The Forensic Examiner - Fall 2013

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the many sides of ted bundy

p. 18

announcing the 2014 executive summit in tuCSon, arizona!

JFK

p. 56

assassination 5 0

t h

a n n i v e r s a r y

an international symposium hosted by dr. cyril wecht p. 36

anthony meoli: inquirer of serial killers

p. 64

is it real? psychics

Cover Photo Credit: White House Photographs $7.50 U.S./$9.50 CAN

INSIDE THIS ISSUE WORKPLACE EMBEZZLEMENT the federal wiretap act FALSELY ACCUSED: JOHNNY WILLIAMS

Child Murders: when the parent is the suspect part II

p. 28

p. 59

p. 76

p. 48

p. 26


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VOLUME 22 • NUMBER 3 • FALL 2013

Contents CE ARTICLES

28 48

Travel expense and payroll fraud case study: Inquiry, confrontation, admission, restitution, and internal controls

by Eric A. Kreuter, PhD, CPA, CGMA, CCP, SPHR, Sareena M. Sawhney, MBA, CFFA, and Glenn D. Sacks, CPA, CGMA

When the Parent is the Suspect in Child Murders Part II

by Stefan R. Treffers, BHSC, Ann W. Burgess, DNSC, APRN, and Allen G. Burgess, DBA

FEATURES 14 Psychometrics of Accreditation 36 Cyril Wecht’s 50th Anniversary JFK Conference

64 The Man who Enters the

Minds of Serial Killers: An interview with Anthony Meoli Interviewed by Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V

48 6

THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013


COLUMNS 12 forensics in the news 18 profile:

The Many Sides of Ted Bundy by Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V

26 is it real?: Psychics

18

by Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V

59 LEGAL: The Federal Wiretap Act by Joshua K. Roberts, JD

70 fiction: My Beautiful,

Beautiful Daughter by Shelly Reuben

59

76 falsely accused: Johnny Williams by Gwyn Knauer

IN THIS ISSUE

26

16 Board spotlight:

American Board of Forensic Nursing®

56 2014 EXECUTIVE SUMMIT 63 book review: Vanished:

How to Protect Yourself and Your Children

73 BOOK REVIEW: Psychological Profiling:

36 76

An Evolving Forensic Science

75 product reviews:

The BriteBeamTM Forensic System

ES22 Tucson ☀ Arizona

56

79 ACFEI Logo products

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Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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2013 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD *Note: For spacing and consistency considerations, the number of designations listed has been limited.

ACFEI EXECUTIVE ADVISORY BOARD

CHAIR

Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD, CFP, CMI-V Chair, American Board of Forensic Medicine Nicholas G. Apostolou, DBA, CPA, Cr.FA

Ronald G. Lanfranchi, PhD, DC, CMI-IV

Donna Garbacz Bader, MSN, RNC, CFN, CMI-I

Monique Levermore, PhD

Larry Barksdale, MA

Jonathan Lipman, PhD

E. Robert Bertolli, OD, CMI-V

Judith Logue, PhD

Kenneth E. Blackstone, MS, CFC, CCI

Mike Meacham, PhD, LCSW

David T. Boyd, Cr.FA, DBA, CPA, CMA

David Miller, DDS

Jules Brayman, CPA, CVA

Leonard I. Morgenbesser, PhD

John Brick, PhD, MA, CMI-V

Jacques Ama Okonji, PhD

Richard C. Brooks, PhD, CGFM

Norva E. Osborne, OD, CMI-III

Dennis L. Caputo, MS, CHMM, QEP

Ronald J. Panunto, PE, CFC, CFEI, CVFI

Dennis H. Chevalier, CMI-I, CPPP, FIPC, BS

Larry H. Pastor, MD, CFC

David F. Ciampi, PhD

Theodore G. Phelps, CPA

Andrew N. Dentino, MD

Marc Rabinoff, EdD, CFC

James A. DiGabriele, PhD, CPA, ABV, CFF

Jerald H. Ratner, MD, CFP

John Shelby DuPont Jr., DDS

Harold F. Risk, PhD

Raymond Fish, PhD, MD

Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, DCSW, CMFSW

Per Freitag, PhD, MD

Jane R. Rosen-Grandon, PhD

L. Sue Gabriel, EdD, MSN, MFS, RN

Douglas Ruben, PhD

Ron Grassi, DC, MS

J. Bradley Sargent, CPA, CFS, Cr.FA

Richard C. W. Hall, MD, CFP

William Sawyer, PhD

John J. Haberstroh, DC, CFC, CMI-V

Howard A. Shaw, MD

Raymond F. Hanbury, PhD, ABPP

Ivan Sosa

David L. Holmes, EdD

Henry A. Spiller, MS

Leo L. Holzenthal Jr., PE, BSEE, MSE

Marilyn J. Stagno, PsyD, RN

Matthew Howard, PhD, MSW, MS, BA

James R. Stone, MD, MBD, CMI-V

Edward J. Hyman, PhD

George S. Swan, JD

Zafar M. Iqbal, PhD

William A. Tobin, MA

Nursine S. Jackson, MSN, RN

Robert Tovar, MA, CPP

Scott A. Johnson, MA, LP, DABPS

Patricia A. Wallace, PhD, CFCE

Philip Kaushall, PhD

Raymond Webster, PhD

Eric Kreuter, PhD, CPA, CMA, CFM

Dean A. Wideman, MSc, MBA, CFC, CMI-III

2013 EDUCATION COMMITTEE *Note: For spacing and consistency considerations, the number of designations listed has been limited.

Puneet Arora, MD, MBBS, CFP, CMI-V

Joan C. Perin, CPA, Cr.FA, CFC, CGMA

Ralph Carnesecchi, MPS, CMI-III

John D. Petkanas, DDS, CFC, CMI-V

Larry D. Crumbley, PhD, CPA, Cr.FA

Jerald H. Ratner, MD, CFP

L. Sue Gabriel, EdD, MSN, MFS, RN, CFN

Douglas H. Ruben, PhD

Amy M. Garcie, DPN, APRN, ACNP, CFN

Larry F. Stewart, CFC, MSFS

Joseph A. Juchniewicz, MA, CCI, CFC, LPT

Kevin R. Theriault, BS, CCI, CFC

Michael Fitting Karagiozis, DO, MDiv, CFP, CMI-V

Mark Tomlin, CMI-III

E. Frank Livingstone, MD, CFP

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

MEMBERS

Marilyn J. Nolan, MS Chair, American Board of Forensic Counselors James H. Hutson, DDS, CMI-V Chair, American Board of Forensic Dentistry Kevin Theriault, BS, CFC Chair, American Board of Forensic Examiners Ben Venktash, Peng(UK), FSE Chair, American Board of Engineering and Technology L. Sue Gabriel, EdD, MSN, RN, CFN Chair, American Board of Forensic Nursing Douglas Fountain Chair Emeritus, American Board of Forensic Social Workers Rodolfo J. Rosado, PhD Chair, American Board of Psychological Specialties Gregg M. Stutchman Chair, American Board of Recorded Evidence Robert Boyden, PhD, MS, SCSA Chair, American Board of Certified Criminal Investigators S. Sandy Sanbar, MD, PhD, JD, FCLM Chair, Legal Advisory Board Robert K. Minniti, CPA, MBA, Cr.FA Chair, American Board of Forensic Accounting

CONTINUING EDUCATION ACFEI provides continuing education credits for accountants, nurses, physicians, dentists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. Approvals for continuing education activities are subject to change. For the most up-to-date status, please check the course catalog on our Web site, www.acfei.com, or contact the Registrar’s office toll-free at (800) 423-9737. ACFEI is an approved provider of Continuing Education by the following: Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education National Association of State Boards of Accountancy National Board for Certified Counselors California Board of Registered Nurses American Psychological Association California Board of Behavioral Sciences Association of Social Work Boards American Dental Association (ADA CERP) The Missouri Sheriff’s Association co-sponsors Police Officer Standards Training (POST) accreditation for the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute’s activities. The American College of Forensic Examiners Institute® is a member of the National Certification Commission and the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education. The Ethics exam, Law exam, Evidence exam, Certified Medical Investigator®, CMI exam levels I-V, Certified Forensic Accountant, Cr.FA® exam, Certified Forensic Nurse, CFN® exam, and the Certified Forensic Consultant, CFC® exam are all approved for G.I. Bill benefits.


ACFEI ADVISORY BOARDS

American Board of Certified Criminal InvestigatorsSM

Chair: Robert Boyden, PhD, MS, SCSA VICE Chair: Dennis Chevalier, CPPP, FIPC, CMI-I Dilsher Ali, CAMS, CCI, MS, PCI Kenneth E. Blackstone, MS, CFC, CCI Marvin “Gene” Bullington, CFC Mark Boutwell, CSI, MI, CMI-I, CCI, CPPP, FIPC Henry “Scott” Browne, MS, RS, CCI John Daab, PhD, MBA, MPS, CI, CFC, CCI Joseph A. Juchniewicz, MA, CCI, CFC, LPT Eric Lakes, CLWE, MCSE David Millsap, CCI, CMI-III Thomas R. Price, CFC, CCI, FACFEI, DABFE Harold F. Risk, PhD, FACFEI, DABPS Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD, CFP, CMI-V

American Board of Forensic Accounting®

Chair: Robert K. Minniti, CPA, Cr.FA, CVA, CFF, MBA VICE Chair: Stewart L. Appelrouth, CPA, CFLM, CVA, Cr.FA Gary Bloome, CPA, Cr.FA Alexander Lamar Casparis, CPA, ABV, CFF, CITP Hugh M. Christensen, CPA, ABV, CFF, CVA, Cr.FA Suzanne D. Hillman, CPA, CFF, Cr.FA, CITP Michael G. Kessler, Cr.FA, CICA Eric A. Kreuter, PhD, CPA Robert B. Lechter, CPA, Cr.FA Joan C. Perin, CPA, Cr.FA, CFC, CGMA Joshua S. Rader, CPA, Cr.FA, ABV, CFF J. Bradley Sargent, CPA, Cr.FA, CFLM, CVA Larry Settles, CPA, Cr.FA, ABV, CITP Richard M.Teichner, CPA, Cr.FA, ABV, CVA, CFF

American Board of Forensic Counselors®

Chair: Marilyn J. Nolan, MS James B. Clarke, MA, LPC, NCC, MAC Rhiannon Condon, LPC, LCSW, LCDC, CADC William M. Sloane, JD, LLM

American Board of Forensic Dentistry

Chair: James H. Hutson, DDS, CMI-V Bill B. Akpinar, DDS, CMI-V Benjamin Antioquia, DDS Stephanie L. Anton-Bettey, DDS, CMI-V, CFC Robert Byrd, DDS Dennis Flanagan, DDS Brian Karasic, DMD, MScFin, MBA, CMI-V R. Gordon Klockow, DDS Chester B. Kulak, DMD, CMI-V, CFC John Petkanas, DDS, CFC, CMI-V Kathryn Vitiello, DMD

American Board of Forensic Examiners®

Chair: Kevin Theriault, BS, CFC, CCI Jess P. Armine, DC Ronna F. Dillon, PhD, CMI-V Bruce H. Gross, PhD, JD, MBA Henry P. Hambel, PhD, CPP, MEMS-M

Darrell C. Hawkins, JD, CMI-V Edward Heyden, EdD Michael W. Homick, PhD, EdD Michael Fitting Karagiozis, DO, MDiv, CFP, CMI-V Anthony Kemmerlin, CMI-V, DABFE Ronald G. Lanfranchi, DC, PhD, CMI-IV John L. Laseter, PhD, CMI-IV Lawrence Lavine, DO, MPH, CFC, CMI-V Leonard K. Lucenko, PhD, CFC, CPSI Marc A. Rabinoff, EdD, CFC Luis Rivera, CPA, CFF James A Williams, PhD, CFC

American Board of Forensic Engineering and Technology®

Chair: Ben Venktash, FRSH(UK), FSE VICE Chair: George C. Frank, CFC VICE Chair: James P. Waltz, PE, MBA, CEM, LEED, AP Ali Fayad, PE Gregory Harrison, PhD, PE Michael Nunez, PhD, PE J.W. “Bill” Petrelli Jr., AIA, NCARB, TAID, CFC Max L. Porter, PhD, PE, CFC John Robbins, PE Frank Stephenson, PhD, PE

American Board of Forensic Medicine®

Chair: Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD, CFP, CMI-V VICE Chair: Matthias I. Okoye, MD, MSc, JD, FRCP Michael Cardwell, MD, JD John A. Consalvo, MD Louis W. Irmisch III, MD, CFP, CMI-V Michael Fitting Karagiozis, DO, MDiv, CFP, CMI-V Lawrence Lavine, DO, MPH, CMI-V, CFC Kenneth A. Levin, MD, CFP, FACFEI, DABFM, DABFE E. Franklin Livingstone, MD, CFP Manijeh K. Nikakhtar, MD, MPH, CFP, CMI-V John R. Parker, MD, CFP, FCAP Jerald H. Ratner, MD, CFP S. Sandy Sanbar, MD, PhD, JD, FCLM

American Board of Forensic Nursing®

Chair: L. Sue Gabriel, EdD, MSN, RN, CFN, MFS Donna Garbacz Bader, MSN, RNC, CFN, CMI-I, CFC Marilyn A. Bello, RNC, MS, CMI-IV, CFN, CFC Cynthia J. Curtsinger, RN, CFN, SANE Linda J. Doyle, RN, CFN, CMI-III, CLNC Diane L. Reboy, MS, RN, CFN, LNCC, CNLCP Suzanne Rotolo, PhD, MSN, RN, CFN, SANE-A, SANE-P

Raymond F. Hanbury, PhD, ABPP, LPC Paula M. Mackenzie, PsyD Helen D. Pratt, PhD Richard M. Skaff, PsyD Charles R. Stern, PhD, CMI-V Joseph C. Yeager, PhD Donna M. Zook, PhD, CFC

American Board of Recorded Evidence®

Chair: Gregg M. Stutchman Ernst F. W. (Rick) Alexanderson, BA, MBA Eddy B. Brixen Stephen C. Buller Marisa Dery Ryan O. Johnson, BA Michael C. McDermott, JD Jennifer E. Owen, BA Thomas J. Owen, BA

American Board of Forensic Social Workers®

Chair EMERITUS: Douglas Fountain, PhD, LCSW James Andrews, MSW, LCSW, CMFSW Matthew A. Capezzuto, PhD, LISW, AFC Viola Vaughan-Eden, PhD, LCSW, CMFSW Nathalie P. Hughes, MSW, CMFSW Tina Jaeckle, PhD, LCSW, CFC, CMFSW Shannon C. Lebak, MSW, LCSW, CMFSW Michael G. Meacham, PhD, LCSW Kathleen Monahan, DSW, CMFSW, LMFT, CFC, MSW Susan P. Robbins, PhD, LCSW, DCSW, CMFSW Christine Routhier, AFSW, LCSW, CMFSW Steven J. Sprengelmeyer, MSW, MA, LISW, CMFSW

Legal Advisory Board

Chair: S. Sandy Sanbar, MD, PhD, JD CJ Abraham, PE, PhD, JD Michael Cardwell, MD, JD Joseph F. Connolly, II, MMA, MEd, JD, FRSA Paul D. Friedman, MA, PhD, JD Robert Fish, DDS, JD, FAGD James L. Greenstone, EdD, JD, CMI-I Pamela Ann Geyer, RN, CFN, JD Robert D. Hall, PhD, JD Cynthia A. Lee, PhD, JD, CMI-I William “Bill” McClure, DC, JD Robert W. Muench, JD Joshua K Roberts, JD Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD, CFP, CMI-V

American Board of Psychological Specialties®

Chair: Rodolfo J. Rosado, PhD VICE Chair: Douglas H. Ruben, PhD Carol J. Armstrong, PhD, MS, LPC Martha Barham, RN, PhD, CFC Madeline M. Daniels, PhD, CMI-V Ronna F. Dillon, PhD, CMI-V Raymond H. Hamden, PhD, CFC, CMI-V

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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WELCOME New Members New Members Benjamin Adam William Allison Emily Andera Brenda Anderson Karen Andros Antoinette Anker Albert Antonini William Bailey Peggy Bailey Kristie Beatty Lindsay Bennett Marshall Blair Daniel Brumfield Meghan Buckner Daniel Butler William Cartier Earnestine Cartier Denise Cleveland Paul Cohen Lori Combs April Condemi Megan Cox James Davidson Meagan Davis Gary DeBouver Eugenia Di Odoardo Nicolas DiDonato Susan Dietrich DeVonn Dillard Heather DiMercurio Greig Donaldson Ellen Douglas Dale Duchesne Chris Dugger Stephen Earle Kimberly Eaton Christopher Eck Kenneth Einhorn Ayman Felmban Erika Frances Janetta Gee Katy Gheen Nichole Gokenbach Nichole Gokenbach Paulene Goliver

Sheena Havens Bill Helmeczi Eddward Herron Charlotte Higham-Sowerby Marianne Hill Sarah Howard Ivan Ivanov Sterling Jackson Alan Jaffe Eric Johnson Danielle Jones Babatunde Kehinde T. Diane Kirse Felix Klemke John Koenig Brendan Kwong George Lawless Aaron Lee Bruce Levenberg Nikina Lowry-Schiller Caitlin Marshall Kathleen Martin Daria Mazzoni Glenn McGovern Ale McLeod (McKelly) Gary Michaels Lori Micho Victoria Minter Shannon Morfeld Lacey Morris Nicholas Mouzourakis Lisa Murphy Austin Murray Yonatan Nagler Leslie Nassios Debra Page Misty Permenter Angela Petrie Melanie Petty Christopher Pontello Alexandru Pop Nicholas Potocska Brian Raymond Amanda Reese Rick Rithmire

Anitra Russell Laurel Rutherford Randy Sandifer Neil Schembre John Scott Jeannette Scott Michele Selfridge Luisa Serna Adam Sharp Linda Simpkins Franklin Singh James Smith MaryAnn Smith Shelly Sommerfield William Stack Michael Stocker Tiong Heng Tan Cole Tarbet Christopher Taylor Ruby Thompson George Timbers Dana Troxclair Joshua Tyquiengco Edward Valentin Danielle Vega Christie Wagg Rebekah Wanger Reshelle Watson Amy Welch Jesse Whitehead Gary Whitelam Glenn Whitted Steven Williams Judith Williams Kenda Willie Ulla Woodard Mi Mi Worth Carl Wycoff New Diplomate s Suzanne Rotolo New Fellows Kathleen Acer Samson Adegbite G. Thomas Cloyd

Due to space limitations, degrees and professional designations are not listed.

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER速 Fall 2013

Louis DeFalco David Fusco Jeffrey Getzel Carl Patrasso Renee Quirk Twila Rawson Newly Credentialed William Allison Natalia Amchislavsky Brenda Anderson Jennifer Antony Kenneth Ardizzone Denise Atkinson Donna Bader Debra Ballard Elizabeth Blancher Tina Callahan Robert Campbell Howard Cannon David Cole Tiff Cook Emily Cremeans Chris Dugger Robert Edmunds Robert Egbert Yvonne Eisenberg Lisa Filary Rebecca Finn Erika Frances Pamela Gay Therese Hadden Angela Halterman Thomas Harlow Abigail Ho Richard Hoffman Matthew Howard Ashley Huynh Ivan Ivanov Gay Jackson Amy Jamrog-Buckey Herbert Joe Jennifer Johnson Sari Kerner Lewinda Knowles

Emil Kolick Robert Korec Susan Leswing Evonne Lopez Martin Luna Kimberly Marmalich Alan McBroom George Miz Lori Moynihan Yonatan Nagler Monty Nelson H. Steven Newbold Gbenga Oguntade Debra Page Nicholas Potocska Bradford Rice Christine Ruggiero John Sagoe Stephanie Salatich James Schaefer Thomas Stephens George Timbers Michael Tydlaska Edward Valentin Aaron Vick Jaimie Wheat Gary Whitelam Ulla Woodard Tracy Woods Alstone Yeung


Crisis Leadership & Emergency Management Prediction, Prevention, Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Post response EARN YOUR GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN CRISIS LEADERSHIP & EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

100% ONLINE Dear Reader, I am writing today to share with you a very unique opportunity here at Black Hills State University. As you well know, crises and emergencies arise without warning. Recent events in national news underscore the truth that these situations can happen anywhere at any time. Drawing upon their considerable experience in federal and state law enforcement and crisis situations, our faculty have developed a unique graduate certificate program that extends the traditional emergency management approach to include strong and practical leadership development. The Graduate Certificate in Crisis Leadership and Emergency Management (CLEM) at BHSU is designed to bridge academic rigor and best practices in order to develop individuals who can lead their organizations through crises using an all-hazards approach to managing critical incidents while preserving and valuing human capital. Dr. Vecchi or I would look forward to the opportunity to discuss your ongoing professional development needs and how BHSU might offer support through the CLEM program or other educational opportunities. For more information on CLEM, please visit www.BHSU.edu/CLEM or feel welcome to contact us at any time. Best, Mitch Hopewell, Ed.D. Thomas.Hopewell@BHSU.edu Gregory Vecchi, Ph.D. Gregory.Vecchi@BHSU.edu

CONTACT US www.bhsu.edu/CLEM 605-642-1241 CLEM@BHSU.edu

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER速

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FORENSICS IN THE NEWS

the fix was in: Crime in College Hoops

May 20, 2013 — It’s a cautionary tale for college and professional athletes alike. Following a three-year FBI investigation dubbed Operation Hook Shot, eight people—including former University of San Diego (USD) basketball star Brandon Johnson, the school’s all-time point and assist leader—were convicted and sentenced to federal prison terms for taking part in a sports bribery conspiracy. The eighth and final defendant, illegal bookmaker Richard Francis Garmo, was sentenced last month. The case began—as most of our sports bribery matters do—as an organized crime investigation. In 2009, we began looking into the activities of a criminal enterprise operating in the San Diego area. Along with selling marijuana, the group was operating an illegal online gambling business. A related criminal activity, Bureau investigators discovered, was a scheme to fix USD men’s basketball games. Playing a pivotal role in the scheme was Thaddeus Brown, an assistant basketball coach at USD during the 2006-2007 season. Brown had placed bets with the illegal gambling business operated by Garmo and two partners-in-crime. Though no longer with the team, he still had contacts among the USD players. During the 2009-2010 season, he recruited Johnson—USD’s starting point guard—to influence the outcome of basketball games in exchange for money. Brown was paid handsomely for his role in the conspiracy—up to $10,000 per game. Source This story has been condensed. To read more of the story, go to the source: www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/ may/crime-in-college-hoops/crime-in-college-hoops

Facial-Recognition Technology

Proves Its Mettle

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, (FBI/MCT photo)

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May 24, 2013 — In a study that evaluated some of the latest in automatic facial recognition technology, researchers at Michigan State University were able to quickly identify one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects from law enforcement video, an experiment that demonstrated the value of such technology. In the Pattern Recognition and Image Processing laboratory, Anil Jain, MSU Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering, and Josh Klontz, a research scientist,

“…this technology can be up to 99 percent accurate.” tested three different facial-recognition systems. By using actual law-enforcement video from the bombing, they found that one of the three systems could provide a “rank one” identification—a match—of suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev. “The other suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the one ultimately killed in the shootout with police, could not be matched at a sufficiently high rank, partly because he was wearing sunglasses,” Jain said. “The younger brother could be identified.


