piece.

"You could have up to 300 pieces of evidence on a scene," explained Harrison-Smith.

The Port St. Lucie Police Department's CSI unit has all the high tech gadgets you can think of.

They say this year has been busier than most when it comes to big cases, including the Tyler Hadley murder case. The teen is accused of killing his parents, Mary Jo and Blake Hadley, with a hammer. While the detectives cannot speak specifically about that case, they say those are the scenes that take days to gather evidence.

"We could be at a scene like that for four, maybe even five, days," explained Harrison-Smith.

He says unlike the television shows, the cases aren't cracked in an hour's time frame. "It could take weeks," he said.