Seminar Title
Advanced Homicide and Death Investigation Conference
Dates of Events
12/04/2023 through 12/08/2023
Last Updated: 09/29/2023
Instructor(s): Multiple Instructors
Location: Palace Station Hotel & Casino - 2411 West Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89102
Course Registration Fee: $595
Instructor Bio
Multiple Instructors
Course Objectives
Course Overview:
Advanced Homicide Investigation - Training in Areas Not Normally Included in Homicide Classes
Digital Evidence
DNA/Genealogy
Talking with Serial Killers
Managing Major Case Homicides
No Body Homicides
Child Deaths and Homicides
Clandestine Burial
Principles of Forensic Anthropology
Homicide Investigator Resiliency
Monday December 4, 2023
8:00 a.m.—8:30 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m.—9:00 a.m. Welcome and Schedule
9:00 a.m. – Noon Melanie Rouse
· When the Bodies Come to You: Human Remains Found in Lake Mead
· Rapid Response to Mass Casualties
Melanie Rouse, Coroner Clark County, NV
Melanie Rouse is currently the Clark County Coroner in Nevada. She previously worked as the Chief Medical Investigator/ Manager for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office and has further experience working in the position of Mass Fatality Coordinator/Emergency Management Specialist. Melanie is on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME) and currently serving as the Chair of the Ethics Committee. Melanie’s academic credentials include a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Colorado State University and a Masters of Arts degree in Psychology/Criminal Justice Studies from University of the Rockies. She is a doctoral candidate for a Doctorate of Public Administration from Liberty University, an American Board Certified as a Medicolegal Death Investigator Fellow and certified as a HAZMAT operational level responder for Weapons of Mass Destruction.
12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m. Glenn Bard
· Electronic and Digital Evidence Used for Homicide Investigations and Prosecution: "Speaking for the Victim"
Glenn Bard , CISSP, EnCE, CHFI, A+, Network+, Security+, ACE, AME
Glenn Bard is a retired Pennsylvania State Trooper First Class and a U.S. Veteran of Operation Desert Storm. In 1999 Glenn began Computer Crime Investigations for the state police and has since investigated crimes across the United States ranging from Child Pornography to Criminal Homicide. Glenn is the Chief Technical officer for PATCtech, overseeing all Digital Forensic and Data Services.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Dr. Katherine Ramsland
· Talking with Serial Killers: Insights and Applications
There’s a distinct difference between case facts and how killers tell their tales. Experts who have interviewed serial killers, from Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer to Dennis ‘BTK’ Rader, have devised methods for retrieving data about motives, fantasies, self-perception, and mental deviance. This presentation demonstrates several examples of criminal autobiography, with special focus on the presenter’s work with Dennis Rader and Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., a serial killer’s accomplice. What have we learned and why does it matter to investigators today?
Dr. Katherine Ramsland spent 5 years assisting Dennis Rader to describe his development into the BTK serial killer, in Confession of a Serial Killer. The author of 71 books and professor emerita of forensic psychology and criminal justice at DeSales University, she has studied the art of interviews with extreme offenders. Featured as an expert on 20/20, Dr. Oz, 48 Hours, and numerous podcasts and crime documentaries, she also writes a regular blog on the criminal mind for Psychology Today. She speaks internationally on mass and serial killers to law enforcement groups, attorneys, death investigators, and writers. Among her other books are Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers, How to Catch a Killer, Spree Killers: Practical Classifications for Law Enforcement and Criminology, and The Psychology of Death Investigations.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. - Robert Lowery
· DNA
· Genealogy
· Databases
· Managing Major Case Homicides
Robert Lowery, Major (Retired) Florissant Police Department, Missouri
Robert Lowery was the 5th police official to be appointed as Commander of the elite 35-year Greater St. Louis Major Case Squad. Robert is a member of the International Homicide Investigators Association, Quantico, Virginia, United State Department of Justice, Federal Agency Task Force on Missing and Exploited Children, Washington DC, International Coroners and Medical Examiners Association and Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Academy Association.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
8:00 a.m. – Noon Stuart Somershoe, and Treena Kay
· Investigating and Prosecuting No Body Homicides
In the popular idiom, it is often said “No body; no crime.” Hundreds of successful prosecutions of missing person cases as homicides have proven this false. While no body homicides are some of the most challenging cases that investigators face, there are tried and true techniques that can bring these cases to successful resolution. This presentation will offer the unique perspective of both investigator and prosecutor and highlight the close cooperation that is needed. Through numerous case studies, the presenters will share legal history and precedent, investigative strategies, and suspect typology. Presenters will discuss what types of evidence investigators should search for and the best techniques to collect, preserve, and present that material. The presentation will show how investigators can move a missing person case (whether new or cold) to a successful no body homicide prosecution.