Four Microphones and a Computer Algorithm Are Enough to Produce a 3-D Model of a Simple, Convex Room

Researcher Reveals New Way to Safeguard Forensic DNA Samples

June 17, 2013 — Blind people sometimes develop the amazing ability to perceive the contours of the room they’re in based only on auditory information. Bats and dolphins use the same echolocation technique for navigating in their environment. At EPFL, a team from the Audiovisual Communications Laboratory (LCAV), under the direction of Professor Martin Vetterli, has developed a computer algorithm that can accomplish this from a sound that’s picked up by four microphones. Their experiment is being published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “Our software can build a 3D map of a simple, convex room with a precision of a few millimeters,” explains PhD student Ivan Dokmanić. Source

This story has been condensed. To read more of the story, go to the source: www.sciencedaily. com/releases/2013/06/130617160856.htm

“This study was revealing in that facial recognition technology can successfully handle some cases in which facial images extracted from a video were captured under favorable conditions,” he said. Under controlled conditions, when the face is angled toward the camera and if the lighting is good, this technology can be up to 99 percent accurate. Source

This story has been condensed. To read more of the story, go to the source: www.sciencedaily.com/ releases/2013/05/130524142549.htm

Against Contamination Apr. 29, 2013 — DNA evidence is invisible and remarkably easy to transfer, making it possible for a sample to be spilled or even planted on a piece of evidence. Boise State University professor Greg Hampikian has now developed a solution that permanently marks DNA samples to prevent contamination. Hampikian has used nullomers, the smallest DNA sequences that are absent from nature, to create the DNA bar code. He has been working on the invention for more than a decade, and recently demonstrated its results for the first time in his Boise State lab. His research will be published by The Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine. U.S. soldiers must give DNA samples, and Hampikian’s research has been sponsored by the Department of Defense. “The truth is that DNA contamination is a fact of life in all laboratories,” Hampikian said. “This problem is compounded by techniques that make billons of copies of DNA, and new instruments that detect even just a few molecules. Unfortunately, samples taken from victims and other innocent people are still processed in the same place as samples from weapons, bodies and other evidence.” Hampikian has joint appointments in the departments of biology and criminal justice at Boise State and also is the director of the Idaho Innocence Project. In his Boise State lab, Hampikian and student and faculty collaborators work on diverse DNA projects, including developing new cancer drugs, discovering new species of single-celled organisms in Idaho, studying Basque sex chromosomes and inventing micro devices. Several years ago, Hampikian and Boise State computer science colleague Tim Andersen identified tiny DNA and protein sequences that were absent in nature and Hampikian termed these sequences ‘nullomers.’ The researchers proposed that these sequences could have properties that were incompatible with life, and might serve as drugs to kill pathogens and even cancer. The first results of nullomer-based drugs were published in October 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Peptides and showed that these compounds killed breast and prostate cancer cells in the laboratory. In addition, Hampikian was a key member of the Amanda Knox defense team and continues to work on cases of wrongful conviction. He also was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors this year. Source www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130429164716.htm

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Psychometrics

of Accreditation

he goal of each of our certification

programs

is to validate the professional knowledge and skills of certified individuals as they relate to

forensics.

Psychometricians,

professionals who are contracted with various organizations to align their certification programs with accreditation practices, assist in achieving this goal. Psychometrician Nate Thompson consented to answer some questions about accreditation and psychometrics. Read on to discover more about psychometrics and how it prepares us to apply for accreditation for our certification programs.

Psychometrics is the science of measurement generally applied to education, psychology, and professional skills.�

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What is psychometrics? Psychometrics is the science of measurement generally applied to education, psychology, and professional skills. Decades of academic and applied research have gone into developing best practices for processes that many take for granted but are actually quite complex, such as how to decide what topics go on an exam and how to set the cutscore (more info below). A person that works with psychometrics is called a psychometrician. They typically have a PhD in a field such as educational psychology. Why is psychometrics important for a certification EXAM? Psychometrics is applied specifically to certification tests in several ways. The outline/blueprints for the test are developed using a technique known as job task analysis or practice analysis, which often surveys experts in the field to see what they consider the most important topics in that field. Next, test questions are written and reviewed according to professional standards. A cutscore is then set using one of several quantitative techniques that utilize another sample of experts. Lastly, test data is statistically analyzed to see if any questions are too difficult or otherwise confusing, which helps ensure reliable scores and supports the validity of the test. Additionally, formal reports of all these processes must be written and then submitted to gain accreditation. How are certification exams developed? Our certification exams are developed using processes based on scientific research and best practices as defined by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). All exams must face a rigorous path, meeting the following requirements for developing a psychometrically-sound exam: Job Analysis Study: This is an empirical survey of experienced professionals to see what tasks and knowledge are most essential to the field. Test Blueprint: The Job Analysis Study results are statistically analyzed to develop the Test Blueprint so that more important tasks get more weight on the exam. Item Development: All test questions are developed by experts, reviewed by at least one other expert, and pilot tested on a small sample of candidates to ensure the questions are top quality. Standard Setting Study: A panel of experts assign each item a difficulty rating, which is then compared to the pilot sample results to set a fair cutscore.


ACCREDITATION

For more information about NCCA and accreditation, please visit www.credentialingexcellence.org/ncca.

An Interview with Psychometrician Nate Thompson Accreditation is the process by which a credentialing program is evaluated against defined standards, and when in compliance with these standards, is awarded recognition by a third party. ACFEI is currently aligning certification programs with NCCA standards in anticipation of applying for accreditation through NCCA for its certifications and certificate programs. Several programs are currently writing job task statements in preparation for the job task study: forensic social work, criminal investigation, forensic nursing, forensic engineering, medical investigation, and forensic accounting. The CFC Program already has completed the job task study and has a test blueprint. Subject Matter Experts are currently developing exam items for this program. The Institute for Credentialing Excellence is a prestigious organization dedicated to providing educational, networking, and advocacy resources for the credentialing community. ICE’s accrediting body, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), evaluates certification organizations for compliance with the NCCA Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs. NCCA’s Standards exceed the requirements set forth by the American Psychological Association and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ICE is a nationally recognized standards developer. Who decides WHAT a passing or failing score is? The cutscore for each test is not assigned arbitrarily (e.g., 70 or more is always passing), but by an empirical study that gathers the consensus of a panel of experts. The experts painstakingly review each item and assign a difficulty rating, which is statistically analyzed and compared to actual test results from a pilot sample. This information is then combined to select a cutscore that is rigorous but fair. The process as a whole is known as the modified-Angoff method. How do I know that certification PROGRAMS meet industry standards? The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) provides accreditation of professional certification programs, providing a stamp of approval that the entire program—not just the exam itself—is of high quality. Numerous reports and other documentation must be submitted to an impartial review board.

Nate

Thompson

NatE Thompson is the Vice President of Assessment Systems Corporation, a leading provider of technology and psychometric solutions to the testing and assessment industry. He has a decade of experience in psychometrics and test development, having worked both at a client testing organization and in the consultant’s role. He oversees consulting and business development activities at ASC, but is primarily interested in the development of software tools that make test development more efficient and defensible. He is also interested in the education of psychometrics, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Thompson received a PhD in Psychometric Methods from the University of Minnesota, with a minor in industrial/organizational psychology. He also holds a BA from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, with a triple major in Latin, mathematics, and psychology. He is a member of the National Council on Measurement in Education and the International Association for Computerized Adaptive Testing and maintains a research program on computerized testing.

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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A mer ican Board of

Forensic nursing® The American Board of Forensic Nursing (ABFN) is comprised of several top nurses in the forensic nursing field. We would like to introduce three members in this issue of The Forensic Examiner® and share our progress towards revamping the Certified Forensic Nurse, CFN® program to meet accreditation standards. The ABFN board has been working hard to define the scope of the forensic nurse program and develop task statements explaining what a forensic nurse does on a daily basis. These statements will be used to help create a foundation for the new exam. Our goal is to provide an assessment for forensic nurses that will weigh their knowledge, skills, and abilities gained from the field. We are always in need of help from our members to achieve this goal. If you have any interest, please contact member services at cao@acfei.com.

“The CFN credential has been helpful in the forensic nursing field as well as the legal arena. It has been helpful in establishing the vital role forensic nurses can have at all levels of patient care.” ~Diane L. Reboy, MS, RN, CFN, LNCC, DABFN, FABEI, CNLCP

®

You are the higher level of care. Take your dedication for patient care to the next level by becoming a Certified Forensic Nurse, CFN®. Demonstrate competencies in injury assessment, evidence collection, and signs of abuse for victims of violence. To learn more: Scan – the QR code to the left Click – www.acfei.com/aldnurse Call – 800.423.9737

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013


BOARD SPOTLIGHT

meetthe Board

Go online to www.abfn.us/board/ to view the rest of the board members.

L. Sue Gabriel, EdD, MSN, MFS, RN, SANE-A, CFN, FACFEI, DABFN, is the Associate Professor at BryanLGH College of Health Sciences, School of Nursing. Sue is an expert witness and a national and international speaker and workshop presenter on forensic nursing, child abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence. Sue is a guest lecturer at numerous colleges and universities and is a member of various forensic organizations, including Fellow in the American College of Forensic Examiners and Diplomate in the American Board of Forensic Nursing (Chair); Board member on the Commission of Forensic Education, American Academy of Forensic Sciences (Full Member), which she received the General Section Achievement Award, the International Association of Forensic Nurses (Membership Committee), Sigma Theta Tau (Treasurer), NLN, and the Nebraska chapter of International Association of Identification. Sue graduated from the University of

Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing with a BSN; Southeast Community College with a Certificate in Forensic Science; Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Masters in Forensic Science, and a Masters in Nursing; and received her Doctorate in Health Care Education from the College of Saint Mary’s in Omaha, NE. Sue is a practicing, certified, sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE-A), member of a citywide SART team, and a member of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Committee for the Nebraska Air and Army Guard, a certified forensic nurse (CFN), and a member of the Disaster Mortuary Response Team, Region VII (DMORT). Sue is a reviewer of numerous nursing texts, and professional journals, contributor to Forensic Investigation and Management of Mass Disasters text by Cyril Wecht & Matthias Okoye 2007, Lawyers and Judges Publishing, co-author of an entry level forensic nursing text, Forensic Nursing: A Concise Manual (2010) CRC Press, and has published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing. Sue has also developed forensic learning modules, and has written seven chapters for an upcoming eight volume text in forensic science. As an associate professor, Sue teaches in classes of forensic nursing, pediatric nursing, and a general education class that she developed, along with community health nursing. Sue loves working with students and networking with colleagues, and has a passion for forensic nursing and children.

Sue Rotolo, PhD, MSN, RN, CFN, SANE-A, SANE-P, has been a nurse since 1976. In 1981 she began working at Inova Fairfax Hospital/Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children in the emergency department. In 1991, she developed the first Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program in the Mid-Atlantic area. In 1999, under Sue’s direction, the SANE Program changed to the FACT (Forensic Assessment and Consultation Teams) Department which comprises the SANE program, the Domestic Violence program, the physical child abuse program, and the body cavity search program for the adult detention center. She has examined over 5,000 patients reporting sexual assault. She has been qualified in court as an expert in sexual assault over 200 times in Virginia, Maryland,

Washington DC, the US Virgin Islands, and in Military Courts. Sue received her PhD from George Mason University in 2009 with her dissertation on the “Patterns of Genital Trauma in Sexually Assaulted Women.” She has worked on several research projects that include PTSD in women after being sexually assaulted and HIV prophylaxis compliance after a sexual assault. She is nationally certified as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for adults, adolescents and pediatrics (SANE-A, SANE-P) as well as being nationally certified as a Certified Forensic Nurse (CFN), Certified Medical Investigator I (CMI-I), and a Certified Forensic Consultant (CFC). She is well published in the forensic field and is a founding member of the national and local chapters of the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN), and is a member of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI). After working for Inova for 31 years, she left in 2012 and is now the owner of Dr. Rotolo Consulting.

Cynthia Curtsinger, RN, CFN, CCM, SANE, has been a registered nurse for 35 years. Her career has spanned multiple areas of nursing practice, and she has held several nursing management positions. Since 2007, her practice has been limited to forensic nursing, first at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Louisville, KY, and now in the Kosair Charities Division

of Pediatric Forensic Medicine, at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She is currently the Forensic Nurse Manager. She holds national certifications in case management and forensic nursing. She is a licensed Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner for the State of Kentucky. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Forensic Nursing and is a member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. She has provided numerous trainings to both lay and professional groups on child maltreatment.

board chair

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

17


PROFILE

:

Classification ler Serial kil

: , g Characteristics in p p a n rape, kidstrangulation, ia assault, tion, necrophil decapita

a lor id a, F 44977 d i r 1 Flo w/ s of s/sho hive m/item c r e A ory.co S t at dit: ridamem e r to C .flo Pho ry, www o Mem

of Number : victimsl unknown) 30+ (tota S: of murder S ate D 1978 1973 /74— earlier) ly ib (poss : arrests Date of1978 1975 and birth: Date ofer 24, 1946 b Novem

S: Location CRIME r more) states Seven (o

ted) : DEATH 24, 1989 (execu ry a u Jan

The Many Sides of

Ted Bundy V sland, PhD, CMIBy Katherine Ram

acher. That’s what te s es ch d o o g a Ted Bundy was . He advised that ed ll ca re im h ed at a girl who had d g a piece, because in ch u to re o ef b y she think carefull ld lose the game. u co e ov m ss le re just one ca

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013


parents. His grandfather had been rough, but Bundy recalled only good memories. Eventually he discovered the humiliating fact that he was a bastard. Highly insecure, Bundy sought to raise his status. He graduated college with honors, dated a classy young woman, and comported himself so well during a political campaign that some friends thought he’d run for office. But then his girlfriend dumped him. He floundered. Convicted of kidnapping, Bundy was also suspected in several murders. After officials transported him to Colorado to face charges there, Bundy escaped and went to Tallahassee, Florida. On January 15, 1978, he attacked five women, killing two in the The Facts Chi Omega sorority house. A month later, Whether Bundy’s murders began in 1974, Bundy raped and murdered twelve-year-old the official calculation, or earlier, (he claimed Kimberly Leach. to have killed 30, but also confessed to 36 He resisted an insanity defense and reand hinted at many more), this former Boy fused to exchange an admission of guilt for Scout, crisis counselor, and campaign vol- life in prison. Instead, Bundy represented unteer took secrets to the grave. himself right into three convictions and Investigators launched the hunt for a se- death sentences. Despite protesting his innorial killer after several young women were cence, just before his execution on January assaulted or had disappeared in Oregon and 24, 1989, he finally confessed to many murWashington State. The remains of two who ders. Most interviewers believed he had told had vanished on the same day from Lake just part of the story: He had doled out data Sammamish, east of Seattle, were found the way he had played chess—with care for near bones from another. Witnesses de- how each piece worked in the overall game. scribed a slender man named “Ted,” who’d approached the girls. Bundy’s Family, Friends, By this time, Bundy was in law school and Lovers in Utah, where several more female corpses “Ted Bundy does not go around killing womturned up. Then a failed kidnapping attempt en and little children!” Louise Bundy told got him prison time. There, Bundy endured the News Tribune in 1980 after her son was extensive testing, including brain scans, as convicted. “Our never-ending faith in Ted psychologists analyzed his life story. —our faith that he is innocent—has never Born to Louise Cowell in a home for wavered. And it never will.” She said that unwed mothers on November 24, 1946, Ted had been “the best son in the world” – Bundy was raised in Philadelphia with his thoughtful, responsible, and fond of his mother’s parents—as her brother. In 1950, siblings. After hearing tapes of his confesLouise took him to Tacoma, Washington, sions, Louise finally accepted that he was a where she married Johnnie Bundy. To psy- cold-hearted killer, but just before he was chologists, Bundy claimed he’d had a sta- executed, she told him, “You’ll always be ble childhood with caring, church-going my precious son.”

Photo credit: State Archives of Florid show/144979 ww a, Florida Memor y, www.floridam w.floridamemor emory.com/item y.com/fpc/gener s/ al/n035656.jpg

Over the years, many people have described their interactions with Bundy and, collectively, these impressions demonstrate Bundy’s ability to be different things to different people. Interviewers were frustrated to learn that he’d contradicted to someone else what he’d just told them. He hedged, deflected, and talked circuitously while sounding completely open and sincere. Reporter Barbara Grossman nicely sums it up: “Sometimes I come away from an interview with Ted thinking I’ve got great stuff. But then the more you listen to what he says, the more you wonder what he’s saying.” Bundy’s chameleonic style presents a unique form of mental flexibility that certain predatory psychopaths possess. It would be useful to develop an objective assessment of this aspect of criminal behavior, for better comprehension and prediction. By making Bundy the “specimen for study” that he sought to be, we could turn his game plan into a tool for shrewd analysis for today’s offenders.

Bundy’s Aunt Julia told psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that she’d awoken one day to find that her three-year-old nephew had placed knives under her covers. This story became the basis for testimony that Bundy had been severely troubled since childhood. However, to Vanity Fair, Julia said that the incident had been blown out of proportion. It was three knives, it had been a prank, and it hadn’t frightened her. She did not think of her nephew as a troubled boy. Ann Rule, who wrote The Stranger beside Me about her experience with Bundy, recalled that he was a compassionate counselor at the Seattle Crisis Clinic. “I can picture him today…see him hunched over the phone, talking steadily, reassuringly – see him look up at me, shrug, and grin. I can hear…the infinite patience and caring in his voice…He was never brusque, never hurried.” Bundy duped her into believing in his innocence for quite a while, but in retrospect, she realized that her dog had disliked him. In contrast to Rule, another clinic coworker recalled that Bundy had coldly lectured desperate callers about getting more control over their emotions. He’d lacked rather than exuded compassion and sometimes abruptly hung up. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Ted Bundy in court. Photo credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, www.floridamemory.com/items/show/103267, Photographer: Donald Gregory

her out of a raft into icy water and made no move to help her. “His face had gone blank, as though he was not there at all. I had a sense that he wasn’t seeing me.” A few months later when she saw the police sketch of the “Ted” suspect, she called authorities with a list of circumstantial evidence against Bundy. But after she talked with him, she felt guilty and realigned herself with him. Bundy had a way of winning people to his side. Many even funded his legal fight. Only rarely did he show his dark side. However, reporter and friend Richard Larsen saw it at an art exhibit when Bundy admired only a depiction of a hawk pouncing on a nest of baby birds. “I like that one!” he declared. Always the trickster, Bundy could make people believe they knew him while holding them at arm’s length.

“You learn what you need to kill and take care of the details. It’s like changing a tire. The first time you’re careful. By the thirtieth time, you can’t remember where you left the lug wrench.” — Ted Bundy

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

Yet Bundy certainly could impress people. A campaign co-worker thought of him as “Kennedy-like,” while a Mormon missionary who baptized him in 1975 said, “I wouldn’t hesitate to line him up with my sister.” After Bundy’s arrest in Utah, his friends and associates were certain that a serious error had been made. Bundy was not a criminal. Liz Kendall (her pseudonym) wrote The Phantom Prince to describe her extended relationship with him. They’d met at a bar in 1969 when he asked her to dance and she was immediately smitten. To impress her, he falsely stated that he was applying to law school and writing a book. She believed him. “I knew when I first looked at him…that he was a cut above the rest of the crowd,” she wrote. “The way he moved projected confidence. He seemed to be in control of his world.” Kendall, a divorcee supporting a child, was so certain that fame and fortune were in Bundy’s (and her) future that she allowed him to use her for financial support. Whenever she caught him in lies, he quickly made her believe that she was to blame. About a week before the Lake Sammamish abductions, Bundy had seemed odd to Liz. He inexplicably pushed

Bundy’s Biographer Bundy asked Stephen Michaud to write a book (with his help) that would prove his innocence. Yet Michaud found Bundy to be complex and elusive, as well as an outright liar. “He turned the interviews into a game of chutes and ladders, with disingenuous pleas of faulty memory and long silences preventing me from pinning him down.” Michaud experienced Bundy’s facility with language, learning that, as a boy, he’d listened to the radio and practiced talking like the actors. Highly observant, he’d also imitated the successful boys at school. These skills helped him to overcome his shyness, he said. They also helped him become a predator. The interviews turned into Bundy’s selfabsorbed third-person speculations that both fascinated and repulsed Michaud. “Emotionally,” he wrote, “Ted seemed a severe case of arrested development…he might as well have been a twelve-year-old, and a precocious and bratty one at that.” Michaud thought that Bundy was always reaching for a self-assessment that would fully capture him. Yet it was difficult to distinguish this seemingly honest exploration from his need to manipulate with certain impressions. “He is his own abstraction,” Michaud wrote, “a lethal absurdity masquerading as a man. Nevertheless, there were times at the prison when I was enveloped in the charisma of his madness…A black, palpable malignancy.”


Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman were two of the Chi Omega sisters murdered by Theodore Bundy. Photo credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, www.floridamemory.com/items/show /152092

Yet when Michaud interviewed Bundy’s fiancée, Carole Boone, he was surprised to discover that she thought her “cute, sweet” Bundy was entirely transparent and without guile. Even after Bundy dropped his façade of innocence, she still devoted herself to proving it. Law Enforcement In 1978, Pensacola PD investigator Norman Chapman interviewed Bundy for about 40 hours and heard his famous self-assessment, “I’m a cold-blooded sonof-a-bitch.” Chapman saw Bundy present three distinct personalities: Normal Ted, Lawyer Ted, and Vampire Ted. Normal Ted seemed to want to be liked, while Lawyer Ted blamed Vampire Ted for his current difficulties. To several people, Bundy described a malignant being—an “entity”—that emerged from him when he was tense or drunk. Kendall might have glimpsed it when Bundy pushed her from the raft, but defense investigator Joe Aloi had a clear view. He noticed an odor emanate from Bundy as his face and body contorted. “I felt that negative electricity,” he said, “and along with that came that smell.” Aloi was suddenly terrified that Bundy would kill him. Detective Robert Keppel investigated Bundy’s homicides in the Pacific Northwest. When Bundy offered Keppel assistance with the Green River Killer investigation, Keppel traveled with Sheriff Dave Reichert to Florida to meet with him. As Bundy was led in chains into the interview room, Keppel thought of Houdini. When Keppel extended his hand, Bundy’s wet palm revealed intense anxiety. “He was almost feral in our presence, like an animal just out of his cave.” Bundy initially tried to game Keppel with feigned humility, but Keppel had been advised by forensic psychiatrists to make Bundy believe that no one was interested. Desperate for attention, Bundy took the bait. During these interviews, Keppel noted Bundy’s paranoia and grandiosity, especially as Bundy described how superior he’d felt eluding law enforcement. Reichert thought Bundy seemed “lost, even a little humiliated.” He frequently repeated himself and “often acted as if he were far more insightful and intelligent than any detective.” He found Bundy to be tiresome. Bundy sought to prove his worth as a “scientific specimen” to Supervisory Special

Agent William Hagmaier, from the FBI’s budding Behavioral Science Unit. Yet even as he answered questions, he also played mind games, leading Hagmaier to observe that “Bundy had an uncanny ability to compartmentalize.” Hagmaier was surprised by the collection of files and newspaper reports that Bundy had amassed. “He wanted me to understand,” he said, “how sophisticated serial killers have become.” Bundy told him that serial murderers go through a developmental process. The early days are experimental, involving errors. They reach their peak skill after mastery has buffered them from feeling anything. However, Bundy admitted, he drank a lot to facilitate the killing. His MO was to first select an appropriate disposal site—something that provided privacy. Then he went trolling for a victim that matched his sexual preferences: He preferred college girls who seemed to come from good backgrounds, because by association this elevated his acts. It was as if he were “marrying up.” He would often drive for hours as he looked for such women. He’d even made dry runs, letting some go. Once he spotted a target, he’d fake an injury or a need for assistance (something he devised from a psychology course). Once at the car, he’d retrieve a crowbar he’d laid out and strike the girl to render her unconscious. He would handcuff and place her in the passenger side, from which he’d removed the seat.

