Thirty-one teams of high school students from across Long Island, upstate and New York City competed Monday at Stony Brook University in the annual Forensics World CSI Challenge, in which each were assigned to identical crime scenes adorned with yellow tape, blood splatter, cards that numbered the events in order, beach supplies and the infamous blow-up doll victim.

“Everything that I’ve learned from inside the classroom helped me perform well today,” said Kristin, a member of team 31, whose junior detectives were but a fraction of those who turned out for the 13th annual event. “I think competition is really fun, and challenging.”

The student crime-scene investigators competed to solve the murder of a prisoner named Wildcat Willie who had escaped and then been gunned down by an unidentified shooter as well as the kidnapping of Det. C. Gar Butz, who reported to the scene at Tiki Beach in Mt. Sinai to capture the fugitive.

The teens used fingerprints, ballistics and other forensic tests. After hours of research and shoe leather, students appealed to the judges, who evaluated each team’s performance.

“It teaches them analytical skills; it teaches them how to be very good at observing, not making insinuations,” said Rosemary Peraza, a teacher at West Babylon High School and coach of Team 2. “They definitely don’t jump to conclusions.”

The fictional murder scenes were both rigorous and tedious with each team spending their entire year in a club that met at least once a week that prepared them for the contest.

“These kids work their butts off to be in this,” she said. “I think they like being under pressure. They get prepared. They think of different scenarios and they say, ‘you know what, we’re ready.’”

Aside from testing their forensic science knowledge and investigative skills, the students also practiced their team work during the contest, which Oceanside High School student’s won, followed by Brooklyn Technical High School and Long Beach High School.

“We just wish that there was more than one of these a year,” said Jeffery, a Long Island high school student. “We all work so hard, but we’re lucky for this opportunity…We like coming in here and being caught off guard. It’s what we work so hard for.”

Suffolk County police said Vera Quashie was driving a Hyundai Accent westbound on Route 109 when she lost control of the car and hit a utility pole at the corner of Albany Avenue at 12:15 a.m.

Quashie, who was driving home alone from work at the Berkshire Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Babylon, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

First Squad detectives impounded the vehicle for a safety check, are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information on this crash to call them at 631-854-8152.

John Beaumont

A man was arrested for stabbing his 57-year-old brother to death in their father’s West Babylon home where all three live on Saturday evening, Suffolk County police said.

Officers responded to their Densfield Road after John Beaumont, 54, called 911 to report that he stabbed his brother, Thomas, during an argument while their father was home at 5:33 p.m.., police said. The father was not injured.

Thomas Beaumont was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip, where he later died.

John Beaumont was charged with second-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

A West Babylon resident reported receiving a call Saturday night from the suspect who said that a bomb was in the victim’s home and that a U.S. government building was the target of a bombing, police said.

Emergency Service Section investigators responded, searched the home and found no explosive devices.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and First Squad detectives tracked the caller down and arrested him Monday.

The teen was charged with falsely reporting an incident. His name was not released because he is being charged as a juvenile.

He was released to the custody of his parents and is scheduled to appear in Family Court at a later date.

Suffolk County police said Doris Wagner was driving a Nissan Maxima northbound on Great East Neck Road when she tried to make a left turn into a parking lot and her car collided with a southbound Suzuki ridden by John Hart at 4 p.m. Friday.

The victim was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead. Wagner, 68, of West Babylon, was not injured.

First Squad detectives impounded the vehicles for safety checks, are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information on the crash to contact them at 631-854-8152.

Police identified the woman as 59-year-old Gail Giampino. She was found inside the Little East Neck Road apartment that caught fire Sunday just after 4:30 p.m., police said. Giampino was pronounced dead at the scene by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office, police said.

Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of Suffolk police’s Homicide Squad, said the fire was sparked by a tenant cooking chicken wings in hot oil that “flamed up.”

Fitzpatrick noted that the fire is still under investigation. Detectives are still waiting on Arson Squad investigators to submit their report, he said.

The fire also damaged four other apartments and injured two others, police said. Both victims were treated at local hospitals and released, police said.

Officers and firefighters responded to a 911 call reporting the blaze on Little East Neck Road, where the victim’s body was found inside an apartment at 4:35 p.m., police said.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.  Police did not immediately release her identity.

A second victim was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital and a third was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip. Both were treated and released.

Firefighters from local fire departments extinguished the flames that damaged a total of four apartments.

Homicide Squad and Arson Squad detectives are continuing the investigation.

Troy Arrighi

Suffolk County police Homicide Squad detectives have arrested a New York City man in a nearly 20-year-old cold case murder invesetigation.

Troy Arrighi, 37, of Manhattan, was taken into custody at his East 30th Street home on Thursday and charged with second-degree murder.

“It was a straight up robbery,” said Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, who was unable to discuss more about the case because detectives are still searching for the suspect’s alleged accomplice. He coulnd’t say what led to the suspect’s apprehention after so long.

Police said the alleged gunman and another man shot and killed 30-year-old Mario Andujar during an attempted robbery of the Diamond Trucking Company on Cabot Street in West Babylon on March 22, 1994.

A second victim and fellow mechanic, then-22-year-old Juan Garcia, was also shot but survived. Garcia recovered at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip.

Arrighi will be arraigned Friday at First District Court in Central Islip.

Lamont Pride

A North Carolina man has been convicted of killing a New York City Police officer from West Babylon after the cop killer tried to rob a drug dealer during a Brooklyn home invasion in December 2011.

A Brooklyn jury found Lamont Pride guilty Monday of second-degree murder, burglary and manslaughter, but found him not guilty of the more serious charge of first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors said the 28-year-old gunman fatally shot NYPD Officer Peter Figoski, a 47-year-old divorced father of four, when police interrupted Pride and four others during the robbery try.

Pride’s defense attorney reportedly argued that his client accidentally shot the officer in the face while trying to flee the scene.

Figoski’s partner apprehended Pride shortly later.

Michael Velez, Pride’s 22-year-old co-defendant, was tried before the same judge but a separate jury will begin deliberating his case Monday.

Two other suspects, 28-year-old Nelson Morales and 31-year-old Kevin Santos, both of Queens, have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

A fifth man involved in the robbery, 23-year-old Ariel Tejada of Queens, had pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the others in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Suffolk County police arrested Angel Laporte after a woman witnessed him masturbating at the Barnes and Noble book store on East Jericho Turnpike in East Northport at 9:50 p.m. Friday, authorities said. The woman yelled and the 54-year-old man fled, but officers apprehended him at his home Saturday.

Second Squad detectives suspect Laporte also committed public acts of lewdness at the Deer Park Public Library on Jan. 5 and at the Commack Public Library and the West Babylon Public Library on May 7, 2012.

Laporte is wanted by the New Milford Police Department in Connecticut for failing to register as a sex offender. Special Victim’s Unit detectives are also investigating.

Laporte was charged with public lewdness and will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.