DECEMBER 2023
INVESTIGATIVE QUARTERLY
A Publication by the International Homicide Investigators Association (IHIA) Rob Peters, PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Sergeant Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office
Dear Colleagues, Members and Sponsors, I hope this newsletter reaches everyone happy and healthy as we approach the new year, 2024. Over the last year, we, the IHIA Board, with the unwavering support of our membership, have had the opportunity to host two DNA & Genealogy Summits with our industry sponsors QIAGEN and DNA Labs International, with a third summit on the way. We have also hosted several Foundational Homicide Investigations Courses, Advanced Homicide & Violent Crime Courses, Child & Infant Death Investigations Courses, as well a Mass Casualty & Active Shooter Investigations Course. As with all our training courses, we pour our efforts into planning, execution, and providing knowledgeable speakers to deliver the best possible training. Planning for the 2024 Symposium continues, as the agenda shapes up and speakers are confirmed, we will provide updates as they happen. I am hopeful to have the Symposium’s agenda posted on the website by the end of January. We have some great case presentations lined up, along with presentations on Perkins Operations, Arson Death Investigations, and Fentanyl Death Investigations. Please continue to check www.ihia.org for the latest information.
What’s Inside the IQ: • Letter from President Rob Peters • From the desk of the IHIA Executive Director Steve Lewis • Article: Did Google Just Defeat Every Geofence Warrant • Article: Protecting Against Mass Attacks • Article: The Mating Psychology of Incels • 2024 Symposium • Regional Marketing Opportunities • The Wounded Blue
On behalf of the Association Board, thank you for your membership and for attending our training courses. We will continue to strive to provide resources, guidance, and support to each of you and our profession.
President Rob Peters International Homicide Investigators Association
www.IHIA.org
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The IHIA is the world’s largest and fastest growing organization of homicide and death investigation professionals. The non-profit organization represents the largest network of homicide professionals and practitioners ever assembled. The IHIA has representatives in every U.S. state and nations on six continents. For membership information, visit: www.ihia.org/Membership
From the desk of The IHIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Steve Lewis TThe IHIA has been working diligently to increase our membership numbers and provide professional, relevant training. Five years ago, the IHIA membership base was between 6001,000 Active Members per year. But we have seen extensive growth since, and we are nearing 3,000 Active Members as we close out 2023. We attribute this growth to the increased number of training opportunities we have provided. Since IHIA’s inception, we have presented up to two “Foundational Homicide Investigation” courses each year around the country. We expanded this training by requiring each regional director to facilitate one of these courses each year. Some of our directors have exceeded that by putting on two courses a year. Then, in 2019, we developed two additional courses, titled, “Advanced Homicide & Violent Crimes Investigation” and “Cold Case/No-Body Homicide Investigation & Prosecution” courses. In 2021 and 2022, we developed two more courses, titled, “Mass Casualty & Active Shooter Investigation” and “Child and Infant Death Investigation” courses. The IHIA recognized the growing need for more variety in the types of training we provide as the world is changing and so should the skill set and expertise of homicide investigators. Our partners with the Federal Bureau of Investigation are instrumental in bu ilding these courses. Their su pport is unwavering, and we could not provide these training courses without them. Along with our yearly symposium and these additional training opportunities, we are reaching more investigators than ever before. In 2023, the IHIA provided training to over 2,000 investigators around the world. And, with our newly created role of the Corporate Chairperson on the board of directors, the IHIA is also going to evolve the values and benefit of being a corporate sponsor and/or financial supporter of the organization. More will be announced in the upcoming event prospectus for the 2024 symposium. Lastly, we have partnered with our friends at The Wounded Blue organization. Please take a moment to visit their website. They have a great mission and the IHIA fully supports them! Stay Safe!
Steve Lewis IHIA Executive Director
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Article: Did Google Just Defeat Every Geofence Warrant I wrote last week about an oral argument in the Fourth Circuit involving geofence warrants. Geofence warrants are warrants to obtain the location data that Google users let Google collect if they opt in to Google’s location history service, which about a third of Google users do. Geofence warrants have been possible because, if you opt in, Google keeps a copy of the location history. And records are kept can be compelled, at least if the legal process is valid.
doesn’t keep the records, Google will have no records to turn over. If the government comes to Google with a court order for geofence data, Google will just say, sorry, we don’t keep that stuff anymore.