Although he most often killed his victims by ligature strangulation during a sexual act, sometimes he’d bludgeon them. In several cases, he beheaded the corpse with a hacksaw, or removed the hands. He considered that, once dead, they belonged to him. “They are part of you,” he stated. “You feel the last bit of breath leaving their body, you’re looking into their eyes. A person in that situation is God!” Several people have proposed that Bundy’s “victim type” developed in reaction to the college girlfriend who’d rejected him, because many had long dark hair like her, parted in the middle. When Bundy heard this notion about the “subconscious complex” that motivated him, he scoffed. “They just fit the general category of being young and attractive,” he told Michaud’s partner, Hugh Aynesworth. Youth and beauty were “absolutely indispensable.” That his predatory spree was a reaction to romantic rejection he found to be “crap.” Court Personnel Attorney Mike Minerva had the task of defending Bundy for the Chi Omega homicides. To his frustration, Bundy would constantly say one thing but do another. Minerva noted in his file, “Mr. Bundy was not capable of making decisions…I believe he has a basic defect in his reasoning process, which prevents him from reviewing this case in a realistic manner.” Bundy’s inability to stay on a single course of action caused chaos on his defense team. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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a, ives of Florid it: State Arch ed cr o ot Ph . al arrest 44980 ter his origin /items/show/1 Ted Bundy af amemory.com id or .fl w w w ory, Florida Mem

Bundy Life s Event

6/1/74

Abducts Brenda Ball from Flame Tavern in Burien, Washington.

6/11/74

Abducts Georgeann Hawkins from an alley near her University of Washington sorority house.

6/17/74

Brenda Baker’s body is found in Millersylvania St. Park.

4/17/74

Abducts Susan Rancourt from the Central Washington St. campus.

Spring, 1973

Graduates from the UW with a psychology degree. Reunited with Brooks but then breaks up with her, all while still secretly dating Liz Kendall.

Fall, 1968

1950

Taken to Washington State.

1940s

Brooks breaks off relationship. Bundy might have discovered his birth records shortly thereafter. He managed the Seattle office of Nelson Rockefeller’s Presidential campaign and attended the 1968 Republican convention.

1950s

1960s

11/24/46

Born Theodore Robert Cowell in a home for unwed mothers in Burlington, Vermont. Lives with grandfather as mother’s brother.

Bundy’s mother, Louise, marries Johnnie Bundy and Ted takes his stepfather’s last name.

Fall, 1966

Fall, 1974

2/1/74

9/7/74

Abducts Lynda Ann Healy from her basement bedroom in Seattle.

Portions of the bodies of Ott, Naslund, and Hawkins are recovered.

1974

72 73

Fall, 1969

5/19/51

Enrolls at the University of Washington where he gets involved with “Stephanie Brooks.” Attends University of Washington until Spring 1969.

Re-enters University of Washington and meets “Liz Kendall,” who would be his girlfriend for six years.

10/31/74

3/12/74

Abducts Donna Manson from the campus of Evergreen State College.

1/5/74

Attacks Joni Lenz in her Seattle apartment. Lenz survives.

Abducts Laura Aimee from Lehi, Utah.

5/6/74

Abducts Kathy Parks from Oregon State University campus.

7/14/74

Separately abducts Janice Ott and Denise Naslund from Lake Sammamish State Park in Washington.

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

Abducts Nancy Wilcox in Holladay, Utah.

Enters the University of Utah Law School.

1970s 71

10/2/74

10/18/74

Abducts Melissa Smith from Midvale, Utah.

11/8/74

Botches abduction attempt of Carol DeRonch but abducts Debby Kent later that day in Bountiful, Utah.


Known MURDER Victims

1974

1975

1978

12

5

3

“I’m a cold-blooded son-of-a-bitch.” — Ted Bundy

1/14/78

Attacks five women at the Chi Omega sorority house, killing Lisa Levy and Magaret Bowman. Also attacks Cheryl Thomas in her house nearby, seriously injuring her.

3/3/75

The skulls of Healy, Ball, Parks, and Rancourt are found near Taylor Mountain in Washington.

8/16/75

Arrested for possession of burglary tools in Salt Lake City. Incident results in arrest in the DeRonch attack.

2/9/78

Abducts Kimberly Leach from her junior high school in Lake City, Florida.

3/15/75

Abducts Julie Cunningham from Vail, Colorado.

2/1976

Abducts Debbie Smith in Utah.

6/7/77

5/6/75

Abducts Lynette Culver from her school playground in Pocatello, Idaho.

1975

1976

Escapes from the Pitkin County Law Library in Colorado. Recaptured on 6/13.

1977

4/6/75

Abducts Denise Oliverson in Grand Junction, Colorado.

6/28/75

Found guilty of aggravated kidnapping in the DeRonch attack.

Abducts Susan Curtis from the campus of Brigham Young University.

7/1/75

1/12/75

Abducts Caryn Campbell from a hotel in Aspen, Colorado.

Abducts Shelley Robertson from Golden, Colorado.

6/30/76

Sentenced to oneto-fifteen years in prison. Transferred to Colorado to face murder charges.

Found guilty of the murders of Levy and Bowman.

7/31/79

4/12/79

Sentenced to death for the murders of Levy and Bowman.

Leach’s body is found near Suwanee St. Park in Florida.

1978 12/30/77

3/1/76

7/23/79

Escapes Garfield County Jail in Colorado and flees to Tallahassee, Florida.

1979

1980

2/6/80

1/24/89

Found guilty of Leach murder.

Executed in the electric chair at 7:16 AM.

2/8/80

Marries Carole Ann Boone during sentencing.

2/9/80

Sentenced to death for Leach murder.

7/4/75

Abducts Nancy Baird from Layton, Utah.

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Electric chair at Florida State Prison prior to Ted Bundy’s execution. Photo credit: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/13421. Photographer: www.floridamemory.com/fpc/foley/mf0013.jpg Foley, Mark T.

Dr. Emil Spillman, a medical hypnotist helping with jury selection, said of Bundy, “This guy is so self destructive it’s unbelievable. I predicted from the start that he’d try to blow his own defense out of the water. And he did.” George Dekle, the prosecutor for the Kimberly Leach murder, discovered that when Bundy felt in charge, he strutted like a rooster. When he felt out of control, he became demanding, peevish, and belligerent. He expected, as his own attorney, that he had certain rights. In contrast, as Bundy was led to the electric chair, the ultimate loss of control, Dekle observed that he “was scared to death.” In a book about Bundy’s death penalty appeals, defense attorney Polly Nelson recalled that when Bundy first called her, he sounded insecure. She felt immediately protective. Mentally, she assigned him a role that came with expectations of gratitude and humility, so he startled her with his many self-centered demands. When Nelson finally met Bundy, he looked “dark, wary, and wild.” Despite his dull skin, his blue eyes were “fully alive.” He seemed to want to appear suave and

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

knowledgeable, but he mostly stuttered and stammered. She was surprised that he admitted he’d found his law classes incomprehensible. Only in rare moments did Bundy soften, such as when he bashfully displayed pictures of his young daughter: “His eyes weren’t as loud with subtext as they usually were.” As they talked, Nelson searched for a sign that she, a smart woman, would have spotted Bundy, the killer. “But I saw nothing… This dangerous man was not detectable by sight or sound. But not for the reasons people usually suggest. It was not because Ted exuded charm—he was too obviously disingenuous to be truly charming. It was not because Ted was such a ‘diabolical genius’ that he could fool you—believe me, he was not that smart. The real reason you could look at Ted Bundy straight in the face—even with full knowledge of what he had done—and not see a single sign of his guilt was that he truly believed he was not guilty.” Bundy viewed his murders as miracles, Nelson realized; they were his life’s accomplishments. No one was going to take that from him. It was the one aspect of his life in which he’d felt in total control.

Mental Health Experts Art Norman, a forensic psychiatrist in Florida, noticed Bundy’s skillful elasticity. “I have never encountered an individual who could move from one relationship to the next so easily,” Norman told Ann Rule, “being seemingly deeply involved with someone, and then dropping them completely and moving on.” Among those who evaluated him after his first arrest was Dr. Al C. Carlisle, a psychologist at the Utah State Prison. In his report he recognized Bundy’s compartments. “I feel that Mr. Bundy has not allowed me to get to know him and I believe there are many significant things about him that remain hidden.” Even so, Bundy cried twice during their sessions. “We were doing the Thematic Apperception Test [a projective assessment that uses ambiguous situations, allowing for personal interpretation]. The last card is blank and I asked him to make up a picture as well as a story. He talked about a picture in his mind of a guy coming into a room and seeing his wife or companion on the floor cleaning an oven. Tears rolled down his [Bundy’s] cheeks when he reported this story.” He was referring to his girlfriend having an abortion. “Ted reported strong mixed feelings about it.” After talking with Bundy’s acquaintances, Carlisle saw two distinct personas. “The question was, how he could seem so normal and friendly at times and yet be evil at other times? This is the chameleon in him.” He noted that Bundy saw women as more powerful than men and had described his mother as the most powerful person in their family. Carlisle decided that Bundy had a dependent personality disorder. Yet another Utah psychologist, Gary Jorgenson, viewed Bundy as an intelligent young man who was “intact psychologically. In many regards he is the typical young Republican that he has been in the past.” When experts evaluated him for court, the opinions were likewise in stark contrast. In Florida, criminal expert Dr. Emanuel Tanay evaluated Bundy for competency to stand trial. “Throughout the interview,” he wrote, “Bundy related to me as if it was a social visit and not an examination initiated by his lawyer. He…disregarded whatever contributions I could make to save his life.”


Tanay found that Bundy’s intelligence coexisted with childish immaturity. His delight in playing games and getting attention undermined his own best interests. Tanay predicted that Bundy would ultimately renege on any plea deal: “It is my impression that a major factor is his deep-seated need to have a trial, which he views as an opportunity to confront and confound various authority figures…not only judges and prosecutors, but also his defense attorneys.” He testified that Bundy was not competent to stand trial. The prosecution’s expert, Dr. Hervey Cleckley, disagreed. He said that Bundy was just a clever, self-absorbed psychopath who could handle himself well enough in legal proceedings. Dorothy Ottnow Lewis, a psychiatrist from the New York University Medical Center, examined Bundy for Polly Nelson. According to Nelson, Lewis immediately diagnosed Bundy as bipolar, and then looked for evidence from his life. Bundy described his mother, and Lewis decided that his relationship with Louise had been superficial and cold. Lewis later surmised that Bundy might have multiple personality disorder, and tried but failed to get him to describe his “entity” in this way. Bundy insisted that, although it had its own voice, it was not an alter personality. He’d majored in psychology. He knew what she meant. In the end, Lewis had a third diagnosis: she told Nelson that she’d always doubted that true psychopaths existed, but now she thought that Bundy was one. Dr. Charles Mutter asserted that there was no evidence of bipolar disorder. During an incompetency appeal, he stated that Bundy’s anger and depression were situational not clinical, and that no one had observed the manic courtroom behaviors during the Leach trial that Lewis attributed to him. Bundy’s arguments, Mutter said, had been reasonable and organized, which is inconsistent with bipolar disorder. In a last-ditch effort to be “too important to kill,” Bundy met with Dr. James Dobson, a religious psychologist and crusader against pornography. Despite Bundy’s reputation as a manipulator, Dobson accepted his tearful confession as genuine. On the video of this interview, Bundy appears sincere as he describes how he became addicted to pornography as a boy through detective magazines. This is what Dobson wanted to hear but it contradicted other ac-

counts. To one detective, Bundy had pointed to cheerleader magazines as his inspiration, while he’d denied to Ann Rule that he’d ever read a detective magazine. To Bundy’s surprise, none of his carefully selected interviewers initiated proceedings to save him. Despite his desire to be studied, he decided against leaving his brain to science. The guards who led Bundy to the death chamber saw the arrogant, self-important killer suddenly became feeble. They had to drag him to the chair. “He was weak-kneed, if not wobbly,” said a witness. “He looked old, tired and gaunt.” Apparently, he realized the game was over and he had lost. n Sources Bundy v. Dugger, 488 U.S. 1036 (1989). Carlisle, A. C. (2013). I’m not guilty (novel). Mojocastle press. Dekle, G. R. Sr. (2011). The last murder: The investigation, prosecution, and execution of Ted Bundy. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Dobson, J. (1995). Life on the Edge. Dallas, TX: Word Publishing. Geberth, V. (2006). Practical homicide investigation, 4th edition, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Personal interviews with Al Carlisle, Robert Keppel, and Ann Rule. Kendall, E. (1981). The phantom prince: My life with Ted Bundy. Seattle, WA: Madrona. Keppel, Robert (2005). The riverman: Ted Bundy and I hunt for the Green River Killer. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Larsen, Richard W. (1980). Bundy: The deliberate stranger. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. MacPherson, M. (May 1989). The roots of evil. Vanity Fair. Michaud, S. G. & Aynesworth, H. (1983). The only living witness. New York, NY: Signet. Morris, R. (2011). Ted and Ann. Dog Ear Publishing. Nelson, Polly (1994). Defending the devil: My story as Ted Bundy’s last lawyer. New York, NY: William Morrow. Reichert, D. (2004). Chasing the devil. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. Rule, A. (1980). The stranger beside me. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Summary

To keep his secrets, Bundy created specific impressions for different people, including that he was open, honest, and easy to know. In retrospect, Ann Rule stated that “Ted was never as handsome, brilliant, or charismatic as crime folklore has deemed him…A virtual nonentity before he was suspected of a series of horrific crimes, he somehow became all of those things as the media embraced him.” Echoing Michaud, Rule concluded, “I don’t think even Ted knew what he was really like.” As we watch how Bundy shifted for various contexts, it’s evident that a sophisticated evaluation of chameleonic flexibility would be a useful tool in law enforcement for dealing with predatory psychopaths.

Tanay, E. & Simon, R. I. (2011). American legal injustice. Jason Aronson. Winn, S. & Merrill, D. (1980). Ted Bundy: The killer next door. New York, NY: Bantam.

CERTIFIED CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, CCI® Learn more about CERTIFIED CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, CCI®. Call 800.429.9737 or enroll online at www.acfei.com.

ABOUT THE Author Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V, has published over 1,000 articles and 47 books, including The Mind of a Murderer and Inside the Minds of Serial Killers. Dr. Ramsland is a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania and has been a member of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute since 1998.

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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IS IT REAL?

I S

I T

R E A L ?

Psychics Interview with Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V

Book Review–by Julie Brooks

Blood & Ghosts Paranormal Forensics Investigators

by Katherine Ramsland and Mark Nesbitt Eerily full of intellectual insight, Blood and Ghosts: Paranormal Forensics Investigators is not your normal ghost-hunting book. Ramsland and Nesbitt do an excellent job of combining the paranormal with scientific and forensic research. Ramsland, professor of forensic psychology, and Nesbitt, a paranormal investigator who founded the Ghosts of Gettysburg organization, discuss real

“I wouldn’t say that I’m completely dismissive, because I’ve seen a few impressive things. However, the majority of stories about or from psychics are easily dissected with critical reasoning.” 26

THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

What made you decide to study psychics?

time period confirmed what she said. What bothered me is that she didn’t go look up those records to confirm her “vibes.” Lots of people were impressed with the details of her account, but any imaginative person can fabricate details. If I were a psychic interested in proving myself, I’d corroborate my impressions with facts. I then wondered why so many psychics I encountered or read about were duping people and exaggerating their worth to investigations (aside from obvious financial gain). I wouldn’t say that I’m completely dismissive, because I’ve seen a few impressive things. However, the majority of stories about or from psychics are easily dissected with critical reasoning. I despise those who exploit people’s need for comfort and assurance. They’re just con artists. Still, I’d like to have a psychic really prove himself or herself to me. So, I continue to study them.

Like anyone who first hears about people who claim to know the future or to have contact with the dead, I was intrigued. I read a lot of books about the supernatural as a kid and I was ready to accept whatever these people with “special vision” said. However, I grew out of my early naiveté. I found that, quite often, they hedged, they were vague, their ideas could not be corroborated, or Why do you think so many they were outright wrong about what they people are fascinated said, so my interest in psychics took a dif- by psychics, even though many people do ferent turn. For example, a psychic told me about the not believe in them? ghost of a man who had been murdered in the room we were in, and she had a name. The same reason we’re fascinated by maHowever, not a single record from that gicians. Psychics know how to appeal to


cases where forensics and the paranormal there can sometimes be a benefit to were intertwined, as well as the pros and combining forensic techniques with cons of these types of investigations. The paranormal research. reader learns how a paranormal team The book goes on to detail many fascican contribute to a forensic investigation. nating topics, from paranormal mists and Ramsland even describes a night in the orbs, séances, the science of ghosting, Lizzie Borden house, and the unexplained famous haunted crime scenes, haunted recordings that occurred as she slept! murder items (including a clown paint The opening chapter includes a fas- ing by John Wayne Gacy), ghostly fincinating true story about some graves gerprints, psychics that interfere in pofound near a railroad after strange lights lice investigations, and so much more. were seen above the area. It was discov- Ramsland and Nesbitt even enlist the aid ered that the Irish immigrants who were of a former FBI profiler to help analyze buried there, who were said to have evidence and theories. died of a cholera outbreak, had instead If you are interested in the paranormal, been brutally beaten and murdered. this book is a great read. However, if you Ramsland and Nesbitt prove that regard- are interested in both forensics and the less of whether or not you believe in the paranormal, this book is a must read. paranormal (Ramsland herself is often Blood and Ghosts is available for purskeptical and referred to as “Bones”), chase on the Nook or Kindle.

deeply-felt emotions, to deflect our critical reasoning, and to provide a “wow” factor. They know how to read people and exploit subtle behaviors. I think that quite a lot of people believe in psychics, but for those who don’t, it might just be the brazenness that fascinates: why does this person claim to be able to predict the future, identify the killer, tell us who the winner will be, or point us to a missing person? What makes them so confident? Are they deluded? I’ve watched many psychics, mediums, and remote viewers in action. Most disappoint, but there’s always the chance that someone will perform in a surprising way. I think that’s a hook.

ing to identify where a missing person is. My favorite was told by the prosecutor of the Kimberly Leach murder case against Ted Bundy. They had used psychics to find her when she went missing, but most offered nothing. Then one woman drew a map that turned out to be strikingly accurate to a place where they were looking. Because it was, they spent more time in that specific area, and that’s where they located the body. However, they had also narrowed it down, thanks to physical evidence. Did they need the psychic? Probably not. But was it useful? Dekle said so in his book. That’s a potentially embarrassing admission for an attorney to make. So, that’s an Has a psychic ever impressive story. surprised you? If so, how? In Blood & Ghosts, we devote chapters to psychics who made erroneous claims but I’ve seen stories that seemed, at face value, also to psychics or mediums who made into be impressive, which is why I don’t just triguing predictions or discoveries. We do dismiss all psychic phenomena. Once, a expose fraudulent claims, but we also accept medium was called into a case of a miss- corroborated psychic impressions. I’m not ing man, and told his family he was in a a die-hard skeptic, but I don’t accept any lake. The police couldn’t locate him, so she psychic impression without corroboration. walked into the lake herself and found his It’s just too easy for them to make things body, or so it was reported. More impres- up, because there are always people around sive are stories about remote viewers assist- who willingly buy into it.

Do you think police should use psychics in their investigations? I think that investigators should use whatever seems genuinely useful, but should always engage mediums or psychics with caution. From what I’ve heard, psychics call police in every high-profile case, and most offer nothing of any help. I’ve seen cases in which a psychic made a good suggestion, but I’ve also seen cases where psychics influenced an investigation straight into a waste of resources and even into miscarriages of justice. There are useful guidelines for law enforcement, should they decide to take this route. There are ways to test a person’s “powers,” and I’d suggest doing so before inviting a psychic into an investigation. I’d advise against just accepting their own PR about their success, because too often they exaggerate their roles on past cases. n

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

27


CE ARTICLE: 1 CE CREDIT

Travel Expen$e

&

Payroll Fraud Case Study:

Inquiry, confrontation, admission, restitution, and internal controls By Eric A. Kreuter, PhD, CPA, CGMA, CMA, CFM, MAFF, DABFE, FACFEI, CCA, CCP, SPHR, Sareena M. Sawhney, MBA, MAFF, and Glenn D. Sacks, CPA, CGMA

28

THE FORENSIC EXAMINER速 Fall 2013


Abstract Travel expense and payroll fraud have become hot topics within both for profit and non-profit organizations. Weaknesses in internal controls and greed both contribute to the ongoing problem of assets and profits being slowly siphoned from unwary organizations. Fraud examiners work closely with organizational management and internal auditors to design fraud deterrence programs as well as conduct fraud investigations when problems are discovered. Collusion between two or more employees makes fraud deterrence more challenging. Because of this the proverbial “tone at the top” mantra becomes even more poignant. Further, it is very important that organizations be ever-mindful of fraud risk, conduct periodic fraud-risk assessment, and review their controls over information technology as part of a robust risk-prevention program. This article offers a case study of a fraud involving travel expense and payroll fraud as a way to illustrate what can happen, what can be done and what value can be added during and following the forensic engagement.