Stuart Somershoe (ret.), Detective, Phoenix Police Department (AZ)
Stuart Somershoe began his career as a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) in 1996. Since becoming a detective in the PPD Missing and Unidentified Person’s Unit in 2008, Stuart has investigated thousands of missing person cases, some of which received widespread media attention and spotlighted on such programs as 20/20 and Disappeared. Stuart has been featured in books and media about missing and unidentified person cases, including Skeleton Crew (Simon & Schuster, Reprint 2014) by Deborah Halber, The Long-Term Missing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) by Silvia Pettem, and the Missing Alissa podcast by Ottavia Zappala. In December 2022, after twenty-six years in law enforcement, Stuart retired from the Phoenix Police Department. Stuart continues to work in the missing person field as a volunteer and consultant.
Treena Kay, Deputy County Attorney, Maricopa County Attorney's Office (AZ)
Treena Kay has been a prosecutor for 24 years with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. Kay is currently the Division Chief of the Trial Division. Ms. Kay began prosecuting capital and non-capital homicides in 2005. In 2009, she started collaborating with the Phoenix Police Department’s Missing and Unidentified Person Unit. This collaboration involves the investigation of missing person/bodiless homicide cases. In her career, Ms. Kay has prosecuted seven bodiless homicides. Five of the cases were resolved through plea agreements and two were convicted at trial of First Degree Premeditated Murder. Ms. Kay prosecuted an additional eight homicide cases that were charged as bodiless homicides but during the prosecution, the victims’ remains were recovered. In addition to supervising close to a hundred attorneys, Ms. Kay continues to work with law enforcement agencies when they suspect a missing person investigation is a bodiless homicide case.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m Mike Murphy
· Accidental V. Suicides
· Injury Death Terminology/ Ballistic Deaths
· Case Review Homicide vs. Natural Death
· Case Review Suicide Death by Poison
· Case Review High Profile Death, Autoerotic or Suicide
Michael Murphy, F-ABMDI (retired)
Dr. P. Michael Murphy serves as President and CEO of M Power USA, an international management consulting firm providing management and leadership guidance to public and private agencies. Dr. Murphy brings 40 plus years of law enforcement and public service experience to the position serving in a multitude of roles giving him a unique perspective beginning with boots on the ground of Chief of Police. Dr. Murphy most recently served as Director of Special Services for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia where he was responsible for the Long Term Missing and Unidentified, Forensic Services, Image Enhancement/Age Progression Units.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
8:00 a.m. –12:00 p.m. Laura C. Fulginiti, PhD, D-ABFA
Principles of Forensic Anthropology
• principles of biological profile for unidentified decedents
• postmortem changes and taphonomic processes
• trauma assessments
• pathological conditions affecting bone
• identification techniques
Laura C. Fulginiti, PhD, D-ABFA
Dr. Fulginiti is a board-certified forensic anthropologist with over 30 years of experience working in major metropolitan medical examiner offices. She has expertise in victim identification, mass fatality response, bone trauma analyses and scene recoveries involving skeletal, mummified, decomposed and fresh decedents. She is a leader in forensic science organizations, having served for six years on the board of directors for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and as President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She has conducted trainings for law enforcement across her state, and across the country, and she is qualified as an expert in both state and federal courts.
1:00 p.m. –5:00 p.m. Frank Di Modica
Approaches to Clandestine Burial Investigation
• principles of skeletal and buried body scene investigations
• briefing and personnel requirements
• search options
• changes in landscape/terrain
• defining the scene
• locating a clandestine gravesite
• marking, diagramming, photography and collection of evidence and human tissues
• procedures for reliable burial excavation
• case examples
Frank Di Modica, Phoenix Police Department (ret)
Frank Di Modica is a certified AZ Post and ABMDI instructor with 25 years of law enforcement and 13 years of corporate security experience. He worked as a field-training officer, a night detective, in the crimes against children unit, and in homicide during his time as a detective. He participated in the federal government response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both as a scene recovery specialist, and in the morgue assisting with anthropological examinations. He has taught law enforcement across the country, on a variety of topics including surface skeleton recoveries, approaches to clandestine burial investigations, investigation of child crimes, homicide scene investigations, processing illicit drug laboratories, and mass fatality scene investigations.