My very tentative sense, from a public policy standpoint, is that this seems like a bit of a bummer. Geofencing was being used to solve some really serious crimes—like murders, rape, and armed robberies—when there were no known suspects or leads and the case had gone cold. All of which makes this Google announcement from Having governments be able, with sufficient cause, to go yesterday of great interest. Google will no longer keep to a court, get a court order, and then obtain potentially location history even for the users who opted in to have it responsive location records that could provide a lead to turned on. Instead, the location history will only be kept investigate was, on the whole, a good thing. on the user’s phone. Of course, that public interest has to be balanced with The Timeline feature in Maps helps you remember places the public interest in privacy. But my sense is that you’ve been and is powered by a setting called Location geofence warrants have been implemented (and could History. If you’re among the subset of users who have be implemented in the future) in ways that provide far chosen to turn Location History on (it’s off by default), greater privacy protection than normally exist with soon your Timeline will be saved right on your device — warrants. Every technique raises risks of abuse. But if giving you even more control over your data. Just like you had to look at all the pluses and minuses of different before, you can delete all or part of your information at techniques, a court order regime to access geofence any time or disable the setting entirely. records had more pluses and fewer minuses than those records not existing. If you’re getting a new phone or are worried about losing your existing one, you can always choose to back up your It will be interesting to see if we learn why Google made data to the cloud so it doesn’t get lost. We’ll automatically this change. Google is a private company. It has to answer encrypt your backed-up data so no one can read it, to its shareholders, not to the public interest. And it’s including Google. totally plausible that this was just a sensible business decision. If Google can provide location history for Additionally, when you first turn on Location History, those who want it without keeping the records, Google the auto-delete control will be set to three months by presumably benefits by not having to deal with the default, which means that any data older than that will be privacy headaches of responding to geofence warrants. automatically deleted. Previously this option was set to 18 months. If you want to save memories to your Timeline If this is what drove Google’ decision, it’s an example of for a longer period, don’t worry — you can always choose a less-appreciated way that the market regulates privacy. to extend the period or turn off auto-delete controls If you’re providing a data service, responding to court altogether. orders for user data is not part of your business model. It’s a costly hassle. And it can only lead to bad press. So you These changes will gradually roll out through the next might look for ways to avoid keeping records, as records year on Android and iOS, and you’ll receive a notification never kept are records that cannot be turned over. when this update comes to your account. As always, stay tuned. Unless I’m missing something, this will entirely defeat geofence warrants— which, I would speculate, was READ FULL ARTICLE HERE probably the point of Google’s policy change. If Google
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Article: Protecting Against Mass Attacks Mass public attacks, whether personally or ideologically motivated, cause much concern and fear. Nonetheless, you can often take actions to prevent, defend against, and respond to mass attacks. A recent NIJ-funded¹ research project analyzed over 600 mass attack plots, hundreds of articles and resources, and dozens of expert interviews to develop the Mass Attacks Defense Toolkit,2 an online educational toolkit with strategies, guidance, and links to additional resources. The toolkit is available at https:// www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TLA1613-1.html. Here are five critical points resulting from this research project:
In addition to calling 911, the Department of Homeland Security maintains a directory of tip lines by state and region at https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-saysomething/how-to-report-suspicious-activity. 2. Communities need multidisciplinary, multi-partner teams to follow up and assess warning signs and determine what to do next. Every case needs a single lead or responsible partner to direct the necessary follow up. Exhibit 2 shows the core elements of a typical threat assessment model, team, and process.
1. We can proactively prevent many mass attacks. Public reporting prevented almost two-thirds of the foiled plots Threat assessment is not just about the likelihood of an attack; it also requires determining the next steps highlighted in the toolkit. to take with the subject, most of which may be outside Look for warning signs, such as the following: the criminal justice system. Critical components include • Motivation documenting next steps and check-in points to ensure ° Inspired by previous attacks. follow-through. ° Desire to fulfill an extremist cause (especially upon expulsion from a group/organization for being too violent). ° Desire to fulfill an extremist cause while believing there is no other choice but to attack due to perceived danger or threat. • Preparation ° Creates written plan. ° Attempts to recruit others. ° Seeks information on how to maximize impact. ° Coordinates with known violent extremists. ° Seeks arsenals of weapons, ammunitions, and gear (except for benign uses, such as sporting or hunting). ° Travels frequently (for training or targeting). ° Probes or breaches potential sites. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
Exhibit 1 illustrates the importance of noticing warning signs.