CE AT HOME STUDY COURSE: 1 ce credit In order to receive credit for the article, please go to http://www.acfei.com/FEFA0113 and look for course code FEFA0113 to take the exam and complete the evaluation. If you have special needs that prevent you from taking the exam online, please contact the registrar at 800.423.9737. American College of Forensic Examiners Institute® (ACFEI), provides this continuing education credit for Diplomates and certified members, who we recommend obtain 15 credits per year to maintain their status. After studying this article, participants should be better able to do the following:

1. Explain the features of a complete forensic investigation. 2. Discuss interview techniques. 3. Describe how to add value to an organization as part of a forensic investigation. 4. Analyze the data-gathering stage and the confrontation stage. 5. Discuss when it is appropriate to recommend expansion of forensic procedures. Keywords: Collusion, deterrence, fraud risk, controls Target Audience: Law enforcement professionals, forensic investigators, controllers and owners of business entities Disclosure: The authors have nothing to disclose Program Level: Intermediate FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: None PREREQUISITES: None

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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n a warm summer day in early July 2011, a key member (“Ms. Smith”) of the executive team of X company sat in her office, preparing a request form for routine travel expense reimbursement, attaching documentation in support of the costs of the air-ticket portion of her planned trip, which she had purportedly booked recently and paid for using her personal credit card. The organization where Ms. Smith worked did not have a corporate travel account. Therefore, employees would use their own charge accounts and submit for reimbursement. After signing the form, Ms. Smith walked to the office of the Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) to ask for his approval of the requested reimbursement. The CFO, who knew Ms. Smith well and had worked with her at a previous company, probably engaged in social conversation. He must have quickly glanced at the documents, not bothering to inspect them or review the total cost of the trip given his developed trust in Ms. Smith’s credibility. The CFO initialed the form and gave it back to Ms. Smith, who then went to see Alex, the accounts payable clerk with whom she had also worked at the prior company. She wanted Alex to immediately process her travel-expense reimbursement request and approve the wire transfer of $6,250 into her personal bank account. Alex was only too happy to assist her with what he must have considered a routine task. He was busy with other tasks and did not take the opportunity to review the details connected with the travel-expense reimbursement request. Alex immediately initiated the wire transfer, filed the documents into Ms. Smith’s folder for her trip, and then moved on to the rest of his busy day.

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER® Fall 2013

What happened? The first scheme was detected The documentation in the case comprised an airline travel itinerary for an international destination but did not include invoices for hotel accommodations and receipts for transportation and other incidental expenses because the trip had not yet taken place. The total requested reimbursement was $6,250. Ms. Smith was pleased, but fraud has occurred. How and where did the breakdowns occur in preventive or detective controls? Those involved did not follow company policy. As part of the findings of the investigation, the organization’s employee handbook requires that all travel be arranged through the organization’s travel agent and paid for by the organization directly. This requirement was outdated because the organization did not have a current contract with a travel agency.

reports and receive reimbursement since her position requires frequent international travel. Kreuter and Sawhney issued a proposal for forensic services and negotiated an agreement. They designed the investigation to go forth discretely so Ms. Smith would not become aware of it. Planning for the covert investigation began; the forensic team requested documents of Ms. Smith’s past travel expenses and analyzed them. The forensic team found more than a dozen anomalies in just the first year of expense reports they reviewed. These anomalies included consistent violations of organizational policies requiring certain forms of documentation as well as duplication of reimbursement and missing proof of actual travel. Kreuter and Sawhney provided a preliminary verbal report to the Board member who originally contacted them as well as to the organization’s outside legal counsel. In the report, Kreuter and Sawhney recomThe investigation continued mended that their forensic team conduct In February 2012, forensic examiners Eric a formal interview with Ms. Smith for the Kreuter and Sareena Sawhney (“the forensic purpose of presenting her with the anomateam”) were invited to a meeting with one of lous data and eliciting her responses to the the members of the Board of Directors of a concerns raised in the preliminary phase of multinational philanthropic organization to the forensic examination. The organization discuss a potential problem with Ms. Smith, and outside counsel agreed to the interview one of the members of their executive team. process, which the forensic team would During the meeting it was revealed that the lead. The team arranged a meeting with the Board had recently been informed through Senior Vice President of Human Resources an anonymous letter that Ms. Smith had (SVP HR) at the organization’s office. The a previous criminal record for embezzle- SVP HR asked Ms. Smith to join him in the ment—something she did not disclose on conference room, where she met Kreuter and her employment application. The Board Sawhney. Ms. Smith looked a bit surprised realized that it had an immediate and ur- to find Kreuter and Sawhney in the room gent obligation to better understand the waiting for her. The interview was conductbackground of Ms. Smith’s prior conviction. ed, and Ms. Smith was provided with copies After discussion, they agreed to commission of some of the documents from her travel a forensic review of her current functions as expense files, which formed the basis for the they related to her ability to submit expense questions raised. Ms. Smith’s demeanor and


body language indicated signs of anxiety and evasiveness. For example, she lowered her head following some of the questions, and her face turned red when asked about some of the trips. She stated repeatedly that she needed to “review her records.” What was absent from her affect and attitude were any statements defending her integrity or outrage at being questioned over her routine travel-expense reports. Following the questioning, it was mutually agreed that Ms. Smith would bring additional documentation allegedly in support of her expenses to the office of Kreuter and Sawhney the next day for further review. Kreuter and Sawhney continued to inspect the documents contained in Ms. Smith’s expense reports. There were questions concerning the authenticity of certain airlinegenerated documents as well as the cost of one particular travel itinerary that seemed unusually high. The forensic team contacted the airline and received information establishing that the actual trip was booked three months after the date of reimbursement and cost much less than Ms. Smith indicated on her travel-expense reimbursement form. Not only was the cost of a coach class ticket far less costly, but Ms. Smith actually upgraded her coach ticket to first class using accumulated air mileage. Kreuter also noticed that the e-mail confirmation from the airline was missing the year in the date reference. When questioned, the airline representative said that such confirmations of travel itineraries always contain the full date reference and that this information was generated automatically through their system; therefore, Kreuter suspected that the document may have been altered. It was further noted that the page containing the purported amount of the flights was on a separate page with no reference to the itinerary and only a reference to a charge on Ms. Smith’s American Express card. The potential that these documents were altered and/or matched together improperly was significantly increased because of the incomplete records. Kreuter also asked the airline representative about several other flight itineraries. The airline confirmed that two other expensive airline trips, for which Ms. Smith was reimbursed, were never booked and never took place. A pattern was starting to take shape. The second meeting would include confrontation with the newly discovered information. Hours following the agreed appointment, Ms. Smith had not appeared for the second

“The potential that these documents were altered and/or matched together improperly was significantly increased because of the incomplete records.” meeting and had not gone to the organization’s office that morning. Kreuter contacted outside counsel for the organization and the SVP HR to advise them of the situation and to suggest prudent preventive steps to be considered to protect the organization’s data security. A plan was devised. Ms. Smith did not show up for work. Later that day, Ms. Smith e-mailed additional documentation to Kreuter with a copy sent to the organization’s outside counsel and the SVP HR, concerning one of the trips in question. This documentation was supposedly meant to corroborate one of Ms. Smith’s trips as being taken for a few thousand dollars less than what she was reimbursed and that she owed the excess funds to the organization. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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What is particularly interesting about this evidence is that Ms. Smith indicated that the original air ticket had been canceled by the CFO the day it was booked and then rebooked at a reduced fare at the end of September. It would later be proven that these statements were falsehoods. Ms. Smith said that she did receive excess reimbursement in an amount just over $2,000. Ms. Smith then called Kreuter and first explained that there must have been a misunderstanding about the information she provided during the office visit, and then she brazenly asked if her new document “cleared up the concerns raised” over her travel expenses. Kreuter asked Ms. Smith if she repaid the excess reimbursement to which she responded, “I have yet to work that out with them.” When asked why she did not respond to the other questions raised in the first meeting, Ms. Smith said she thought the forensic team was primarily interested in that one trip. Her seemingly cool and collected demeanor at that point provided yet further evidence that Ms. Smith may have defrauded the organization.

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Based on the information gathered to date and Ms. Smith’s responses, the organization made the decision to immediately terminate her employment. She was asked if she would continue to cooperate with the forensic team’s investigation. She readily agreed. Kreuter was asked to present the findings reached by him and Sawhney at the organization’s annual Board meeting. Kreuter presented the findings of the forensic investigation and recommended expansion of the original parameters of the investigation to include a careful review of Ms. Smith’s travel-expense files for several additional years and also to include a review of the expense files of the former CFO based on several suspicious indications about his own travel expenses and possible complicity with Ms. Smith. The former CFO resigned in the fall of 2011. The Board was shocked at the reported findings and unanimously agreed to further forensic procedures. The expanded study commenced. Additional discoveries were made with respect to Ms. Smith and the CFO and also served to discover problems in the internal control sys-

tem and with the organization’s policies and procedures manual. When Kreuter and Sawhney received the travel-expense files for prior years, they found no expense-reimbursement requests for 2009 for Ms. Smith, though there was an odd document—an accounts payable vendor payment summary for Ms. Smith labeled “consulting fees.” This was peculiar because Ms. Smith was considered to be an employee and not an independent contractor; therefore, why was she being paid through accounts payable? The forensic team made an additional inquiry, producing evidence that Ms. Smith’s status was altered in the organization’s records, showing her listed in the organization’s books and records as an independent contractor and no longer an employee, despite no records of her being terminated as an employee contained in her personnel files maintained in the Human Resources Department. The forensic team also discovered that Ms. Smith was included on the organization’s health and welfare benefits, as well as on the organization’s employee census for the retirement plan. Kreuter spoke with the SVP HR, who was startled at what they found. Kreuter contacted Ms. Smith and requested another meeting. Ms. Smith agreed, and this time she kept her appointment. Kreuter interviewed Ms. Smith in the presence of a witness, Glenn Sacks, a seasoned professional accountant. Kreuter first asked Ms. Smith about the sudden switch in status from employee to independent contractor. She openly admitted to requesting this change and had stated that she had the express approval from the CFO. She explained that she wanted to change to this status as she had established her own consulting company and wanted to start consulting for other companies while continuing in her capacity with the current organization. She said this without flinching and without consideration for how absurd her story may have sounded. Reverting back to discussing the travelexpense concerns, Ms. Smith did admit to receiving reimbursement for trips in excess of her cost, receiving reimbursement in advance of booking trips, and receiving reimbursement for trips that never took place; but she had not admitted to fraud at this point. When shown the airline travel confirmation and told that the airline recently provided information to Kreuter, refuting Ms. Smith’s story, she then confessed to altering the documents for the purpose of receiving additional funds she needed as her personal


debts were mounting (persons in such finan- science of kinesics. Kinesiology—human cial need may resort to embezzlement). kinetics—is the scientific study of human The Senior Vice President of When questioned again about the change movement. Birdwhistell believed that words Human Resources received of status from employee to independent take a back seat to nonverbal communicaa handwritten letter from an contractor, Ms. Smith also admitted to tion. He estimated that nonverbal commuanonymous author indicating doing so for the purpose of eliminating nication conveys 65 to 70 percent of the that three employees of any tax withholding, as she needed the information in a conversational interaction additional funds for her personal financial (Harold and Tobin, 2012, p.1). Just based the organization have been obligations. She admitted she had contin- on Ms. Smith’s body language, she appeared working as a team to steal ued to receive employee benefits as if she to be extremely agitated and uncomfortable from the organization. The were still considered to be an employee and with the now-open facts and then seemed to three employees were referred agreed that her actions should result in her become overwhelmed by the likely impact to by their respective titles being required to make restitution for funds on her life. Interestingly, Ms. Smith did and included the individuals received in excess of entitlement. She agreed not ask if the organization planned to press to repay the excess travel reimbursements charges with the District Attorney. referred to in this article for 2011. Ms. Smith also understood that As described above, Ms. Smith’s nonverplus the Director of Human the other years’ expense files were being bal communication was entirely consistent Resources, who reports to examined and that the amount of employee with that of a guilty person. Typically a the Senior Vice President. This benefits paid to her during the time she guilty person will not express outrage at letter has created additional was listed as an independent contractor being accused of committing fraud but inconcerns, but also serves to would be determined at a later date and stead will try to manipulate facts and place communicated to her. When asked if she the blame on others. As described herein, highlight the importance of a was aware of any other purposeful overpay- Ms. Smith expressed no outrage at being more detailed investigation into ments based on falsified documents, she questioned about her expense reimbursethe areas of payroll, expense said there weren’t any. ments and employee benefits. She did state reimbursement, check writing, that she was not alone in not adhering to and wire transfers. Importance of the organizational policy. demeanor of the suspect Kreuter reported the results of the second Especially during the initial part of the in- meeting to several members of the Board as terview (prior to her confession), Sacks and well as the outside attorney for the organiKreuter noted that Ms. Smith appeared to be zation and the SVP HR. The investigation quite nervous (her hands were shaking and continued, deepening into internal-control she continued to drink from a near-empty weaknesses that were exploited, making it water bottle after refusing more water). At possible for Ms. Smith to conceal her emthe start of the interview, she indicated that bezzlement and alteration of records for a she was sick but showed no outward signs multiple-year period. of being sick at any time throughout the proceeding. She reacted with silence and According to Skalek, Golden, covered her mouth several times during Clayton & Pill, 2011: responses to questions that directly related to the incriminating evidence. She blushed “The allegations must be carefully sifted several times during some tense moments of to establish those that are potentially questioning and some silence between quesgenuine and to set priorities for investigations, answers, and follow-up questions. She tion—that is, where the greatest potential cried quietly at one point toward the end of problems are in regard to financial loss, the interview and expressed her sorrow over physical danger to persons or assets, what she had done, stating that she did not legal implications, and so on” (p. 144). manage her personal finances well and that she needed to “get her life together.” The tenor of the anonymous letter received As is evident from the above description by the organization suggests collusion: of Ms. Smith’s nonverbal actions, an interviewer must play close attention to the auCollusion with third parties or other emtonomic body language of the person being ployees of the victim company, occurs interviewed. Very often nonverbal commuwhen such parties are aware of irregular nication can be more important than vertransactions, but do nothing to prevent bal communication in a conversation. The them or nothing to bring them to the study of nonverbal behavior related to the attention of either their auditors or the interpretation of body language was founded counterparty’s auditors (p. 429). by Mr. Ray Birdwhistell, who coined the Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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“Ultimately, the organization is in much better shape now that the problems have been uncovered and efforts undertaken to eliminate as many shortfalls in the system as possible.” formal report and presented to the Board of Directors. A newly hired CFO has been tasked with implementing new internal control procedures throughout the organization. The organization informed Kreuter and Sawhney made a number of recthe forensic team that the CFO ommendations to the organization for increascommitted improprieties with re- ing detective controls and to implement some spect to submission of excess travel preventive controls. While the information expenses in a prior year for which the uncovered in the forensic investigation has organization was reimbursed. Despite be- been unnerving for the Board and the execuing caught doing so, the CFO was allowed tive management, identification of shortcomto remain in his job. The investigation was ings in the system of controls will undoubtextended to a review of travel-expense re- edly lead to improvements in the system to imbursement of the former CFO where prevent further defalcations. Ultimately, the anomalies were uncovered, leading to the organization is in much better shape now that need to commence a process of inquiry with the problems have been uncovered and efforts the CFO in order to fully understand if ad- undertaken to eliminate as many shortfalls in ditional improprieties have occurred. Kreuter the system as possible. and Sacks interviewed the CFO, who appeared somewhat aloof and dismissive of any Importance of an internal notion that anything he did was either pur- control system poseful or harmful to the organization. This A strong internal control system is critical in part of the investigation determined that the the fight to prevent fraud in an organization. CFO did, in fact, receive excess reimburse- A strong internal control system helps manment for his own travel expenses. He agreed agement achieve its objectives related to the to make restitution to the organization but effectiveness and efficiency of its operations, vocalized his desire for the investigation to the reliability of its financial reporting, and be over so he could move on with his life. compliance with applicable laws and regu The potential existed for a wider scheme, lations. It is management’s responsibility to especially in an environment of collusive ac- develop and implement a strong system of tivity, and warranted the increased investiga- internal controls and to monitor activity tion. The inherent weaknesses found during throughout the year as the only surefire way the forensic investigation in the organization’s to be satisfied that fraud, if not deterred, can internal control system were addressed in a at least be readily detected. However, every-

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one in an organization has some responsibility for internal control. A strong system of internal controls begins with a sound control environment. The control environment sets the tone of the organization often referred to as “tone at the top” and provides an atmosphere in which people carry out their duties (COSO Report, 1992). An exhibit attached to Statement of Auditing Standard 99 (AU 316), Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, provides examples of programs and controls that management can implement to prevent, deter, and detect fraud. It describes how it is the organization’s responsibility to create a culture of honesty and high ethics and to clearly communicate acceptable behavior and expectations of each employee. Part of creating an appropriate culture is to hire and promote appropriate employees and to have a consistent method of responding to incidents of alleged or suspected fraud. Employees are very aware of how situations are handled in the companies they work for. Fraudsters will notice and take advantage of any and all perceived weaknesses in the internal control system. Management can play a key role in designing control activities to prevent or detect fraud. Finally, an entity should also have an appropriate oversight and monitoring function in place. It is important for all organizations, even those with the most robust control systems, to continue to monitor the effectiveness of controls in place. Monitoring activities can typically be carried out by internal auditors, members of management, and personnel responsible for governance, such as the board of directors. There can be no letup in this effort. Internal controls systems are not static; they are constantly changing and adapting to changing conditions about perceived new fraud risks. When a problem arises, such as that depicted in this case study, there is an opportunity to evaluate and fine-tune the internal control system and institute topdown changes. A willingness to examine policies and procedures with a view toward tightening controls will reduce risk. Despite management’s best efforts to establish and maintain an effective system of internal controls, the possibility remains that fraud can and will occur. It is very difficult to overcome collusion between people or management override of established controls. Employees also can make honest mistakes in judgment that can cause well-designed internal systems to fail.


Recently in the news we read about Jeff Neely, a federal official with the General Services Administration who is being investigated for excess spending related to travel. “In the last year alone, Neely, a GSA regional commissioner, took five GSA-funded trips to Hawaii, Guam and Saipan—and that was after his bosses were warned by the GSA inspector general to curb his travel” (Shields, 2012).

Engaging an independent forensic examiner Ms. Smith was terminated for cause and to investigate concerns of the type men- made full restitution for monies stolen from tioned in this article will ensure a thorough the organization, and was appreciative for handling of the concerns raised. Following being treated humanely during the investithe investigation, there is usually renewed gation. The former CFO has agreed to repay energy on the part of management to tighten the funds he received that were found to be internal controls. either unauthorized or paid in duplication with other expense reimbursement. He Conclusions never admitted to purposefully defraudThere are many reasons why employees will ing the organization. The organization has commit fraud against their organizations. taken a number of steps toward improveSuch behavior is easier in poor internal-con- ment of its internal systems and has begun trol environments. Employees can carry out to recognize the events that have occurred expense-reimbursement schemes through as a learning experience. n various means. Examples include submitting fictitious expenses, double billing, and/ References: or inflating actual business expenses. In this Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) Report, Internal Control particular case, Ms. Smith created fictitious – Integrated Framework (1992). expenses by submitting itineraries for trips Golden, T.W., Skalek, S.L., Clayton, M.M., & Pill, J. that she canceled. Other examples of fictiS. (2011). A guide to forensic accounting investigation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. tious expenses can include charging for items E. & Tobin, S.(2012). Ray Birdwhistell. Refor personal reasons, i.e., a hotel expense for Harold, trieved March 28, 2012. www.culturalequity.org/ non-business purposes. Double billing can alanlomax/ce_alanlomax_profile_birdwhistell.php occur by submitting the same receipts more Shields, G. (2012). Feds’ trouble in paradi$e: GSA pig took kin on exotic trips. New York Post, April 18, p. 6. than once for a period of time. The best way to detect this is by analyzing individual expense reimbursements to the employee to see whether duplicate amounts appear. Lastly, examples of inflating business expenses can CERTIFIED FORENSIC occur when an employee gets reimbursed for ACCOUNTANT, Cr.FA® extra tips when the original tip may already Learn more about CERTIFIED FORENSIC be included by the restaurant or claiming ACCOUNTANT, Cr.FA®. Call 800.423.9737 expense reimbursement for meals shared or enroll online at www.acfei.com. with a spouse rather than a business partner.

About the authors: Dr. Kreuter is a partner and Ms. Sawhney and Mr. Sacks are directors in the Litigation and Corporate Financial Advisory Services Division of Marks Paneth & Shron LLP, working predominantly in the New York City office. Dr. Kreuter and Ms. Sawhney have extensive backgrounds in forensic investigations and also providing litigation support services to attorneys. Mr. Sacks has an extensive background in financial statement fraud and in forensic procedures. They have all been published in the fields of forensics and litigation services. Dr. Kreuter is a member of the American Board of Forensic Accounting and a Diplomate and Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute.

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The Cyril h. WeChT insTiTuTe of forensiC sCienCe and laW

13Th annual ConferenCe

Passing the torch

An InternAtIonAl SympoSIum on the 50th AnnIverSAry of the ASSASSInAtIon of preSIdent John f. Kennedy

october 17-19, 2013 Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA

As the JfK assassination and many of its witnesses, investigators and researchers begin to recede into history, this symposium will educate students, teachers, professionals and the general public alike about one of the most impactful homicides of 20th century American history, and why it still matters today. on the occasion of that crime’s 50th anniversary, the Institute will convene many of the leading scientific, legal and investigative experts on the murder case that has fascinated and perplexed us ever since. for more information or to be added to the Institute’s email list, contact us at 412.396.1330 or wechtinstitute@duq.edu.

further information and registration is available at www.duq.edu/jfk ACFEI MEMBERS: A 20% discount applies to all members who complete and submit a paper registration form for this conference. As an added bonus, arrangements are being made for a special, member-only session with Dr. Cyril Wecht. Reserve your space today.

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FEATURE

Passing the Torch: An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

How long is the conference? The conference will comprise of three full days (6 credit hours each) of presentations and panel discussions, as well as special, after-hours events will be announced shortly on the conference website and to the Institute’s email list. Who will be at the conference? The conference will feature a wide range of experts from the fields of forensic science, law, and criminal investigation, including Dr. Robert McClelland, a member of JFK’s surgical team; “first-generation” assassination researchers Mark Lane and Josiah Thompson; photographic consultant Robert Groden; investigative journalists David Talbot and Jefferson Morley; and, of course, Dr. Wecht himself, the first non-governmental forensic expert to be permitted access to the autopsy materials and a witness before multiple investigative panels. What are the benefits of going in addition to the speakers?

Following up on its world-renowned conference on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination, the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law is pleased to announce its plans to convene many of the leading scientific, legal and investigative experts on the murder case that has fascinated and perplexed us for decades. As the assassination and many of its witnesses, investigators and researchers begin to recede into history, this 50th anniversary symposium is intended to educate criminal justice and forensic scientific professionals, the general public, educators and students about one of the most impactful homicides of 20th century American history, and why it still matters today.

In addition to groundbreaking presentations by these and other experts, registrants will be treated to interdisciplinary panel discussions, film presentations, break-out sessions, and an opportunity to meet with and purchase items from a variety of educational and other vendors. Furthermore, ACFEI members may register at a 20% discount* and are also invited to a special, member-only session with Dr. Wecht. What type of continuing education will be offered? Through its partnerships with the Pennsylvania CLE Board, the Duquesne University School of Nursing, and the Pennsylvania Coroners Education Board, the Institute will be offering continuing education credit to Pennsylvania attorneys, nurses, and death investigators. Reciprocity with professional boards in other states may apply.

Visit www.duq.edu/jfk for more information. ACFEI members: save 20% *To obtain the registration discount, please download and submit the print registration form provided on the Institute’s website. Documentation of ACFEI membership may be emailed/faxed in at that time or provided at the conference.

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JFK A man may die, nations may rise and fall,but an idea lives on.