Friday, December 8, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Mike Murphy
· The Exam and Coroner Investigation of Child Deaths and Homicides
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Rick Baker
· Homicide and Death Investigator Resiliency
Rick Baker is President of Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Officers Association. Retired Lieutenant from Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Cookeville, Tennessee. Rick has spent time lecturing and teaching officers, court clerks, and elected officials. He has lectured and taught at numerous national and state conferences. Throughout his 27-year law enforcement career, Rick has supervised Corrections, Patrol, Training, SWAT, as well as, provided specialized training to other agencies. Rick has been called on as an expert witness in several court cases. Rick received his Bachelor of Science from Lee University and his Masters in Criminal Justice Management from Columbus University. Rick holds numerous training, instructor and specialized certifications. He has been the coordinator for the Academy, teaching various subjects such as, tactics, firearms, driving, pit box -in, defensive tactics, FTO, Instructor Development, Ethics and Leadership. Rick is currently the National Training Director for the Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute.
Digital Evidence
DNA/Genealogy
Talking with Serial Killers
Managing Major Case Homicides
No Body Homicides
Child Deaths and Homicides
Clandestine Burial
Principles of Forensic Anthropology
Homicide Investigator Resiliency
Monday December 4, 2023
8:00 a.m.—8:30 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m.—9:00 a.m. Welcome and Schedule
9:00 a.m. – Noon Melanie Rouse
· When the Bodies Come to You: Human Remains Found in Lake Mead
· Rapid Response to Mass Casualties
Melanie Rouse, Coroner Clark County, NV
Melanie Rouse is currently the Clark County Coroner in Nevada. She previously worked as the Chief Medical Investigator/ Manager for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office and has further experience working in the position of Mass Fatality Coordinator/Emergency Management Specialist. Melanie is on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME) and currently serving as the Chair of the Ethics Committee. Melanie’s academic credentials include a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Colorado State University and a Masters of Arts degree in Psychology/Criminal Justice Studies from University of the Rockies. She is a doctoral candidate for a Doctorate of Public Administration from Liberty University, an American Board Certified as a Medicolegal Death Investigator Fellow and certified as a HAZMAT operational level responder for Weapons of Mass Destruction.
12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m. Glenn Bard
· Electronic and Digital Evidence Used for Homicide Investigations and Prosecution: "Speaking for the Victim"
Glenn Bard , CISSP, EnCE, CHFI, A+, Network+, Security+, ACE, AME
Glenn Bard is a retired Pennsylvania State Trooper First Class and a U.S. Veteran of Operation Desert Storm. In 1999 Glenn began Computer Crime Investigations for the state police and has since investigated crimes across the United States ranging from Child Pornography to Criminal Homicide. Glenn is the Chief Technical officer for PATCtech, overseeing all Digital Forensic and Data Services.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Dr. Katherine Ramsland
· Talking with Serial Killers: Insights and Applications
There’s a distinct difference between case facts and how killers tell their tales. Experts who have interviewed serial killers, from Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer to Dennis ‘BTK’ Rader, have devised methods for retrieving data about motives, fantasies, self-perception, and mental deviance. This presentation demonstrates several examples of criminal autobiography, with special focus on the presenter’s work with Dennis Rader and Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr., a serial killer’s accomplice. What have we learned and why does it matter to investigators today?
