A HUDDLE of CSI investigators gather around a body that lies motionless in Tatton Park’s undergrowth.

To the untrained eye it could look like a mysterious death and cause for alarm.

But those in the know realise there is no reason to panic.

For the body is a mannequin and the agents are just paid-up members of the public learning what it is like to investigate a crime scene.

“It is more than playing an upmarket game of Cluedo,” said Stephen Dullek, who runs CSI Experiences.

“We make it as real as possible and even use blood that I get from the butcher’s.”

For £99 participants can become CSI agents for a day at the former home of Lord Egerton. They learn how to take fingerprints at a crime scene, obtain evidence safely and how to forensically examine a corpse. However, Tatton Park have laid down the law to the organisers.

For the sake of their regular dog walkers and visitors they have insisted the ‘body’ be left in a secluded part of the park where few ever wander.

Staff also know when a forensic team is in the park and one of the organisers stays near the dummy so that no unsuspecting member of public gets a nasty shock.

“It is a very life-like dummy so it is important that none of our visitors are alarmed by finding a body in the undergrowth,” said Bridget Roberts, Tatton’s events manager for the past two years.

“All we need is a dog to go running back to its owner with an arm in its mouth and we are in the Knutsford Guardian headlines for completely different reasons.”

Tatton Park was chosen as a venue because it provided sinister woods perfect for a murder scene as well as room for a crime desk where those taking part could learn the tricks of the trade.

“We don’t reveal anything that isn’t in the public domain or that could put any police operation in jeopardy,” said Mr Dullek, whose business partner is an expert in forensic science.

During the experience ‘agents’ learn how to lift a dusty shoe mark, take fingerprints and prepare a corpse before it is zipped into a body bag.

But even the classroom lectures cause a few surprises.

“When you tell people that we don’t draw white lines around a body they can be surprised,” said Mr Dullek.

In the afternoon the agents investigate a murder scene in full forensic, white uniforms.

They are told that a woman has been murdered at the stately home and they have to find out who is the killer.

It is a convincing scene and one that left visitors to The Country Show in August fooled.

“We had a crowd of people gathered near the police tape because they were wondering what had happened,” said Mr Dullek, 49.