- John F. Kennedy

21 January 1961 -- Portrait photo of President John F. Kennedy at his desk in the Oval Office, White House, Washington, D.C. This is the first White House photograph made of the President at his desk. Photo by: White House Photographs.

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interview

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht Discusses his upcoming conference on the 50th anniversary of the JFK Assassination Interview by Julie Brooks

What initially made you decide to host a conference on JFK? I’ve been involved with the JFK assassination since the late fall of 1964, when I began to prepare for my presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in late February of ‘65. They had decided to do a plenary session on the recently released Warren Commission Report—all 26 volumes. That started me on the JFK case. My involvement then continued, so the hosting of conferences came rather naturally. It flowed in a logical fashion. For the 25th anniversary back in 1988, at a time when the case was largely dormant, I put together a program at the University of Pittsburgh featuring a number of prominent and new researchers and authors. Then, for the 40th anniversary, we put together a program under the auspices of the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University, where we’re holding this year’s conference as well. It was a huge success. The ballroom of the old student union, which seats several hundred, was jammed. It was hard to find a place to stand or sit on the floor. Students were hanging over the railings of the two balconies above us. So, obviously then, the 50th was something we were going to do, by popular demand as it were. It’s not that we were planning on it 10 years ago, but in our minds we knew that we would be doing it.

Why do you think people are still fascinated by the JFK assassination 50 years later? First, he was the president of the United States— not just JonBenet Ramsey, O.J. Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, or Casey Anthony. In other words, this is not a case that people think about or are involved with for a year or two, or five, or even ten. This was the killing of the president, on domestic soil during peacetime. This is something that made an impact on people’s hearts and minds, and continues to do so.

04 August 1962 -- President Kennedy and family, Hyannis Port. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Second, it was his popularity, his youthfulness, his charismatic appeal. A young man with a beautiful wife and lovely children, a family that was and has remained famous, and so on and so forth. Finally, though, it’s because this was a murder that has never been accepted as portrayed by the government. Every poll over a period of many years has reflected that somewhere between 70 and 85% of the American public do not accept the Warren Commission report’s conclusion that Oswald was the sole assassin. The History Channel interviewed me last October for a TV special they’ll be doing this coming November. They told me, as I sat there before the television camera so they could get my spontaneous reaction, the results of a poll they had commissioned with 2,200 people. Eighty-five percent—this is the History Channel—85% of the people said they did not accept the Warren Commission report. That’s 50 years—well, 49 years at that time—since the assassination! So when you put it together: that he was the president of the United States, and a popular one at that, together with the hard fact that the government’s official version of his death, despite all the tremendous efforts (and they have not ceased) to vilify and denigrate and do what they can to embarrass the critics, has failed to convince the American public that Oswald was the sole assassin. So, for all of these reasons, perhaps along with people’s fascination with murder and unsolved mysteries and real-life “CSI” scenarios, it’s really no wonder there’s such a high level of interest.

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Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. - John F. Kennedy

22 November 1963 -- John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, John Connally, and Nellie Connally in the presidential limousine seconds before the assassination in Dallas, Texas.

Why is studying the assassination still relevant? It’s relevant because it was the killing of the president of the United States. It’s relevant because when it occurred in 1963, we had major issues confronting us in this country and abroad. We had civil rights and voting rights in the South. We had the Cuban situation. We had the Cold War with Russia. We had the Vietnam War. I mean, this was one of the most critical periods of time in American history. Setting aside World Wars I and II, and the Civil and Revolutionary wars perhaps, this was a very, very significant time. It remains relevant because it was so very significant and relevant then. And the history of the country now over these past 50 years, the direction of national and international politics, the overall attitude of people toward politics and government. All of this, unquestionably, was markedly shaped by the assassination of Kennedy. Another aspect of the fascination is the fact that most people now understand that there was no foreign power or agency or entity involved. Whatever happened, happened here. Now, of course, if you believe the Warren Commission report, then that’s OK. You just attribute everything to one lunatic, Lee Harvey Oswald. But if you don’t believe the Warren Commission report, then you’ve got a problem, don’t you? Because as I always say when I speak about this to audiences, it wasn’t the Russians, it wasn’t the Cubans, it wasn’t the Chinese. In the words of the immortal comic strip character, the delightful possum, Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” So, that’s why it’s still relevant.

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What in particular interests you about JFK? What interests me are all the things that I’ve just discussed. And just to personalize it a little bit, although I’ve had my career in forensic pathology and legal medicine, been very busy and remained extremely active, I’ve always been interested in politics, from the time I was president of my high school class and of the student body in college. And then more relevantly, later on, I was heavily involved in politics. I ran for office as coroner. I was chairman of the Democratic Party for six years in Allegheny County. I was a Democratic National Committee man and member of the state Democratic Committee for many years. So, I’ve always had this great interest in politics, which remains with me today. I read my five newspapers, Monday through Friday, four on Saturday when USA Today drops off, and three on Sunday when Wall Street Journal drops off. I read those with great interest, following politics around the world. So on top of everything else that I’ve said about the forensic scientific issues, when you throw in my interest in the political ramifications, it becomes a double stimulus. For those who’ve never been to one of your JFK conferences before, what can they expect and what will be this year’s highlights? First of all, they can expect some very intelligent, erudite, knowledgeable presentations by many of the foremost experienced, longtime critic-researchers of the Warren

Commission report. We’ll have most of them here—scientists, attorneys, investigators, and journalists who have studied these materials, including some who have been to the National Archives, as I have, who have actually examined the autopsy materials, the photographic evidence, and so on. Another highlight will be Dr. Robert McClelland, who was one of the top surgeons attending to President Kennedy at Parkland Hospital that day. This gentleman, now in his mid-80’s, is going to be with us via videoconference. He has some very interesting things to say that have not been released previously. Additionally, registrants will hear from newer and/or lesser known researchers who will be presenting on panels and in special break-out sessions. All in all, they can expect to hear firsthand from topnotch people in a variety of fields about many different aspects of the case, from the physical evidence to the former investigations to the political ramifications of the crime, and so on. There will be something for everyone. Another highlight will come on Thursday at the conclusion of our first-day programming, at the nearby Senator John Heinz History Center. As the conference’s lead co-sponsor, they are going to host a public reception featuring a special presentation and panel discussion pertaining to the media’s historic and ongoing role in our understanding and perception of the case. Among the panelists will be David Talbot, an outstanding journalist who wrote the book, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years; and Jefferson Morley, a former investigative reporter for The Washington Post and also an author on related subjects.


22 November 1963 -- President Kennedy greets crowd at rally in parking lot in front of the Texas Hotel, Fort Worth, Texas. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Setting aside for the moment whether you believe the Warren Commission, who killed Kennedy, and so on, this panel will address such questions as whether the American media covered the case the way they would cover it today. Did they really get into it? For instance, do you think that the government today would dare have the autopsy done on an assassinated president by two military pathologists who had never done a gunshotwound autopsy in their entire careers? How do you think that would be handled by the news media today? This will be a lively and provocative discussion. And then on Saturday evening, at the conclusion of the conference, we’re having another special event, this one at the Pittsburgh Cabaret Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. Local comedian John McIntire is going to host several people from the conference on his Dangerously Live stage show, where they will address some of the lighter, as well as more political, sides of the assassination. These are just some of the highlights, with more announcements to come.

You mentioned that the Thursday evening panel is going to talk about the media and how they would have handled it differently today. How do you think the forensic investigation would have gone differently with today’s technology? Much, much differently. Remember, this was long before DNA and long before forensic science investigators really came into their own. Things were just beginning. Our organization, the ACFEI, was not around. Even the American Academy of Forensic Sciences was relatively new. There were forensic pathologists, and there were some people who fashioned themselves as criminalists, but nothing like today. So, to begin with, the overall approach, the overall investigation, would have been handled by people with much more sophistication, much more knowledge, and with much greater expertise. I’ve already talked about the pathologists as the main example, but there would have been topnotch criminalists and topnotch investigators of many different kinds. Secondly, the government would not have been able to handle this in such a tight-fisted

22 November 1963 -President and Mrs. Kennedy arrive at Love Field, Dallas, Texas. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

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Dallas fashion. Please keep in mind that before the Vietnam War and Watergate, the news media business in America was a far different enterprise. Just look, for example, at the fact that Franklin Roosevelt had his mistress. To the news people in Washington, D.C., it was no secret. The overall investigative attitude and approach would have been so very, very different today. When you become a politician, they want to know what did you have for lunch? Did you change your underwear today? Did you smoke marijuana in college? Did you pinch a cheerleader’s rear end at a high school game? There is nothing that is sacred. So the whole approach would have been different. Now, in the world of technology, there are things that could have been done with DNA and with photography. Today, when you have something like this, you’re going to have these cameras, like they had at the Boston Marathon, all over the place, spotting everybody in the world. So, all of that would have been in place from a documentary standpoint. In the area of criminalistics, there would have been a much higher level of collection and analysis of DNA, hair, and fiber samples from everyone who was present in the Grassy Knoll area and in the Texas School Book Depository. And then, in examining the president at autopsy, there would be CT scans and MRIs and other kinds of imaging that would be done. All of that would be so much more advanced

and sophisticated. In the area of firearms investigation, the analysis of people like Dr. Vincent Guinn, a noted physicist who testified that the fragment of the bullet recovered from (Texas Governor John) Connally came from Commission Exhibit 399, the stretcher bullet, to the exclusion of every other bullet in the world—that has since been shown now to be untrue, invalid. It is now accepted that you cannot have that kind of specific identification of a fragment—I’m not talking about a bullet or slug identification, I’m talking about a little tiny piece of metal, saying that it came from Bullet A to the exclusion of every other bullet in the world. That has been shown to be false. These are the kinds of differences that we’re talking about. Are there any particular theories of the assassination that the conference will focus on? I wouldn’t say that there’s any particular theory we’re advancing, no. But whereas on the 40th anniversary, we brought in some prominent Warren report defenders, including the late Senator Arlen Specter, author of the Single Bullet Theory; and Dr. Michael Baden, one of my counterparts on the House Select Committee on Assassinations, we’re frankly past that. We’re not looking here to engage in nonsense or to take a step back. To treat the

Warren report as valid would waste precious time. Forensic science has shown it’s absurd. Myself and others have destroyed the singlebullet theory, which is the sine qua non of the Warren report conclusion vis-a-vis Oswald being the sole assassin. If you don’t have the single-bullet theory, you cannot, by definition, have a single shooter, whether it was Oswald, Carlos the Jackal, you, or me, or anybody else. We’re past all that. As far as who did it and exactly how it was done, now there are some different thoughts, some of which you will hear presented here, but we’re not pushing any particular theory. Look, if God was to come in and give us the truth as to who was involved and who and where the shooters were, who knows whose theory it would be closest to? But that’s OK. I don’t care if somebody is closer in their version than I am. What is important here is to show the Warren Commission report is nonsense. That this was a political assassination. There are many who feel that it was somehow government-effectuated, governmentcontrolled, government-manipulated, even government-executed. But when I say government, I don’t necessarily mean the active government of Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover. Let’s just say that there were people in American power circles, entities that related to superspy, ultra right-wing organizations, who weren’t going to sit around and wait for Jack Kennedy to have five more years and then Bobby Kennedy eight years after that. They weren’t going to sit around like at a ballgame and wait to come up in the ninth inning. Thirteen years is a lifetime in American politics, and when you go back to what I said about what was going on in the early- to mid-‘60s and what was on the agenda, you realize why that would have been unacceptable to some. As to the specifics, I don’t know. But the bottom line is that it’s going to be a conference devoted to showing that the Warren Commission report is absolute forensic scientific nonsense. That this was an assassination where there was more than one shooter. Whether Oswald was one of the shooters or not, that’s not really our main purpose. This is not being done to retroactively exonerate Lee Harvey Oswald, but 24 November 1963 -- Lee Harvey Oswald is led through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters. Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby stepping from the crowd to shoot Oswald. Photograph by Jack Beers Jr., Dallas Morning News.

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24 November 1963 -- Mrs. Kennedy, her children, and members of the Kennedy family depart the Capitol building. L-R: Peter Lawford, Attorney General Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Caroline Kennedy, Mrs. John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr. Photograph by Abbie Rowe, National Park Service. in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

to show that there were two or more shooters. Whether Oswald was one of them or not, people have different thoughts and theories on that. But at least two shooters and a politicallymotivated assassination. Is there anything that you would like to add, either about the conference or just about the assassination in general? First of all, let me just say that Duquesne University is a very nice physical setting, just on the edge of town on a sequestered hillside overlooking the hills and rivers. The conference facility itself is relatively new and well-equipped. Beyond that, I think those who come will be pleased by the diversity of students, academics, professionals, and others who will be convening here from all over the world. It should be a dynamic and exciting three days. 25 November 1963 -- Burial ceremony for President Kennedy. Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Photograph by Abbie Rowe, National Park Service, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER速

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In addition to the following agenda for the Power Center Ballroom, please note that concurrent break-out sessions are being planned for nearby rooms. The Institute is also in the process of planning two evening events featuring special guest speakers. Please note that these sessions will not be eligible for continuing education credit. For registration purposes, please note that this agenda is preliminary and that the Institute reserves the right to make any necessary changes to accommodate its speakers. Agenda additions and changes will be announced periodically to our email list. If you would like to be added to the e-mail list, please contact us at wechtinstitute@ duq.edu. Please see below for a list of our confirmed speakers. Gary L. Aguilar, MD Head, Division of Ophthalmology, Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, San Francisco; Independent medical researcher

Robert N. McClelland, MD Professor Emeritus, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; former Parkland Hospital surgeon

Daniel S. Alcorn, JD Private attorney and F.O.I.A. expert, Washington, D.C.

Joan Mellen, PhD Author, A Farwell to Justice and Our Man in Haiti; professor of English, Temple University

Russ Baker Founder, WhoWhatWhy.com; author, Family of Secrets: the Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America

Jefferson Morley Author, Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA; former correspondent and editor, The Washington Post and Center for Independent Media

Rex Bradford Computer game and web developer; president, Mary Ferrell Foundation

Lisa Pease Chief Archivist, Real History Archives; Coauthor/co-editor, The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X

Walt Brown, PhD Historian, educator and author, The People v. Lee Harvey Oswald, The Warren Omission and Treachery in Dallas James DiEugenio Journalist and educator; author, Destiny Betrayed; former co-editor, Probe Magazine Keith Fitzgerald Independent researcher Robert J. Groden Author, High Treason and The Killing of the President, Former Staff Photographic Consultant, U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations John Judge Founder and Executive Director, Coalition on Political Assassinations; Co-founder, Committee for an Open Archives Mark Lane, JD Attorney, social activist, and author, Rush to Judgment, A Citizen’s Dissent, and The Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK James H. Lesar, JD Freedom of Information Act Attorney, Washington, D.C.; President, Assassination Archives and Research Center

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Jerry Policoff Independent researcher and journalist Larry J. Sabato, PhD Director, University of Virginia Center for Politics; author, The Kennedy Half-Century (2013) David Talbot Author, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years; Founder and Former Editor in Chief, Salon.com Robert K. Tanenbaum, JD Attorney, expert, and legal commentator; former deputy chief counsel, U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations Josiah Thompson, PhD Private Investigator; author, Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD Forensic Pathology Consultant, author and lecturer; Member, Forensic Pathology Panel, U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations; Consultant, JFK


85%

of the people say they do not accept the Warren Commission report. - The History Channel

Thursday, October 17

The Evidence 7:30 a.m.

12:15 p.m.

Registration, Breakfast, and Vendors

Lunch: Poster Presentations and Vendors

8:30 a.m.

1:30 p.m.

Welcome and Introductions Benjamin E. Wecht, MA Frederick W. Fochtman, PhD Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD 9:00 a.m.

Why the Study of the JFK Assassination Continues…and Should Larry J. Sabato, PhD 10:00 a.m.

Last Second in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Assassination Josiah Thompson, PhD Keith Fitzgerald 11:00 a.m.

Break: Poster Presentations and Vendors Absolute Proof: A Photographic Analysis of the Assassination Robert J. Groden 12:15 p.m.

Lunch: Poster Presentations and Vendors 1:30 p.m.

The Autopsy: A Forensic Pathology and Medical-Legal Critique Cyril H. Wecht, MD, JD 2:30 p.m.

The Medical Evidence: Tailored to Fit the Non-Conspiracist Gary L. Aguilar, MD 3:30 p.m.

Break: Poster Presentations and Vendors 3:45 p.m.

The View from Trauma Room One Robert N. McClelland, MD (by videoconference) 4:45 p.m.

Adjournment

Friday, October 18

The Investigations 8:45 a.m.

Welcome and Introductions Benjamin E. Wecht, MA 9:00 a.m.

The Secret Service and the Assassination of President Kennedy Mark Lane, Esq. (by videoconference) 10:00 a.m.

Clay Shaw Unmasked: The Garrison Case Corroborated Joan Mellen, PhD 11:00 a.m.

Break Poster Presentations and Vendors 11:15 a.m.

2:30 p.m.

Reviewing the Assassination Records Review Board: James H. Lesar, Esq. An Uncertain Legacy 3:30 p.m.

Break: Poster Presentations and Vendors 3:45 p.m.

Panel Discussion: From the WC to the ARRB, What Have We Learned? Moderator: Daniel S. Alcorn, Esq. Panelists: Friday Speakers, Others TBA 4:45 p.m.

11:15 a.m.

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza examines the life, times, death, and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. It is located at the very spot from where Lee Harvey Oswald, according to four government investigations, killed Kennedy.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations Reconsidered Robert K. Tanenbaum, Esq.

Adjournment

Saturday, October 19

History and the Future 8:45 a.m.

Welcome and Introductions Benjamin E. Wecht, MA 9:00 a.m.

Allen Dulles: Chairman of the Board of the JFK Assassination David Talbot 10:00 a.m.

JFK’s Foreign Policy: A Motive for Murder James DiEugenio 11:00 a.m.

Break: Poster Presentations and Vendors 11:15 a.m.

The Assassination Sponsors Walt Brown, PhD 12:15 p.m.

Lunch: Poster Presentations and Vendors 1:30 p.m.

What the Government is Still Hiding and How We Can Find It Jefferson Morley 2:30 p.m.

Why the Media Hasn’t Told Us the Truth about the Assassination Lisa Pease 3:30 p.m.

Break: Poster Presentations and Vendors 3:45 p.m.

Panel Discussion: Passing the Torch Moderator: To Be Announced Panelists: Saturday Speakers, Others TBA 4:45 p.m.

Adjournment

Political Assassinations Revealed Rex Bradford Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Travel For any of our registrants traveling in from out of town, Duquesne University is located very close to downtown Pittsburgh. There are many restaurants, hotels, and attractions not far from campus. For more information on the city, or to find out about things to do while here, we suggest www.visitpittsburgh.com. The Wecht Institute is pleased to offer our conference registrants the opportunity to get discounted accommodations at several area hotels. There are limited rooms available at each of these hotels so please make your reservations early. If making your reservations over the phone, please refer to the Wecht JFK conference in order to receive the discounted rate. Lunch Be sure not to miss a moment of the conference by ordering your lunch through the Institute! Do not worry about having to leave the Power Center in search of food. The Bistro Box Lunch includes your choice of sandwich (roast beef, ham, grilled chicken breast, smoked turkey, or grilled vegetable), chips, fruit, cookie, and drink. The cost is $10 per lunch and may be paid for by cash, check, or money order. All lunch orders must be received by October 1st.

Cambria Suites Hotel

DoubleTree Hotel

Pittsburgh Marriott City Center

Omni William Penn Hotel

Room reservations must be made by September 25th in order to receive the discounted price.

Room reservations must be made 4 weeks in advance in order to receive the discounted price.

Room reservations must be made by September 25th in order to receive the discounted price.

Room reservations must be made by September 16th in order to receive the discounted price.

1320 Centre Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15219

1 Bigelow Square Pittsburgh, PA 15219

112 Washington Place Pittsburgh, PA 15219

530 William Penn Place Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Phone: (412) 381-6687 Web: www.cambriasuites.com

Phone: (412) 281-5800 Web: doubletree3.hilton.com

Phone: (412) 471-4000 Web: www.marriott.com

Phone: (412) 281-7100 Web: www.omnihotels.com

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Passing the Torch

An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

October 17 – 19, 2013 (Please print or type all information below) First Name

M.I.

Last Name

Mailing Address City/State/Zip

Phone Number

Professional ID & Type (for those seeking CE) E-mail

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❑ Please check here if you have a special need, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act, of which we should be aware, please let us know. Please provide your specific requirements by contacting us at 412.396.1330 at least one week prior to the conference.

Important Information

Duquesne University Faculty, Staff, and Students: Registration is free for all full-time faculty, staff, and students. However, we do ask faculty and staff to pay a slight service charge of $10.00 per day. Students are asked to register even though they do no have to pay. Faculty, staff, and students should register by filling out this form or by emailing wechtinstitute@duq.edu.

One Day

We offer discounts for all Duquesne University alumni as well as for groups of 5 or more. Please contact the Institute at wechtinstitute@duq.edu for more information. If you are a middle or high school teacher interested in bringing a class to the conference, please register for yourself only and contact the Institute at 412.396.1330 or wechtinstitute@duq.edu to register for your class. While their registration is free, we ask that your students pay a $10.00 service charge for one day or a $25.00 service charge for the entire conference. International Registrants: Please contact the Institute about how to register and pay if you plan to pay by credit card. E-mail wechtinstitute@duq.edu for more information.

Notices and Restrictions

The Wecht Institute reserves the right to cancel, reschedule, or modify the program because of an insufficient number of registrants or other unforeseen circumstances. Registration cancellations from registrants must be received in writing at least one week in advance and are subject to a processing fee. Refunds are not permitted under any circumstances less than one week before the seminar. Additionally, if you register with the intention of paying upon arrival but do not attend the conference or inform us that you will not be attending, you will still be held responsible for your entire registration fee.

Questions?

Contact The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at 412.396.1330 or e-mail wechtinstitute@duq.edu.

One Day

Conference

General Public

❑ $75

❑ $200

Students (non-DU)

❑ $25

❑ $65

Law Enforcement & U.S. Military/Veterans

❑ $40

❑ $105

Nurses – CE

❑ N/A

❑ $335

Private Attorneys – CLE

❑ $185

❑ $495

Public Attorneys & Judges/Gov’t – CLE

❑ $120

❑ $215

Social Workers & Psychologists – CE

❑ $125

❑ $335

Coroners – CE

❑ $85

❑ $230

Registrants may, if they choose, purchase the Bistro Box Lunch which includes your choice of sandwich, chips, fruit, cookie and a drink. The cost is $10 per lunch. All lunch orders must be received by October 1, 2013.

