The Texas Department of Public Safety's Corpus Christi Crime Lab serves much of South Texas, and is now processing cases at a much faster rate.
Wednesday's tour was part of an open house for the public to learn more about the type of evidence that comes through and how they use science to help solve crimes.
Goliad Sheriff's Office Sgt. Deputy Virginia Escojido is used to dropping off evidence for processing at the DPS crime lab near Moody High School, but this was the first time she got to see what happens once that evidence switches hands.
"I was excited about coming here, knew it would be a good tour, always been interested in evidence," she said.
From finding DNA on clothes to identifying drugs, the crime lab helps law enforcement agencies across 18 counties in South Texas.
DPS Regional Laboratory Manager Brian Nacu said the process is not exactly the same as what you see on television.
"They see CSI and they get this picture in their mind of what forensic science is and we want to demystify that a little bit," he said.
Nacu oversees the lab and said that everything is time sensitive.
"From the time it comes in the door to the time we release a report we are releasing all our active cases within 90 days here in Corpus," he said.
A turnaround that is much faster.
"Around early 2020 specifically here in Corpus we had somewhere around 700 cases in our DNA section, we were extremely backlogged, a lot of different reasons for that, just the number of cases coming in, hiring new staff, the time it takes to train those people," he said.
That's no longer the case in part thanks to other DPS labs in their network helping during that time. More funds have come their way and new state laws aimed specifically at helping these types of case are helping speed things up.
House Bill 1399 requires the collection of DNA samples from people arrested with certain felonies and because of that measure alone - over 600 unsolved cases across the state have gotten extra support.
House Bill 3956 just went into effect this month. That bill mandates booking facilities collect DNA samples from all arrestees charged with a felony.
"So that backlog is essentially zero where we are turning stuff around just as quick as we can," he said.
The staff at the laboratory said they see roughly 400 drug cases and 40 DNA testing cases every month. Those cases mostly involve sexual assaults.
"We're getting answers for victims and family members," he said.
During the tour, 3NEWS got to see how certain drugs are identified from marijuana to cocaine and the growing threat of fentanyl.
"I had never seen that and so now it's coming through our department, our little county. Goliad is very small, it's 6000 but it's the main road (Highway) 59 from Mexico to Houston, now we are getting a lot of fentanyl and cocaine," said Escojido.
This was one of two times each year the lab is open to the public for tours and is part of National Forensic Science Week.
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