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Article: The Mating Psychology of Incels Introduction Finding and retaining a mate represent persistent adaptive problems for humans and form the basis of two of the seven most fundamental of humanity’s social motives (Neel et al., 2016). Modern humans descend from an unbroken evolutionary chain of ancestors who successfully solved these problems. Achieving mating goals is so important to humans that it impacts physical and mental health, financial success, and even functions as a social signal of status (Antonovics & Town, 2004; Braithwaite et al., 2010; Robles et al., 2014; Winegard et al., 2017). Indicative of how preoccupied humans are with attracting mates is the fact that billion-dollar industries are built around it in the form of dating apps (Curry, 2021). Humans have evolved a suite of psychological mechanisms to address those adaptive mating challenges, such as forming mate preferences, assessing ones’ own mate value, ascertaining what members of the opposite sex value in a mate, and deciding on which targets to concentrate finite mating efforts relative to ones’ own mate value. It seems somewhat paradoxical, therefore, that there is a growing community of men who strongly identify with their perceived inability to solve these adaptive problems – incels (involuntary celibates). Incels Incels are a primarily online sub-culture community of men who forge a sense of identity around their perceived inability to form sexual or romantic relationships. The incel community operates almost exclusively online, providing an outlet to express misogynistic-hostility, frustration and blame toward society for a perceived failure to include them (Speckhard et al., 2021). Reports now number incel membership in the United States from around 40,000 (Beauchamp, 2019) to hundreds of thousands (Kutchinsky, 2019), and at the time of writing there are ~20,000 active users from around the world in the main forum Incels.is.
it is impossible to prove that an individual objectively can’t form sexual or romantic relationships), the identity requires an individual to embrace it and integrate it into their sense of self (Rousis et al., 2023). Incels have significantly poorer mental health compared to similar samples of single men, putting them at increased risk of self-harm (Costello et al., 2022; Moskalenko et al., 2022; Sparks et al., 2022, 2023; Speckhard & Ellenberg, 2022). Incels’ mating difficulties and poor mental health may influence one another in a bidirectional fashion consistent with reciprocal causation (Whisman et al., 2021). Many incels engage in misogynistic online hostility (Jaki et al., 2019), and a small proportion of incels have committed acts of violence (Costello & Buss, 2023). An estimated 59 people have been killed by incels worldwide (Hoffman et al., 2020). Unwanted celibacy is a subjective psychological experience characteristic of, but not exclusive to, incels, and is associated with misogynistic attitudes among men (Grunau et al., 2022). Similarly to their poor mental health, incel misogyny may also be influenced bidirectionally by lack of mating success. People rarely seek relationships with those who hold hostile attitudes about them.
Despite the incel community being focused almost entirely on their perceived difficulties in mating, and the significant media speculation about the potential sexual and mating psychology of incels (Bates, 2020; Srinivasan, 2021), incel mating psychology has yet to be formally investigated in the scientific literature. In fact, there exists a relative dearth of primary data collected from self-identified incels in general, likely due to incels being a hard-to-reach group who are suspicious of the motives of academic researchers (Costello et al., 2022). Our research constitutes the first formal investigation of incel mating psychology. We make predictions about incels’ perceived reasons for their singlehood, self-perceived mate There is some debate about the definition of, and criteria value, minimum standards for mate preferences, and for, inceldom. Incels were originally defined in the perceptions of female mate preferences (i.e., cross-sex literature as all adults who fail to find a sexual partner mind reading ability). for six months or more, despite their desire to do so (Donnelly et al., 2001). However, we suggest that any READ FULL ARTICLE HERE definition based on a metric of time is too broad and does not reflect the incel social identity (Costello, 2023). Due to the subjective nature of involuntary celibacy (i.e.,
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UPCOMING REGIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOUNDATIONAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS COURSE January 29, 2024 Grand Rapids, Michigan FOUNDATIONAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS COURSE February 5, 2024 Tacoma, Washington MASS CASULTY RESPONSE AND ACTIVE SHOOTER INVESTIGATIONS COURSE February 26, 2024 Largo, Florida
MISSION: DNA POSSIBLE April 15, 2024 Deerfield Beach, Florida COLD CASE/NO-BODY HOMICIDE INVESTIGATION & PROSECUTION April 29, 2024 Kansas City, Missouri FOUNDATIONAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS COURSE May 13, 2024 Houston, TX
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REGIONAL MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES As a company investing time and resources to the Law Enforcement Homicide Investigator’s field, you have an opportunity as an exhibitor or sponsor to visit with these investigators to enhance your relationship with each individual and their departments. Enhance your company’s exposure and your relationship with these investigators and their departments at one of these new events. Please contact Collette Csintyan collette@cypressplanninggroup.com SPONSORSHIP RECEPTION $2,000 ($2000 exclusive, sponsorship will be shared with non-competing companies if exclusive is not secured.) SPONSORED COFFEE OR SPONSORED BREAKFAST $500 each day SPONSOR DAY $500 each day Be the exclusive sponsor of a specific day at this event. You may come in meet with the attendees, mingle, accompany them to Lunch and so on. A few minutes will be provided to introduce yourself to the attendees and pass out information.
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