Choose all that apply: ❑ Thursday ❑ Friday ❑ Saturday

Choose one: ❑ Roast Beef ❑ Ham ❑ Grilled Chicken Breast ❑ Smoked Turkey ❑ Grilled Vegetable

Payment Information Amount (include discount if applicable): ___________________________________ Payment Type:

❑ Check

❑ Cash

❑ Money Order

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Make all checks and money orders payable to Duquesne University. Please write Wecht Institute Seminar in the memo area of the check. Mail to: The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, Duquense University, 600 Forbes Avenue, 320 Fisher Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15282. * To register and pay using a credit card, please choose one of the following options: • Law enforcement, general public, and college students (non-DU) register at https://quikpayasp. com/duq/commerce_manager/payer.do?orderType=Wecht_EIA09_General • Continuing education registrants register at https://quikpayasp.com/duq/commerce_ manager/payer.do?orderType=Wecht_E2IA09_General

Visit www.duq.edu/jfk for more information. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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CE ARTICLE: 1 CE CREDIT

When the Parent is the S uspect in

Abstract

Research has shown that when a child is murdered, a parent is commonly found to be involved in the child’s death. However, when a child is abducted prior to being murdered, the likelihood of a parent’s involvement decreases significantly. Despite these findings, there are many instances in which parents have become primary suspects in investigations of child abduction homicides. This two-part series examines four cases of child murder that involved an element of abduction where investigators immediately suspected parental involvement. In three of the four cases, the parent suspects were eventually exonerated by DNA evidence after experiencing extensive scrutiny and persistent suspicions of guilt by police. The outcomes of these cases highlight the importance of carefully examining the crime scene by using victimology and crime scene classifications to differentiate between types of child murders. 48

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Child Murder By Stefan R. Treffers, BHSc, Ann W. Burgess, DNSC, APRN, and Allen G. Burgess, DBA

Part 2

Case 3: Caylee Marie Anthony Caylee Marie Anthony, age two-anda-half, lived with her 22-year-old single mother, Casey, and her maternal grandparents, Cindy and George Anthony, in Orlando, Florida. Cindy Anthony reported her granddaughter missing on July 15, 2008 after not seeing her for 31 days. Under pressure, Casey told police that she had given her child to a nanny (later determined to be fictitious) and claimed that she, too, had not seen her daughter, but was too frightened to notify authorities. In October 2008, Casey Anthony was charged with first-degree murder. On December 11, 2008, the skeletal remains of Caylee were found with a blanket inside a plastic bag in a wooded area near the grandparents’ home.

A well-publicized but controversial trial was the Casey Anthony murder trial of her daughter, Caylee Anthony, which took place in May of 2011. The prosecution, along with a majority of the viewing public, was convinced that Casey Anthony was responsible for the murder of her daughter, but there was a lack of direct evidence proving Casey was guilty. Detectives working the case were suspicious from the beginning of the investigation because of Casey’s delayed notification to police and her providing false information. Furthermore, one of the first officers to interview Casey, “noted the unemotional nature of Casey’s behavior towards the loss of her child and claimed that she did not give any indication that she was legitimately worried about her child’s safety”


Attorneys Jose Baez, left, and Andrea Lyon (right) talk with their client Casey Anthony during a court hearing in Orlando, Florida on Friday, December 11, 2009. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/MCT)

CE AT HOME STUDY COURSE: 1 ce credit In order to receive credit for the article, please go to http://www.acfei.com/FEFA0213 and look for course code FEFA0213 to take the exam and complete the evaluation. If you have special needs that prevent you from taking the exam online, please contact the registrar at 800.423.9737. American College of Forensic Examiners Institute® (ACFEI), provides this continuing education credit for Diplomates and certified members, who we recommend obtain 15 credits per year to maintain their status.

Photo released when Caylee Marie Anthony was first reported missing. (Orlando Sentinel/MCT)

(Melich, 2008). These initial behavioral observations by investigators would later be used to support the prosecution’s allegation that Casey had killed her daughter and stored her body in the trunk of her car before dumping it in a nearby wooded area. If Anthony had indeed murdered her daughter as prosecutors alleged then Casey’s initial account of her missing child may have been an attempt to shift the focus of the investigation away from her and to the babysitter which she claimed may have abducted Caylee. In fact, the case shares many similarities that are consistent with false abduction child homicides. Although large majorities of missing child reports are true, there are occasions where a parent or caregiver may be involved in the death of a child and either reports the death as an accident or hides the body and claims that the child was missing or kidnapped. In a study by Canning and colleagues (2011), the majority of offenders who were involved in child homicides and subsequently reported false abductions were biological parents, with mothers being the most common offenders. Almost all cases studied involved a victim and offender who resided in the same location thereby allowing easy access

to the victim, higher opportunity, and a greater degree of privacy for this type of crime to occur. However, there are elements in the Anthony case which seem to be inconsistent with typical filicides that are worth mentioning. For instance, prior abuse, criminality, violent behavior, substance abuse, and psychiatric problems are all listed as common risk factors in filicidal families (Koenen & Thompson Jr., 2008). Wilczynski (1997) explains that in many child homicide cases, it cannot be conclusively established that the child died from homicide, particularly if there was no history of prior abuse; which seemed to be the case as witnesses described Casey’s and her daughter’s loving relationship. In evaluations conducted by doctors prior to the 2011 trial, Casey was described as a good student with no prior legal problems, no substance abuse or alcohol dependency issues, and no evidence of an active mental illness with normal MMPI results (Danziger, 2011). Mckee (2006), however, indicates that filicidal mothers represent a very diverse and heterogeneous group of individuals with varying personalities, symptom characteristics, and MMPI scores.

After studying this article, participants should be better able to do the following: 1. Discuss the importance of crime scene analysis, victimology, and research in eliminating or confirming a parent’s involvement in a child’s murder 2. Describe characteristics of a crime scene and the behavioral traits of the homicide itself which would decrease the likelihood of a parent’s involvement in a child’s murder 3. Explain the spectrum of motives for child abduction and murder documented throughout history Keywords: Filicide, child homicide, child murder, child abduction, offending patterns, criminal profiling, crime scene analysis, victimology Target Audience: Law enforcement, clinicians, criminal justice Disclosure: The authors have nothing to disclose Program Level: Basic FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: None PREREQUISITES: None

Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Prosecution

Table 1 Unanswered Questions in the Casey Anthony Case

Source: Murphy, 2011 Casey Anthony attends at a court hearing on Monday, January 3, 2011 at the Orange County Courthouse. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/MCT)

“…the majority of child abduction murders are sexually motivated while the majority of filicides and false abduction homicides tend to have very low instances of sexual assault”

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Defense

Question Why were the search warrant photographs sealed and what might they suggest?

Sealed evidence: Photographs seized from Anthony home and placed under seal. Search warrants are also under seal.

The photos shown on television were of a child loved by mother and family. This was not a neglected child.

Avoided talking about when Caylee died.

Speculated Caylee drowned Was anything found about time of accidentally. death and if not, how were they able to suggest a date?

Computer records did not Obtained cell phone records confirm Casey researched and “ping” evidence which would have shown who Casey any murder methods. called and where she went in the hours and days after Caylee was last seen alive.

The prosecutor made no mention of this highly relevant evidence. What did the telephone records show?

State opined that the child On the day the child was was killed so that Casey could last seen alive, Casey stayed go out partying. home all night watching movies.

Where was the party?

Duct taped Caylee’s face intentionally so she could be free to go out partying.

If it was an accidental killing, wouldn’t it have been enough to put her in the back seat with one piece?

Was it logical that a mother would seal her child’s entire face shut with three levels of duct tape, then put her in a trunk, as a way of keeping the child quiet so she could have fun?

State claimed that Casey was the only one who could have killed the child.

Inference was made that Is it a compelling argument that other people were involved. often proves murder beyond a reasonable doubt in cases where there is no reasonable basis for believing that anyone else was involved?

Delay in reporting implies guilt.

Implies Casey gave her child to a babysitter.

Thus, it appears that profiles of filicidal mothers established from study samples are limited in their ability to predict future cases of mothers who kill their children. Additionally, when forensic evidence of a case is lacking, it seems difficult for investigators to determine whether a filicide has occurred based on filicidal profiles alone. Crime scene analysis and victimology continue to be critical in an investigation. Characteristics of the crime scene may reveal clues that can help investigators better differentiate between filicides and nonfamilial homicides. One of the greatest obstacles for investigators in the Anthony case was the decomposition of Caylee’s remains. The body was discovered approximately five months after Caylee was reported missing and forensic experts revealed that the remains were exposed to animal activity (Garavaglia et al., 2008). As a result, the prosecution was forced to rely primarily on circumstantial evidence regarding the cause of death, previous loca-

But guilt about what?

tions of the body, and other important elements of the case. For example, Komar and Beattie (1998) explain that physiological indicators of sexual assault in cases involving advanced decomposition such as the presence of semen and bruising diminish over time. Clothing patterns that may suggest the sexual nature of a homicide may be disturbed by natural taphonomic processes such as scavenging by animals and insect activity (Komar & Beattie, 1998). Prolonged decomposition of the body may limit the ability of investigators to identify a sexual component in a child murder which could possibly be the strongest distinguishing factor between filicides and non-familial homicides. This is supported by research which consistently shows that the majority of child abduction murders are sexually motivated while the majority of filicides and false abduction homicides tend to have very low instances of sexual assault (Hanfland et al., 1997; Canning et al., 2011; Wilczynski 1997).


of cases in their study offered indications that offenders were familiar with the locations at which they disposed of the bodies and may suggest that these sites were previously visited or in the routine activity zones of the offender.

A Portion of the memorial for Caylee Anthony near where her body was found. (Photo Credit: Bstodd00)

Determination of ante mortem trauma in the Anthony case was limited to the analysis of the skeleton in which no evidence for significant ante mortem pathology or healed trauma was found (Garavaglia et al., 2008). There was also no evidence for any trauma at or near the time of death based on gross, microscopic, and radiographic analysis (Garavaglia et al., 2008). Based on these findings, one hypothesis is that Caylee was a victim of a “hands on” murder involving suffocation, asphyxiation, drowning, or strangulation, rather than a death involving the use of a weapon or blunt force trauma. Mckee (2006) argues that many mothers who commit filicide rarely use weapons and suffocate or drown their children because they are likely to be young and incapable of posing a physical threat. However, research has revealed that false abduction offenders and actual non-familial abduction perpetrators have a similar likelihood of killing a child using suffocation, asphyxiation, or strangulation (28% vs. 36% respectively) making it difficult to differentiate between these two offender types based on in the method of killing (Canning et al., 2011; Beauregard et al., 2008). Again, crime scene analysis is important as a component of profiling a suspect. Analysis of post mortem behavior including methods of body disposal, concealment, and selection of disposal sites may reveal certain patterns. The study of false abduction child

homicide by Canning et al. (2011) found that most homicides occurred in the privacy of the offender’s residence (65%) and most bodies were disposed of outdoors (73%), and bodies are concealed. In contrast, non-familial abduction offenders were found to conceal the bodies approximately half of the time while in another 36% of the cases the offender seemed unconcerned about concealment of the body (Hanfland et al., 1997). Exceptions are cases involving sadistic offenders who tend to conceal bodies more often. This has been identified as an associated feature of sadism (Proulx et al., 2006). Caylee’s remains were discovered less than half a mile from the Anthony residence with two trash bags, a laundry bag, a blanket, and pieces of clothing showing defects consistent with decomposition (Garavaglia et al., 2008). In the study by Canning et al. (2011), 45% of false abduction homicide victims were disposed of in a similar fashion through enclosure in some kind of packaging such as plastic bags, sheets, blankets, boxes, or duffle bags, and more than half of the victims were found fully or partially clothed. It was also noted that 73% of cases in their study offered indications that offenders were familiar with the locations at which they disposed of the bodies and may suggest that these sites were previously visited or in the routine activity zones of the offender. In addition, offenders were found to dispose of bodies

close to home or in a familiar area when disposal plans were not developed beforehand (Boudreaux et al., 1999). These spontaneous, unplanned disposals suggest a consequence of emotion-based (fatal abuse) events or accidents (drowning) which resulted in the child’s death (Boudreaux et al., 1999). Although there are many patterns in the Anthony case that closely resemble false child abduction homicides, there is also uncertainty regarding critical elements of the case including conclusive pathological and forensic evidence, a definitive homicide location, and a clear explanation of the cause of death. The lack of knowledge regarding these details makes it difficult to differentiate between filicidal and non-familial child murderers. The same problems were experienced by the prosecution in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony was responsible for the murder of her daughter. Wilczynski (1997) explains that considerable difficulties in proving beyond a reasonable doubt that someone is criminally liable for a child’s death result in only the most blatant cases of filicide. Such cases may require conclusive pathological evidence that the death was non-accidental, a confession, and a requisite level of intent (Wilczynski, 1997). Wendy Murphy, former child abuse prosecutor, writing on the case, listed some questions raised by the testimony in the case. See Table 1. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Case 4: JonBenét Ramsey

case history Dec. 26, 1996 Jon Benet, 6, is found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado; her mother, Patsy, says a note was found demanding $118,000. April 18, 1997 The district attorney says the Ramseys are under an “umbrella of suspicion.” April 30, 1997 The Ramseys are interviewed by police in the first formal sessions. Oct. 10, 1997 Boulder police chief admits mistakes were made early in the case. June 23-25, 1998 Ramseys are questioned again by police; her brother Burke, 9 at the time of the death, was interviewed for six hours. Sept. 15, 1998 Grand jury begins investigation. Oct. 13, 1999 District attorney says no indictments will be issued due to lack of evidence. March 31, 2003 A federal judge in Atlanta concludes the weight of evidence is more consistent with the intruder theory than with Patsy killing JonBenet. August 16, 2006 John Mark Karr, 41, is arrested in Thailand and held in connection with the death.* *Police eventually ruled out Karr as a potential suspect. JonBenet’s killer remains unknown.

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JonBenét Ramsey, age six, was reported missing by her mother at 5:52 A.M. on December 26, 1996 to a Boulder, Colorado police dispatcher. Patsy Ramsey said she had found her daughter’s bedroom empty that morning and also found a handwritten ransom note demanding $118,000.00. Around 1 P.M. John Ramsey and a friend were asked to again look through the house to see if anything new could be detected. It was on this search that John Ramsey came to the wine-cellar door, opened it and found his daughter’s body. She had been strangled and struck on the head. Law enforcement focused on the parents as suspects but over the years there was no indictment and the case remains unsolved. On December 26, 1996 a frantic call made to police about a missing child would set into motion one of the most publicized unsolved child murders in the history of the United States. What made the case even more mysterious to investigators was the fact that six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey’s body was found in the basement of her house. This fact, along with a lack of substantive evidence for any clear theory of the murder, would lead police and a large majority of the media to believe that JonBenét’s parents were responsible for her death. In fact, police had released many statements over the course of the investigation which implied that the Ramsey’s were guilty and that they had refused to cooperate with police. One of the theories established by investigators was that Patsy Ramsey, upon discovering that JonBenét had again wet her bed, became enraged and slammed JonBenét’s head against a hard surface in the bathroom. Thinking that she was dead, Patsy Ramsey allegedly spent the rest of the night staging an elaborate cover-up. Wolf v. Ramsey, 253 F. Supp. 2d 1323 (N.D. Ga. 2003). It was clear that by the second day of investigations that the mounting beliefs held by police of the Ramsey’s involvement in the death of their child contributed to the escalating tensions between the two parties. While the Ramsey’s would refuse to give interviews to the police for almost four months after the death of JonBenét, police in return would deny them burial rights and keep the family uninformed as to any developments in the case.

Further complicating the case was the obscurity of forensic evidence due to the fact that the crime scene had not been fully sealed off and contamination had occurred in the first crucial hours after the body was discovered. Police were initially under the impression that JonBenét had been kidnapped because of the ransom note (Byfield, 1996). As a result of this belief, police did not carry out a full search of the house until seven hours after the 911 call was made (Bertino & Bertino, 2009). The inexperience of investigators in dealing with homicide investigations became especially evident when the Boulder Police refused outside help from other agencies in the most critical period of the investigation, only to later change their minds (Kurtis, 2000). Initial reports made by officers who conducted preliminary searches of the house indicated that there was no sign of forced entry (Byfield, 1996). This fact would later be disputed as witnesses from the morning search testified that a window in the basement was broken. There was additional evidence suggesting that the grate above that window was moved as barks and twigs had been cleared (Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). These findings would support an intruder theory of JonBenét’s murder where the suspect used the basement window for entry into the house. Foreign male DNA was found under the fingernails of JonBenét, in her underwear, and mixed with her blood in bloodstains on her body and clothing (Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003; BBC, 2006). A pubic hair belonging to a Caucasian male was also found on the blanket covering JonBenét’s body (Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). None of these pieces of evidence was matched to anyone in the Ramsey family. One factor in the death of JonBenét was that her abduction, murder, and body recovery locations were all contained within the Ramsey house. Although most false abduction homicides occurred inside the privacy of a residence (65%), the majority of abducted victims were disposed of outdoors (73%) and with a significant amount of time and effort expended in concealing the body (Canning et al., 2011). This was obviously not the case as JonBenét’s body was left in the basement and eventually discovered. It seems more likely that if the Ramsey’s had been involved in the death of JonBenét, the unconcealed nature of the body would suggest that they intended


to stage the death as a murder by a sexual predator. Canning et al. (2011) describe cases in which staging involved the manipulation of physical evidence or the planting of fabricated evidence by a parent prior to falsifying a missing report. However, the types of weapons used to subdue and kill JonBenét, the extent of injuries identified in the autopsy report, and the heinous nature of the murder must raise some reasonable doubts as to whether either of the parents was truly capable of staging a sexual assault and murder of their own child. The autopsy report noted a prominent dried abrasion on the lower left neck which led to a homicide detective to testify to the possibility of a stun gun used by an intruder to subdue JonBenét in her bedroom without being heard in any of the other rooms in the house (Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). The autopsy report also noted extensive damage to the right side of the skull in the form of a linear fracture (Meyer, 1996). Since there was no penetration of the skin during the impact to JonBenét’s head, some have suggested that the fracture may have been caused by a powerful impact from a blunt force object (Brennan, 1997). When looking at previous studies of child homicides by parents, Canning et al. (2011) noted that false abduction homicide offenders only used a weapon in 29% of the cases and other studies have concluded that mothers who commit filicide rarely use weapons (Mckee, 2006; d’Orbán, 1979). In contrast, Beauregard et al. (2008) found that a weapon was used in 63.7% of the child sexual murder cases in their study. These findings would suggest that weapon use in child murders is more characteristic of a non-familial suspect. Additionally, knots from the garrote used to strangle JonBenét were described as ‘sophisticated’ and may be more indicative of a perpetrator familiar with bondage

(Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). A white cord loosely tied around the right wrist suggested that JonBenét was bound by the hands while she was sexually assaulted (Meyer, 1996; Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). Wooden shards found in her vagina as well as injuries consistent with sexual assault confirm that she was sexually assaulted shortly before her death (Meyer, 1996; Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). In light of these details, the behavior of the suspect could be explained by an intruder theory of murder especially when considering the significantly low incidence of sexual assault in child murders committed by parents (Canning et al., 2011). Theories suggesting that the Ramsey’s staged the murder propose that significantly insensitive, yet elaborate steps were taken by JonBenét’s parents to make it look as though an intruder had entered the home to rape and kill JonBenét. Actual reported cases of staging in child homicide cases involved cut window screens, broken windows, or open doors which seem to pale in comparison to the brutality and effort required to stage a murder like the one that occurred in the Ramsey house (Canning et al., 2011). In a civil court decision, Judge Julie E. Carnes ruled that there was adequate evidence to support the parents’ belief that an intruder entered their home at some point during the night of December, 25, 1996 and killed their daughter (Wolf v. Ramsey, 2003). However, there remain some additional pieces of evidence that have not been explained such as the author of the note found in the kitchen, the rare brand of duct tape, the refusal of the Ramsey’s to submit to a police interview, the position of the child in terms of the room in which she was found, the delay in notifying the police, and the refusal to allow the police to search the residence for the child. These pieces of information continue to have bearing on suspect profiling theories.

Discussion of false abduction homicides occur inside the privacy of a residence

Research tells us when a young child is murdered, the most frequent perpetrator is a victim’s parent or stepparent (Friedman & Resnick, 2007), However, when a child is abducted and murdered, Erikson & Friendship (2002) found non-family members were suspects 82% of the time. While such statistics are helpful in narrowing down a list of suspects, the ability to classify the crime

as to motive and to factor in crime scene characteristics can assist in suggesting behavioral patterns of the criminal. Heide, Beauregard, & Myers (2009) argue that child abduction murder involves more crime scenes (encounter, attack, crime and body disposal location) than non-abduction sexual murders of children and Douglas et al. (2006) emphasize the importance of victimology and classification of crime scene as a first step in the review of a crime scene. Police who dedicate substantial resources and make a commitment to prove the guilt of a parent in the absence of substantive evidence contradict research that indicates that parents are the least likely suspects in a child abduction murder case (Hanfland et al., 1997). Although it is reasonable for police to consider all possible murder scenarios including the involvement of parents, police are advised to be cautious of narrowing their focus on a single suspect. It is especially important to keep an open-mind with regard to leads and possible suspects in the initial phases on the investigation where time is limited and the solvability of a murder decreases dramatically after 48 hours (Brown & Keppel, 2007). The importance of time is further emphasized by the fact that 74% of children who are victims of abduction homicides are murdered within three hours of the abduction (Brown et al., 2006; Hanfland et al., 1997). It becomes even more troublesome when police are so convinced of an individual’s involvement in a murder that during the interrogation, a suspect may be coerced to make a false confession. In two cases discussed in this article, false confessions were made and led to the wrongful convictions and imprisonment of two fathers. Although they were later exonerated by DNA evidence, their experiences of the investigation and subsequent false imprisonment make law enforcement subject to a civil rights case as noted in the Fox case verdict. In summary, crime scene analysis, victimology, and research are important elements to be added to evidence and suspect theory profiling to eliminate or confirm a parent’s involvement in a child’s murder. n Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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References

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doj.gov/smart/pdfs/practitioner_guide_awa.pdf. Megans-law.net (n.d.) Equal justice. Retrieved on June 6, 2012 from www.megans-law.net/ Melich, Y.N. (2008). Narrative: 08-06208 SUPP. Orange County Sheriff ’s Office. Meyer, J. (1996). Autopsy Report. No. 96A–155. Office of the Boulder County Coroner. d’Orbán, P.T. (1979). Women who kill their children. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 134(1), 560–571. Murphy, W.J. (2011) Not guilty verdict was the right result but we’re not done yet. Patriot Ledger, July 7, 2011. www.patriotledger.com/opinions/x1498054785/WENDY-MURPHYAnthony-verdict-was-right-but-we-re-not-done National Alert Registry (n.d.). Jacob Wettering Act of 1994. Retrieved on June 6, 2012 from www.registeredsexoffenders.net/Jacob_Wetterling_Act.html Noe, D. (2010). The killing of Polly Klass. New York: True Crime Library. Retrieved on June 6, 2012 from www.trutv. com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/klaas/1.html Proulx, J., Blais, E., & Beauregard, E. (2006). Sadistic sexual aggressors. In W. L. Marshall,Y. M. Fernandez, L. E. Marshall, & G. A. Serran (Eds.), Sexual offender treatment: Controversial issues (pp. 61–77). Chichester, UK:Wiley. Resnick, P.J. (1969). Child murder by parents: A psychiatric review of filicide. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 73–82. Rodreguez, R. D., Nahirny, C., Burgess, A. W., & Burgess, A. G. (1998). Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit, FBI Academy, Quantico, VA. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 36, 11–16. Wilczynski A: Child Homicide. London, Oxford University Press/Greenwich Medical Media, 1997. Schwartz, L.L., & Isser, N. (2007). Child Homicide: Parents who kill. Boca Raton (FL): CRC/Taylor & Francis. Susteren, G.V. (2005). On the Record: The Case Against Jerry Hobbs. Fox News. Retrieved on May 5, 2012 from www. foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156353,00.html Victims of the State (2011). Suburban Chicago Cases, Son/ Daughter Murder Cases. Retrieved on May 5, 2012 from www.victimsofthestate.org/IL/Hobbs.html Weeks-Shackelford, V.A., & Shackelford, T.K. (2004). Methods of filicide: Stepparents and genetic parents kill differently. Violence and Victims, 19, 75–81. Wolf v. Ramsey. No. [1:00-CV-1187-JEC] ([U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division][2003])

CERTIFIED FORENSIC NURSE, CFN® Learn more about CERTIFIED FORENSIC NURSE, CFN®. Call 800.429.9737 or enroll online at www.acfei.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Stefan Treffers, BHSc, received his degree at the University of Ottawa in health sciences and criminology. He works in a pharmaceutical research firm on studies pertaining to forensic psychiatry. His graduate studies focus on criminology, sociology, and law.

Ann Wolbert Burgess, DNSc, APRN, is Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing at Boston College Connell School of Nursing. Her research and publications include rape trauma, child sexual abuse, child pornography, serial offenders, crime classification, post-traumatic stress, infant abduction, elder sexual abuse, and mental disorders.

Allen G. Burgess, DBA, is president of Data Integrity, Inc., a computer software company. He has design experience with main frames, mini-computers, personal computers, and micro controllers. He currently teaches the Forensic Science Lab at Boston College and is a codesigner for interactive forensic simulation learning where his specialty is digital forensics.


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LEGAL hen one hears “wiretapping,” images of espionage, clandestine operations, and James Bond spring to mind; however, eavesdropping has been around since the dawn of time. The first recorded case is in the Bible where Sarah listens-in on a conversation between Abraham and God about a coming child. The etymology of the word “eavesdropping” stems from the location on the ground where rain would fall after it rolled off of a home’s roof at its eave. It was in this location that one was best situated to overhear conversations from within the dwelling. This, of course, required personal presence. The history of remote human voice communication begins in 1876 with the invention of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Tape recording was invented shortly thereafter and remote eavesdropping by wiretapping was successfully employed by the 1890s, when law enforcement intercepted telephone communications to convict Prohibition-Era bootlegger Roy Olmstead. The term “wiretapping” specifically refers to the physical insertion of an electrical recording device into a telephone line. The “tap” redirects the electronic signal from the “wire” through a recording device before returning it to the telephone line and on to the end user. Wiretapping laws, however, are much more expansive and refer to the interception, recording, and use of almost all forms of in-person, telephonic, and electronic communication. From a legal standpoint, the most important question in the communication interception context is whether you must get consent from one or all of the parties to a communication before recording it.

Wiretap Act The Federal

Intercepting & Recording Communications

By Joshua K. Roberts, JD

Federal Wiretapping Law—Wiretap Act The principle federal wiretapping statute was originally enacted as Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Its stated purpose was to provide privacy protection for oral and wire communications. The promulgation of computer technology necessitated its supplementation in 1986 with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The statutes are collectively generally referred to as the Wiretap Act. The Wiretap Act prohibits the interception of wire communications, electronic communications, and oral communications without consent. Federal law and many state wiretapping statutes permit recording if one party (including you) to the communication consents, while other states require that all parties to the communication consent to its recording. The Act provides for both criminal and civil liability for those that run afoul its prohibitions.

“The “tap” redirects the electronic signal from the “wire” through a recording device before returning it to the telephone line and on to the end user.” Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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Definitions Interception The Wiretap Act defines “interception” as the acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication through the use of any electronic or mechanical device. Notable exceptions to protected communications include radio and television broadcasts. Also, good old fashioned eavesdropping within earshot of the communicators is still entirely legal. It is only when you introduce a mechanical device into the equation that you evoke the provisions of the federal Wiretap Act. The act exempts traditional hearing aids from the definition of a mechanical device. Interestingly, some courts have also held that the surreptitious listening-in on an extension phone of the same phone line does not constitute an “interception” as the additional phone is a mere extension of the line and its use is not an intercepting event. This has led to some remarkable outcomes regarding the admissibility of the recordings made by one spouse of conversations of his or her estranged spouse while listening-in on one of the home’s extension phones.

Wire Communications The Wiretap Act defines a “wire communication” as the transfer of the human voice made “in whole or in part…by the aid of wire, cable, or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception.” This primarily refers to traditional landline telephone conversations and presumably would include teleconferencing over the internet through a wired computer terminal. Further, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s pronouncement in 2001, this definition now includes both cordless and cellular telephones. Bartnicki v. Vopper, 121 S. Ct. 1753 (2001).

Electronic Communications The Wiretap Act defines an “electronic communication” as any transfer of “signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, data or intelligence…by wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectric or photo-optical systems…” This definition includes electronic pagers, electronic mail, text messaging, and electronic bulletin board communications, and was created with the enactment of the ECPA in 1986.

Oral Communications An “oral communication” is generally defined as any communication uttered by a person exhibiting a reasonable expectation that such communication is not subject to interception. This refers to in-person or face-to-face conversations. Note that these in-person conversations that are not carried by wire or any other electronic means are subject to an additional requirement that they be made with a reasonable expectation of privacy to be brought within the protection of the Wiretap Act. The traditional examples given are that an individual having a conversation in a congested public place does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, while that same conversation, if had in one’s own home, could be subject to such an expectation.

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The Exceptions If a communication is intercepted within an exception to the Wiretap Act, then the Act does not restrict recordation, memorialization, subsequent use, or disclosure. While there are exceptions for law enforcement agents acting pursuant to court approval (search warrant) and for employers in the ordinary course of business, the most significant exception to the Wiretap Act relates to consent of a party to the communication. It is always legal to record a communication when every party to the communication consents to its recording. It becomes much more convoluted when there is a party or parties to a communication that have no idea they are being recorded. One-Party Consent Section 2511(2)(d) makes it lawful for “a person… to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent” to the interception. This is called a “one-party consent” law. Therefore, under federal law, a private individual may record his or her own telephone communication (and other communications) without revealing this fact to the other participants and there is no criminal or civil liability under the Wiretap Act. Furthermore, even if you are not a party to the conversation, a “one-party consent” law will allow you to record the conversation or phone calls of others as long as one party consents and has full knowledge that the communication will be recorded. In addition to the federal government, thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have adopted “one-party consent” laws that mirror that of the federal Wiretap Act. Two-Party Consent Twelve states require the consent of every party to a phone call or conversation in order to make the recording lawful. These “two-party consent” laws have been adopted in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington. (Hawaii is also in general a one-party state, but requires two-party consent if the recording device is installed in a private place). Although they are commonly referred to as “two-party consent” laws, they are more appropriately referred to as “all party consent” laws as consent must be obtained from every party to the communication for its interception to be legal.

Discussion Technology Outpacing the Law—Cell Phones and Cordless Phones

Today the Wiretap Act privacy protections extend to all phone conversations, including cordless and cellular phones; however, this was not always the case. Cordless and cellular phones did not exist in 1968 when the original Wiretap Act was enacted. As these phones became more common, most courts classified them as unprotected radio transmissions rather than “wire communications.” Creative lawyering led to a line of cases attempting to classify them as “oral communications;” however, almost all courts rejected this argument, citing a lack of privacy expectations. This was the exact reasoning in State v. King, 873 S.W.2d 905 (Mo. Ct. App. 1994), when King’s neighbor was listening to her police scanner which intercepted a conversation of the defendant discussing a drug deal on his cordless phone. The neighbor called the police, who responded and found a methamphetamine filled syringe on the defendant’s person. King was later convicted, but appealed his conviction for possessing a controlled substance, claiming that the evidence should have been suppressed because it was obtained as a result of an “interception” of an “oral communication” in violation of the Missouri Wiretapping Act (patterned after the Federal Act). The Missouri Court of Appeals concluded that the cordless phone conversation was not an “oral communication” as the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy. The King court expounded that there can be “no reasonable expectation of privacy in a communication which is broadcast…in all directions to be overheard by countless people who may have purchased…a receiving device…or who happen to have another mobile…telephone tuned to the same frequency.” Interestingly, today the Court could reach a very different conclusion than it did in 1994 as cell phones and cordless phones are now clearly protected wire communications.

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The Stored Communications Act The Retrieval of Voicemail & Emails While cellular phone and email communications are clearly communications within the meaning of the Act, Courts have limited protection to interceptions that take place contemporaneously with the message’s transmission and been reluctant to find that retrieval of a stored communication violates the Wiretap Act. While courts are split on whether the retrieval of another’s voicemail or email violates the Wiretap Act, it is primarily a debate for academia as almost all find they are covered by the Stored Communications Act that provides similar protections and penalties for the unauthorized retrieval of this data. 18 U.S.C. section 2701(a). While there are exceptions in the employment context, the stored communication law provides criminal punishment for anyone who “intentionally accesses without authorization…an electronic communication service.” This includes hacking, guessing, or otherwise accessing an account (even one that is not password protected) without permission. The situation becomes much murkier when one previously had authorization, but then a change of circumstances calls the original authorization into question. This often arises in an estranged domestic relationship context. A Michigan man found out first hand as he accessed his wife’s password in a desk drawer and logged in to her email account to confirm a suspected affair. The prosecutor’s office felt that his actions exceeded the scope of any implied authorization and charged him with a felony for his misuse of a computer. Ultimately, in determining authorization, a judge or jury has to decide whether a reasonable person acting in the same or similar circumstance would believe they were acting within the scope of authority granted by the account owner. Left with such a nebulous definition of authorization, it seems the best rule of thumb is to not access another’s email account without express consent. Penalties Section 2520 of the Wiretap Act provides that the intentional illegal wiretapping of a conversation is a criminal act. The Wiretap Act also provides a civil action for the recovery of actual damages, statutory damages of $100 per day or $10,000 (whichever is greater), punitive damages, and attorney fees. Most states have similar laws that provide for both civil and criminal liability for such acts. Further, both federal and state laws prohibit

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“Regardless of whether state or federal law governs the situation, it is almost always illegal to record a phone call or private conversation to which you are not a party, do not have consent from at least one participant, or could not naturally overhear.” any such illegally obtained recording from being offered into evidence in any proceeding other than those contemplated as penalty proceedings under this section. Conclusion Regardless of whether state or federal law governs the situation, it is almost always illegal to record a phone call or private conversation to which you are not a party, do not have consent from at least one participant, or could not naturally overhear. Thus, federal and most state laws do not permit you to surreptitiously place a bug or recording device on a person or telephone, in a home, office, or restaurant to secretly record a conversation between two people who have not consented. Further, unless the caller and the called party are in the same state (then only that state’s law would apply), the interstate call implicates three bodies of law: federal law, the law of the calling-party’s state, and the law of the called-party’s state. Each law must be obeyed for the interception to be considered legal. Ultimately, while the days of listening in on a conversation at a dwelling’s eavesdrop may have been replaced by electronic recording devices, the fundamental privacy protection one comes to expect in modern conversations is supported by the Federal Wiretap Act. Therefore, it is always advisable to consult with a legal expert before attempting to intercept a protected communication. n

RESOURCES 18 U.S.C. § 2510, et. al. 18 U.S.C. §2701. Anonymous v. Anonymous, 558 F.2d 677 (2nd Cir. 1977) Bartnicki v. Vopper, 121 S. Ct. 1753 (2001) Bohach v. City of Reno, 932 F.Supp. 1232 (D. Nev., 1996) Eagle Investment Systems Corp. v. Tamm, 146 F.Supp.2d 105 (D.Mass. 2001) Edwards v. Bardwell, 632 F. Supp. 584, 589 (M. D. La. 1986) Fraser v. Nationwide, 135 F.Supp.2d 623 (E.D.P.A. 2001) Holy Bible, Genesis 18:9–15 Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping. Scientific American. 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2010-06-01. Janecka v. Franklin, 843 F.2d 110 (2nd Cir., 1988) Kempf v. Kempf, 868 F.2d 970 (8th Cir. 1999) McKanney v. Roach, 55 F3d 1236, 1238-1239 (6th Cir. 1995) Newcomb v. Ingle, 944 F.2d 1534 (10th Cir. 1991) Pritchard v. Pritchard, 732 F.2d 372 (4th Cir. 1984) Scheib v. Grant, 22 F.3d 149 (7th Cir. 1994) State v. King, 873 S.W.2d 905 (Mo. Ct. App. 1994) State v. Tellis, 139 N.H. 344 (1995) Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. U.S. Secret Service, 36 F.3d 467 (5th Cir. 1994) Tyler v. Berodt, 877 F2d 705 (8th Cir. 1989) U.S. v. Murdock, 63 F.3d at 1400 (6th Cir. 1995) Vieux v. Pape, 184 F.3d 59, 66 (1st Cir. 1999) Wesley College v. Pitts, 974 F.Supp. 375 (D. Del., 1997)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joshua K. Roberts, JD, has been a partner with the law firm of Hazelrigg, Roberts & Easley, P.C. since 1998. The firm is headquartered in Springfield, Missouri with a satellite office in Ozark, Missouri. His principal practice areas include civil litigation and criminal defense. Josh is a member of the Missouri, Springfield Metropolitan, and Christian County Bar Associations and is a featured speaker on Law Talk, KWTO 560 AM. His largest recent verdict or judgment was $1.9 million in the case of Warner v. Greenleaf. Away from law, Josh is an Elder and Deacon in his church, enjoys teaching Sunday School and playing bass guitar in the praise band. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family and coaching his son’s football and basketball teams.


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FEATURE

The

Man Serial who enters the minds of

an Interview

wih a n t h o n y

Meoli

Interview by Katherine Ramsland, PhD, CMI-V

“Since my objective is steeped in wanting to know ‘how and why’ one human being can have so much anger and rage against another human being, often completely unknown to them, a visit can often end such a relationship.”

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Anthony Meoli has been corresponding with serial killers, spree killers, and death row inmates since 1998. He has successfully contacted over 130 worldwide and has personally interviewed five, including Danny Rolling, Glen Rogers, Loran Cole, Lee Boyd Malvo, and Isaac Zamora. In August 2012, he published, The Diary of the D.C. Sniper, co-written with Lee Boyd Malvo as the culmination of seven years of correspondence, phone calls, and a visit. He also appeared as a criminal profiler in the ID Network documentary My Brother the Serial Killer. In trying to better understand serial killers, he has collected their artwork, poetry, letters, and even their handprints. Meoli possesses one of the nation’s largest private collections of full-sized handprints created by serial killers, which he has used in comparing fingerprint characteristics. Meoli holds a BS in criminal justice from Penn State University, a MA in forensic psychology from Argosy University, and a JD from John Marshall Law School. He is a Certified Forensic Consultant with ACFEI and is the President of Meoli Forensic Consulting, LLC. He agreed to answer some questions for The Forensic Examiner® about his work.


Katherine Ramsland and Anthony Meoli at the ACFEI’s 2012 Executive Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada.

FE: What launched your serial killer research project?

The personal visit is the mutual culmination of fascination between both individuals. Serial killers, in large part, often have many AM: There was no particular “trigger” that began my initial interest in pen pals. Some might have over 100 around the world. So what personally contacting and visiting serial killers; rather, it was the cul- makes you so unique that they would not only want you to visit, but mination of years of studying criminal justice and law, hearing about remove someone else from a visitation list? That is why the number the cases, and wanting to know the motivation behind their crimes. of my visits is limited.

FE: What is your ultimate goal?

FE: What do the handprints add to your study?

AM: To find a causal link between their right-brained (creative side) and an almost innate ability to compartmentalize their lives. It’s incredibly difficult to commit murder, hold a job, appear normal to friends and family, yet fulfill the compulsion to kill. Serial killers are addicted to killing. Whether it is power, sexual deviancy, or some unmet psychological component, they simply cannot stop. I know this because many of the nearly 130 killers I have written have told me they liked what they were doing and would do it again.

AM: A full handprint from an inmate is extremely difficult to obtain. Some facilities do not allow them out and many inmates are leery of why I am asking for it. What I get out of any one particular handprint is many-fold. I have a high-powered magnifier that I use to inspect each hand that I receive. I look for marks on the hand, to see if they were ever injured or had sustained trauma. I view scars (if it is a very good print), fingerprint patterns (whorl, arch, loop), and how the size of their hand compares to their height and weight. Then I compare to see if these hand characteristics would be what I would expect, based on the above-listed variables. Handprints can also show us whether an individual is obese. I also look at proportionality. For example, I have Keith Jesperson’s handprints, an individual who stands nearly 6’6” tall. If I compare his prints to Lawrence Bittaker, who is barely 5’7” tall, I expect a change. Their handprints are relative to their height, clearly showing the massive difference in their size, as would be expected. I measure their digits, from the palm to tip of hand and width of the palm, which can also give relative size. So much can be gained from a legible, full-sized, handprint. While law enforcement takes fingerprint cards upon arrest, they do not log in their full hands.

FE: How did you pick the ones on whom you focused? AM: Although I have corresponded with many serial killers from Georgia to Japan since 1998, it is difficult to establish a trusting relationship. However, in those individuals who are interested in writing, that relationship has allowed for deeper connections and even visitations. Visitation is not easy; it can take months or even years before they might extend the courtesy for a visit. I don’t take visitation lightly nor do I travel around the country looking simply to visit serial killers. Since my objective is steeped in wanting to know “how and why” one human being can have so much anger and rage against another human being, often completely unknown to them, a visit can often end such a relationship.

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Artwork is the glue that I have found to be highly consistent among serial killers. Danny Rolling, Charles Ng, Bill Bonin, Lawrence Bittaker, Herbert Mullin, Elmer Wayne Henley, Glen Rogers, Lee Boyd Malvo, Kenneth Bianchi, Joe Roy Metheny, even Charles Manson, just to name a few, have all created some amazing artwork. I would disagree that this is coincidence. I do feel that there is a correlation from their artistic ability that should be examined on a much deeper level. While everyone who is artistic surely will not become a serial murderer, the idea is that their right-brained (emotional and creative side), the one that allows them to be both artistic and sadistic, seems to be heightened. Is this side also what allows them to compartmentalize their lives and appear normal?

FE: You interviewed Glen Rogers extensively and decided that he’s being truthful about his involvement in killing Nicole Brown Simpson. What are your primary indicators of his veracity? AM: First, it is important to explain our relationship and its end. From 2009 to 2012, we wrote three times per week. I have over 1,100 pages of handwritten correspondence from Glen Rogers during this period. This is beyond anything I have ever experienced with any other inmate. Rogers admits in many letters that I was the first person to fully understand him, not judge him for his actions, thereby giving me his trust. To that end, we visited eight times between April 2010 and December 2011. As far as my ability to detect lying during an interview, I am a former federal investigator. I was a military intelligence officer with the United States Navy Reserve (2001-2009). In August 2007, I received training at the National Maritime Intelligence Center to study human intelligence gathering techniques. Additionally, I was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for my work in profiling terrorists. And while no human being can say with certainty whether someone is lying, I can say that I am fairly qualified to detect such malingering. For over 48 hours I sat across from Glen Edward Rogers. This is more time than anyone in his own immediate family has spent with him. After one or two six-hour visits, one can begin to pick up on nuances of someone’s personality. We do it when we go out on a date in far less time. After three or four visits, your ability to detect malingering increases. I have had the opportunity to do this on eight separate occasions. Given that humans speak roughly 200–250 words a minute, this interview time is equivalent to writing (250 words per page) for over 25 years. Glen Rogers admitted as far back as 1995 to a cellmate that he had been “fingered” as a possible suspect. This letter was forwarded to the Anthony Meoli at his D.C. Sniper booth at ACFEI’s 2012 Executive Summit. D.A.’s who were working the Simpson case, but nothing was done. Rogers lived 22 minutes away from the crime scene and was living at this location at the time of the murders. Galvin Paint Company, FE: What does the artwork add? his employer at the time, performed work and conducted estimates on the very condominium complex where Nicole Brown Simpson AM: This may be the most interesting and compelling aspect of se- lived. Glen’s last day of work with Galvin Paint Company was the rial killers that I have encountered. Nearly every single serial killer I very weekend after the murders took place. have written is artistic to some degree. What do I mean by “artistic” Glen Rogers was known to torture and slice his victims’ necks. —far exceeding what is “normal artistic ability.” While he is known to have committed at least three murders, he is Within each particular piece, the spatial accuracy of what they suspected in as many as 17 murders, many involving a knife. Nicole are when drawing is uncanny. Whether they are draw a tree, house, Brown Simpson was not only killed with a large knife, but she had or face, their ability to capture the subtle spatial nuances of imagery torture marks near her clavicle bones. Would a man, who knew he is an unusual trait. had to get dressed, catch a limousine and flight, really choose a knife

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Katherine Ramsland and Anthony Meoli discussing Meoli’s book, The Diary of the D.C. Sniper.

as his method of murder that night? Why would he choose that FE: What do you find to be problematic about the self-report night at all knowing he was under severe time constraints? These of serial killers? were all questions posed to me by Glen Rogers over the years. The media speculated, en masse, that Glen Rogers released this information to gain notoriety. The information that Glen provided AM: Serial killers are grandiose, narcissistic, and demand attention. to me preceded Discovery ID’s initial contact by over 18 months. They not only want to possess their victims, they want credit for Rogers did not want this information “out.” He had wanted to tell doing so. Many serials have failed at many aspects in their life, but the world himself. However, when My Brother the Serial Killer came the one thing they are good at is taking lives and avoiding detection. to pass, I felt the world should know what I knew. Of course we must give credence to the concept that many of them What is maybe more interesting is not his writing and admitting will lie for attention, money, commissary items, or even stamps. They to the crimes, but the stoppage of his letters. If it was true that Glen will recount stories of unsolved murders simply to get you to give in Rogers wanted more press from this information, why did he cease to their requests. I try my best to avoid these inmates when possible. all correspondence with me as soon as it came to light? While I did How I try to avoid problematic self-reporting is to avoid asking inform Glen that we would be going over cold case information, case questions. I might write to an inmate for six months before dishe cut me from all communication once he learned I had told the cussing a single nuance of their case. This builds suspense as to why I world about his possible involvement in the O.J. Simpson case. Glen am writing them. Just like their compelling need for more attention, Rogers, the serial killer who had, at times, written three times a week, they have an almost involuntary response to provide some details. who’d sent me over 100 pieces of art, and even the only picture that So, yes, self-reporting is highly problematic, but it also deexisted of his son ever visiting, just cut me off. This is what inmates pends on one’s method of collecting data. Is my method fooldo when they feel betrayed. If the press was correct, Glen should proof? No. However, it is apparent that many serial personalihave been writing to me even more, congratulating me on getting ties are often as intrigued with me as I am with them, which this story to the press. Not so. facilitates some very interesting discussions. As with almost any Is it plausible that Glen Rogers may have convinced himself over human relationship, if your interest-level is not the same, the his 18 years behind bars that he could lie so well as to avoid detec- relationship will not last and communication will slowly cease. tion? Sure. But let us remember that Glen Rogers has perpetuated this lie for almost 20 years. I do consider Glen Rogers’ admissions FE: What was your experience of interviewing Lee Boyd to these crimes as a “plausible alternative theory” that may have been Malvo? How did you gain his trust? overlooked by the police. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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AM: I began writing to Lee Boyd Malvo in 2005 and continued my correspondence with him through 2012 as we finished our book. Over that time we wrote many times but more importantly I took his phone calls. From 2010–2012 we spoke, via 20-minute phone calls, over 50 times. We got to know each other quite well with him agreeing, verbally and in writing, for me to record each and every call. The acceptance of the recording made each call very intimate. During this time I came to know Lee as a boy, a teenager, and as a young man. I learned of how a once innocent child can be brought up in an abusive household and how it can shape the mind. His “anger response” as I termed it, was highly volatile. If I said the wrong word or wrote the wrong line in our correspondence, I could expect an angry phone call. I visited Lee in June 2012. He was similar to as he was on the phone, friendly to a point, but highly volatile when pressed with simple questions. Lee Malvo is a highly narcissistic and controlling individual. This was no different when we were three feet away from each other at Red Onion State Prison or 900 miles away over the phone.

FE: Danny Rolling is known to act out in strange ways. Did any of your questions dig up previously unknown information?

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT Katherine Ramsland and Anthony Meoli’s Featured Story in the Winter Issue of The Forensic Examiner®

ing four of the five victims at the University of Florida and cleaning up his victims afterwards. Danny had entered late at night, using a screwdriver for entry, but improvised quite well once inside. He’d beheaded one victim, sitting her head on a bookshelf for police to see as they entered. It would be a sight they would never forget. Having visited each of his crime scenes prior to my visit, even being allowed into the actual apartment where the first murders occurred, it gave me insight as to how he entered, avoided detection, and attacked these young co-eds. Knowing this information, I pried him about his personalities (very late in the day) to the point where he got so uncomfortable that he gave me a stare I will never forget. Danny stared at me from across the table with his deep blue eyes. They seemed to pierce my soul and I almost felt Danny’s coldness. I had interviewed many inmates over the years from other jobs, and nothing had prepared me for this particular encounter. It was not a look of anger, or hate, it was a look as if he wanted to almost “consume” me at that moment. He followed this stare with a sentence that remains with me as a learning tool: “Tony, you know that when you take someone’s life… you actually lose a little part of your soul in the process. Eventually, when you commit enough murders, you don’t have any soul left.” This was amazing insight and showed me how he operated seemingly devoid of remorse, almost enjoying his crimes and spending time with his victims.

AM: I wrote Danny Rolling for three years, up until his execution in 2006. He was known for yelling out [such] disturbing thoughts at night on death row that even the most hardened criminals sought cell relocation. When I visited Danny at Union Correction Institution on November 15, 2003, it was via a six hour visit. He sat unshackled across from me at a round silver metal table, the seats bolted to the floor. He was free to move around and took advantage of the rare opportunity to eat food not afforded to them normally. We began our conversation slowly, easing into the simple questions, and he asked many questions as well. Danny wanted to know more about me, which I obliged. As the day wore on and we got more comfortable, I probed him about unsolved crimes in a roundabout fashion. As of 2003, when we began, Danny had not been convicted of any of the crimes in Louisiana that took place in 1989. There were three unsolved murders of the Grissom family, who lived close to Danny’s own home in Shreveport, LA. When I asked Danny if he had been involved in other cases similar to what happened at the University of Florida, he said, “Why don’t you rephrase your question.” I then asked him to do the following. “If you wouldn’t mind, use your finger and tap on the table.” Danny asked, “Tap on the table for what?” I said, “You are in this facility for doing certain things at the University of Florida, and we know of at least five of them.” FE: Are you planning an extensive correspondence with any With his right index finger, he looked at me without much hesitation other killers? and began to bang on the table. I counted in my head as he began, “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight.” He then looked at me and said, “I think you have your answer about Louisiana.” AM: All my correspondence is intended to be extensive. I have a I figured he had just divulged this information, and chances were form letter that I alter according to the inmate’s personality. It is a great that we were never going to visit again. I decided to see if I straightforward and honest letter, telling the inmate why I am intercould go any further since we had already broached this topic in our ested in contacting them and what they can expect from me. If they correspondence, and each time he got upset with me. So I finally like it, they respond, if not, they will not. For now, I still have two explained, as I had in letters, that I felt his two personalities, “Ennad” inmates that I have written for over a decade and will continue to (simply Danny backwards) and “Gemini,” seemed contrived. Given do so. I currently write to about five total inmates and speak reguthat he was quite methodical and organized in his killings, even pos- larly over the phone with a spree shooter from Washington State. n

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Beautiful,

My

Daughter Beautiful

By S he l ly Re ub e n

Even before he murdered my beautiful, beautiful daughter, I was afraid for Echo’s life. She was kind and sensitive and illuminated by a mysterious inner light that made her seem fairylike, as if she were Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, and like someone watching her from the audience, I should be clapping my hands furiously in order to keep her alive. I was such a lucky man. 70

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FICTION During my twenty years in the Marines, I’d been a solitary soul. Then, while recovering from combat injuries in a VA Hospital, I met Julie. Julie was my rehab nurse and would have been the woman of my dreams if I’d had enough sense to dream her up. I thought that I’d seduced her with my charms, but her description of our love affair was much less romantic. She said that on the day I met her, she became my military objective. That I isolated her, overcame her resistance, and then took her as my hostage. “That’s how you’d describe our marriage?” I complained. “As a hostage situation?” Julie laughed; when she did, her nose twitched and a dimple creased her right cheek. She said, “You have a thin veneer of civilization, Burt, but bottom line, you’re a caveman.” We did a lot of laughing over the years. This was good, because Echo’s childhood was bathed in joy, and after her mother was killed in a car accident, memories of those delicious days became the crutches we leaned on to survive. I would not let Echo succumb to self-pity. I said, and meant, “You had a perfect mother for fourteen years. I had a perfect wife. Most people don’t get sixty seconds of the kind of happiness we’ve had for half a lifetime.” Which didn’t mean that we couldn’t cry. You lose someone you love, and cry is what you do. I was proud of my daughter. She was such a good girl. Strong, smart, savvy, and beautiful. Echo is the only person I’ve ever known who could sit down and read Bartlett’s Quotations from cover to cover; or make Origami birds while watching old MGM movies on TV; or invent her own recipe for a sweet potato casserole; or dance barefoot on the grass like an elfin princess in the moonlight. She had been taking advanced placement courses at our local college. She did not know that he was stalking her. She did not know that she became a rotten little bastard’s obsession. He kidnapped, violated, and killed her. He was arrested within twenty-four hours of committing the crime; he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death within thirteen months. And then, a fatal crack appeared in the bowl of justice. I won’t delineate every detail of prosecutorial error, every shred of lost evidence, or every questionable judicial decision. All you have to know is that his conviction was overturned, the D.A. was voted out of office, and the new district attorney chose not to retry the case. I have friends. Good friends who liked me and who loved Echo. They watched me closely during and after the trial. They studied me with deep concern after Echo’s killer was set free. And when I did not go into a profound depression, drink alcoholically, or threaten vengeance, they asked, “How can you be taking it so calmly, Burt?” “How come you aren’t going crazy?” “What are you going to do?” “You have to do something.” They never understood. Not one of them. Not ever. Except for Fran. And Fran and I never talked about it. We never will. Fran was the cop who tracked down the little bastard. She arrested him, read him his rights, turned him over to the prosecutor, and testified at his trial. Then she saw her perfect case thrown out of court and a monster unleashed.

“I was a bereaved father. A broken-hearted, church-going man who dealt with grief in a self-redemptive way.” When journalists probed, prodded, and provoked me for a response, I always said the same thing. “For twenty years, I proudly served as an officer in the Marines. I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I am not permitted to take the law into my own hands. No one is. Not even in the event of the death of a loved one.” I started to attend religious services. I picked St. John’s Episcopal because it holds four services a day. Five on Sunday. I went at least once a day, and always wore the same dark blue USMC baseball cap and navy blue windbreaker. I sat in the pew farthest from the altar—the one closest to the center doors. I got involved in community affairs. I found lost dogs, washed dishes at a soup kitchen, and joined a planning board. I coached a Little League team. At one game, a burly brute of an irate father swung a fist at my face. I caught his fist in mid-air, forced it down, and said, “There is never an excuse for violence. Never. Let’s set a good example for the kids.” I set a good example. I turned the other cheek. People admired my self-control. People admired my resolve. They said I was saint-like in my dealings with my fellow man, and that I had transformed my grief into good works. That was what I wanted them to say. A year went by. Eighteen months. I saw Fran from time to time. For coffee. For a movie. We never discussed my daughter. We never discussed the trial. We never discussed the scumbag who had murdered Echo and was then set free. But I kept track of him. Where he was. What he did. Where he worked. A parking lot. A supermarket. A car wash less than two blocks from a school. And I watched him. I was a bereaved father. A broken-hearted, church-going man who dealt with grief in a self-redemptive way. I washed dishes for indigents; I attended monthly community board meetings; I coached Little League. To all intents and purposes, I had a busy schedule. I did not. I had ample time to conduct my surveillance: To evaluate my enemy; to anticipate his objective; to devise an effective strategy; to position my assets. Fall 2013 THE FORENSIC EXAMINER®

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To observe. What I hadn’t known was that while I was observing him, Fran was observing me. We both knew that it was only a matter of time before my daughter’s killer would target another vulnerable girl. And that time had come. She was pretty and petite, with curly blond hair, a sweet face, and a trusting disposition. Her mother drove her to school every morning at eight o’clock, and she walked home alone every afternoon at 4:15. On Wednesdays, she took a shortcut through the woods behind the school’s gymnasium. I never found out who she was. My job was to confirm his pattern, his intention, and his obsession. Later, when Fran started to tell me about the girl, I stopped her. I did not want to know. I had no need to know. She was not my daughter. My daughter was dead. Fran had stopped by my house the night before the incident to drop off a book. Or so she said. The next morning, my hat and my windbreaker were missing. I skipped church that day. Church…my alibi…was the only tactical flaw in my plan. I parked my car two blocks from the school, turned off the engine, and waited. At 1500 hours, I sighted the predator pacing in front of a candy store, alternately checking his watch and clutching at something in his pocket. At 1545 hours, he strode toward the school. At 1601 hours, he positioned himself behind a tree in the wooded area along the path that the girl took to get home. She entered the woods. I entered the woods. She did not see the flick of his knife, but she heard enough to send her fleeing in terror back to the school. It was not until the following morning, when she saw a television news report about a body, a woods, and a big knife, that she realized what had almost happened. She told her parents. Her parents called the police. Suddenly, horribly, they knew how close their daughter had come to suffering Echo’s fate. Some newspapers said that the scumbag’s neck, arms, spine, and ribs had been broken. Others reported that he looked like he had been thrown out of an airplane, and all his bones crushed upon impact with the earth. One TV newscaster said he was so damaged, it was as if a giant had picked him up and crushed him in the palm of his hand. Newspapers exaggerate. Sometimes. Fran’s partner in the homicide division was a guy named Virgil. They came to see me the day after the body was found. When Fran walked through the door, she met my eye and shrugged, as if to say, “Don’t sweat it, Burt. It’s just something we have to get through.” She told me that the man who was convicted of murdering my daughter had been murdered himself, and that evidence at the scene suggested he’d been planning to abduct another a child at the time that he was killed. I said nothing. She told me that he was found with an opened switchblade knife in his hand, the official description of which was “thirteen-inch assistedopening giant folding-knife with a six-inch stiletto-style blade.” I said nothing. Then Fran’s partner started to talk. Virgil described where the body was found (on the path the girl was taking through the woods),

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what the girl saw (nothing), what she heard (men fighting), and how grateful she was to the unknown person who had saved her life. I said nothing. “For the record,” Virgil continued, assuming a you-can-trust-me look on his face, “where were you at 4:00 o’clock yesterday afternoon?” I said, “Church.” Virgil smiled. I didn’t. They left. That evening, Fran came over. She was carrying a small shopping bag. “I spoke to an eyewitness over at St. John’s,” she said, thrusting the shopping bag into my hand. “She swears that she saw you there yesterday afternoon. She’s sure it was you, because you were sitting where you always sit, and she recognized the hat.” I looked inside the shopping bag. I saw my USMC baseball cap and my blue windbreaker. Fran added, “I thought that at about 4:00 o’clock yesterday afternoon, you might have the need to be in two places at the same time, so I borrowed them.” I stared at Fran. She is a tall, slim, attractive woman. As tall as I am. She has penetrating green eyes and a mouth that can convey irony without bitterness. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” I asked. “I would indeed,” she answered. We had dinner that night at a local Italian restaurant. It has good food, old-fashioned wine bottles holding candles that drip hot wax, and Pavarotti singing Pagliacci in the background. We spoke very little during dinner. But we smiled a lot. It was a wonderful night. Eventually—not all at once—I stopped going to church, stopped finding lost dogs, stopped volunteering at the soup kitchen, and stopped going to planning board meetings. But I kept coaching Little League. I enjoyed the kids. And I wanted to reverse a bad example that I had set. Something about turning the other cheek. Next month, Fran and I are taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon. She has eyes that dance when she’s happy, and she has a generous heart. She’s also a great cop. She isn’t uncomfortable when I talk about Echo, but we never discuss my daughter’s murder, and we never talk about the scumbag who killed her. Ulysses Grant said about the art of war, “Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” My objective had been achieved. Justice had been served. I moved on. n Copyright © 2013 Shelly Reuben ABOUT THE AUTHOR SHELLY REUBEN is an author, newspaper columnist, private detective, and certified fire investigator. Her novels have been nominated for Edgar, Prometheus, and Falcon awards. For more information about her work, visit www. shellyreuben.com.


BOOK REVIEW

Section two gives an outline and methodology for conducting group psychological assessment, including religious and country profiling. Dr. Goldstein provides readers with questions the profiler needs to answer to effectively understand an organization or group, and what to look for when gathering data to develop an accurate country or group profile. Chapter seven provides insight into the often overlooked religious component to profiling by giving a brief history of United States involvement in other nations, and the role religion has played in the outcomes of that involvement. Section three takes the reader through the steps of actually developing and writing a profile/assessment, providing key questions for the profiler to use in his or her evaluation. This section focuses on showing profilers how to create the most common form of assessment provided to investigators, the “snap-shot” assessment. Several examples of “snap-shots” of political figures are provided. It gives a brief explanation of why it is important to measure effectiveness of the profile after each case, but leaves finding the strategies on how to do this up to the reader. Chapters eight and nine are perhaps the most useful chapters of the book, providing step-by-step instructions on how to create a “snap-shot” analysis of a subject through typical means. Section four gives an overview of Psychological Operations (PSYOPS), also known as Military Information Support Operations (MISO), and how it has used psychological assessments for group and country profiles. This section also breaks down the operational facets of PSYOPS and shows where a psychological profiler fits into that structure. The last half of this section provides information that would be of particular interest to those working with local law enforcement. Chapters fifteen through seventeen provide foundational information for jury profiling, interacting with lawyers, testifying in court, and conducting psychological autopsies. The book also provides an extensive glossary of profiling lanAn Evolving Forensic Science guage suggested by the profiling students at Marymount University where Dr. Goldstein is currently on staff. The glossary provides the reader with a fuller explanation of subjects related to the psychoBy Frank L. Goldstein, PhD logical profiling field. The appendices provide examples of actual psychological profiles (both group and individual) produced by Book Review by Wendy Briggs professional profilers. 260 pages • ISBN 978-0-9836466-0 Forensic psychology is a relatively new science. Therefore, few instructional books on the subject are available. Of those that are In Psychological Profiling: An Evolving Forensic Science (Fort Walton on the market, few give such a practical overview of this burgeonBeach, FL: Precision Influence Technologies Publication. 2011), Dr. ing science as Goldstein’s Psychological Profiling. While some books Frank Goldstein aims to provide the reader with an overview of the focus mainly on criminal investigations or the philosophy of forentheory and practice of forensic psychological profiling, providing sic psychology, Psychological Profiling provides the information and a general foundation of political profiling, criminal profiling, and practical instruction needed for actually conducting the many difforensic psychological profiling. Dr. Goldstein has written exten- ferent kinds of psychological profiles. While some prior knowledge sively on psychological operations, information operations, and of psychology and criminology seems to be expected of the reader, human factors analysis. In fact, his book, Psychological Operations Psychological Profiling does a fairly good job of providing an accessible Principles and Case Studies, is the premier text on psychological op- and easy-to-understand overview of the potentially overwhelming erations in the U.S. and abroad. With contributors from the field of field of psychological profiling. The practical methodology provided forensic psychology and chapters written by Dr. Goldstein himself, makes this book a valuable resource for any forensic psychologist to Psychological Profiling provides both the novice and experienced have on his or her shelf. n psychological profiler with a wealth of useful information. Divided into four sections, this book gives a broad overview of the many aspects of psychological profiling, each section providing a window into specific profiling areas. The first section of the book focuses on laying a basic foundation for profile assessment, covering what it takes to develop a successful psychological profile. This includes a refresher FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE Editor AT: of basic traits, temperaments, and cognitive and affective domains and The Forensic Examiner® • 2750 E. Sunshine • Springfield, MO 65804 OR AT: editor@acfei.com • 800.592.1399 how they relate to psychological assessment and profiling.

Psychological Profiling:

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THE FORENSIC EXAMINER速 Fall 2013


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FALSELY ACCUSED Johnny Williams and his attorney Melissa O’Connell, Photo courtesy of the Northern California Innocence Project

Johnny Williams: Fre e d Afte r 14 Years

By Gwyn Knauer

J

ohnny Williams did not accost a 9-year-old girl in Oakland, California in September of 1998. Williams did not molest this same victim, and, the following day, he did not attempt to rape her. Someone else did.

And yet, Johnny Williams was tried and convicted of exactly those crimes in June, 2000. They are the crimes he served fourteen years in prison for—two counts of forcible lewd conduct and one count of attempted rape—and the crimes that, even now that he has been proven innocent, will in some ways forever be connected to his name. However, since March 2013, Williams has been exonerated. What happened was this: the nine-year-old Oakland girl was sexually accosted during her walk home from school one afternoon by a man who introduced himself to her as Johnny, although he did not give a last name. The victim later told police that she did not recognize her attacker, making him a stranger to her—neither family member nor friend. Others in the neighborhood, however, along with the victim’s mother, informed police that they knew of a man living in the area named Johnny. This led investigators to Johnny Williams. Police took Williams into custody even though Williams did not match the girl’s original description of her attacker, and even though she and her family already knew Williams. Williams was no stranger to this girl; he was a family friend.

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In cases that rely heavily on eyewitness identification, and in cases where the convicted have given false confessions for a crime they did not commit, DNA testing can mean the difference between wrongful conviction and justice. Although technicians conducted tests on the clothing the victim had been wearing during the attack, no DNA tests were done. Technicians were not able to find any biological evidence directly linking the crime to Williams. Without strong biological evidence to guide them, investigators had to rely on eyewitness identification to continue their case. Police put Williams in a lineup, even though the victim knew that her mother believed Williams to be the culprit. Once the victim identified Williams as the man who attacked her, police began an interrogation, telling Williams they had eyewitness accounts, security footage, and DNA evidence all proving him guilty. Williams told police 45 times that he was innocent, but after their repeated claims that they had evidence to prove his guilt, he gave a confession. Technological advances in DNA testing are causing investigators to revisit more and more cases whose convictions relied heavily on eyewitness identification. In 2010, the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) and the California DNA Project (CDP) took up Williams’ case in response to a letter Williams had mailed to them asking for their assistance. With the help of the NCIP and CDP, technicians re-tested cloth samples from the shirt the victim had been wearing during the afternoon of the 1998 attack. This time, they gathered enough biological evidence to prove that Williams could not possibly have been the girl’s attacker. Based on this new information, the judge overturned the original conviction. Williams was on parole at the time, but by March 2013, he was free. For Johnny Williams, who served another man’s fourteen years in prison, DNA testing—through the assistance of the NCIP and CDP—ultimately meant the overturning of his conviction and the clearing of his name. n References Boroff, D. (March 2013). DNA evidence exonerates California man two months after he completes 14-year sentence for attempted rape of 9-year-old girl. NY Daily News.com. Retrieved from: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ dna-clears-man-served-14-year-sentence-article-1.1287159. California Man Exonerated by DNA Evidence After 14 Years in Prison (March 2013). Innocence Blog. Innocence Project Website. Retrieved from: http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/California_Man_Exonerated_by_DNA_Evidence_ after_14_Years_in_Prison.php. Johnny Williams Exonerated: 14 Years Later, Attempted Rape Convict Cleared in California (March 2013). Huff Post Crime. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/johnny-williams-exonerated_n_2867540.html. Northern California Innocence Project Successfully Exonerates Innocent Man of Sex Crimes He Did Not Commit (2013). SCU Today. Retrieved from: http://www. scu.edu/news/releases/release.cfm?c=15665. Rosynsky, P. (March 2013). Judge overturns Oakland man’s conviction of raping 9-year-old girl in 1998. MercuryNews.com. Retrieved from: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22766767/ another-oakland-man-has-wrongful-conviction-overturned.


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(lt. blue/gray, sizes: S to XXXL)

$60

O.

P.

Q.

R.

ACFEI LAPEL PIN $5

ACFEI JOTTER PAD $5

ACFEI PADFOLIO $20

ACFEI LABCOAT ACFEI TRACKSUIT

$55

S.

(sizes: 32-50)

$40

(sizes: men’s S to XXXL; women’s S to XXL)

$99

*Limited supplies. Orders are based on availability.

I.D. Number

ITEM

Deliver To (Street Address Only)

SIZE

QTY

TOTAL

Address City/State/Zip Credit Card Number

Exp. Date

Signature PAYMENT METHOD (Please do not send cash.) r Check/Money Order r Mastercard/Visa r Am.Express r Discover (please make checks and money orders payable to ACFEI)

SHIPPING AND HANDLING COSTS:

Lapel pin, jotterpad, or luggage tag only $5.00. 1 item (other than above) $12.00, 2 items $13.00, 3 items $14.00, 4 items $15.00, 5 items $16.00, 6 items $17.00, 7 items $18.00, 8 items $19.00, 9 items $20.00, add $1.75 for each additional item. Standard overnight add $30.00 to number of items cost. International shipping add $50.00 to number of items cost. Allow 4–6 weeks for delivery.

ORDER TODAY!

Sub-Total Shipping & Handling Overnight Delivery Total

MAIL: 2750 E. Sunshine, Springfield, MO 65804 | PHONE: (800) 423-9737 | FAX: (417) 881-4702


AMERICAN COLLEGE OF FORENSIC EXAMINERS Institute速 2750 E. Sunshine Street Springfield, MO 65804 www.acfei.com 800.592.1399

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