Dr. Katherine Ramsland spent 5 years assisting Dennis Rader to describe his development into the BTK serial killer, in Confession of a Serial Killer. The author of 71 books and professor emerita of forensic psychology and criminal justice at DeSales University, she has studied the art of interviews with extreme offenders. Featured as an expert on 20/20, Dr. Oz, 48 Hours, and numerous podcasts and crime documentaries, she also writes a regular blog on the criminal mind for Psychology Today. She speaks internationally on mass and serial killers to law enforcement groups, attorneys, death investigators, and writers. Among her other books are Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers, How to Catch a Killer, Spree Killers: Practical Classifications for Law Enforcement and Criminology, and The Psychology of Death Investigations.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. - Robert Lowery
· DNA
· Genealogy
· Databases
· Managing Major Case Homicides
Robert Lowery, Major (Retired) Florissant Police Department, Missouri
Robert Lowery was the 5th police official to be appointed as Commander of the elite 35-year Greater St. Louis Major Case Squad. Robert is a member of the International Homicide Investigators Association, Quantico, Virginia, United State Department of Justice, Federal Agency Task Force on Missing and Exploited Children, Washington DC, International Coroners and Medical Examiners Association and Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Academy Association.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
8:00 a.m. – Noon Stuart Somershoe, and Treena Kay
· Investigating and Prosecuting No Body Homicides
In the popular idiom, it is often said “No body; no crime.” Hundreds of successful prosecutions of missing person cases as homicides have proven this false. While no body homicides are some of the most challenging cases that investigators face, there are tried and true techniques that can bring these cases to successful resolution. This presentation will offer the unique perspective of both investigator and prosecutor and highlight the close cooperation that is needed. Through numerous case studies, the presenters will share legal history and precedent, investigative strategies, and suspect typology. Presenters will discuss what types of evidence investigators should search for and the best techniques to collect, preserve, and present that material. The presentation will show how investigators can move a missing person case (whether new or cold) to a successful no body homicide prosecution.
Stuart Somershoe (ret.), Detective, Phoenix Police Department (AZ)
Stuart Somershoe began his career as a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) in 1996. Since becoming a detective in the PPD Missing and Unidentified Person’s Unit in 2008, Stuart has investigated thousands of missing person cases, some of which received widespread media attention and spotlighted on such programs as 20/20 and Disappeared. Stuart has been featured in books and media about missing and unidentified person cases, including Skeleton Crew (Simon & Schuster, Reprint 2014) by Deborah Halber, The Long-Term Missing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) by Silvia Pettem, and the Missing Alissa podcast by Ottavia Zappala. In December 2022, after twenty-six years in law enforcement, Stuart retired from the Phoenix Police Department. Stuart continues to work in the missing person field as a volunteer and consultant.
Treena Kay, Deputy County Attorney, Maricopa County Attorney's Office (AZ)
Treena Kay has been a prosecutor for 24 years with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. Kay is currently the Division Chief of the Trial Division. Ms. Kay began prosecuting capital and non-capital homicides in 2005. In 2009, she started collaborating with the Phoenix Police Department’s Missing and Unidentified Person Unit. This collaboration involves the investigation of missing person/bodiless homicide cases. In her career, Ms. Kay has prosecuted seven bodiless homicides. Five of the cases were resolved through plea agreements and two were convicted at trial of First Degree Premeditated Murder. Ms. Kay prosecuted an additional eight homicide cases that were charged as bodiless homicides but during the prosecution, the victims’ remains were recovered. In addition to supervising close to a hundred attorneys, Ms. Kay continues to work with law enforcement agencies when they suspect a missing person investigation is a bodiless homicide case.
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m Mike Murphy
· Accidental V. Suicides
· Injury Death Terminology/ Ballistic Deaths
· Case Review Homicide vs. Natural Death
· Case Review Suicide Death by Poison
· Case Review High Profile Death, Autoerotic or Suicide
Michael Murphy, F-ABMDI (retired)
Dr. P. Michael Murphy serves as President and CEO of M Power USA, an international management consulting firm providing management and leadership guidance to public and private agencies. Dr. Murphy brings 40 plus years of law enforcement and public service experience to the position serving in a multitude of roles giving him a unique perspective beginning with boots on the ground of Chief of Police. Dr. Murphy most recently served as Director of Special Services for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia where he was responsible for the Long Term Missing and Unidentified, Forensic Services, Image Enhancement/Age Progression Units.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
8:00 a.m. –12:00 p.m. Laura C. Fulginiti, PhD, D-ABFA
Principles of Forensic Anthropology
• principles of biological profile for unidentified decedents
• postmortem changes and taphonomic processes
• trauma assessments
• pathological conditions affecting bone
• identification techniques
Laura C. Fulginiti, PhD, D-ABFA
Dr. Fulginiti is a board-certified forensic anthropologist with over 30 years of experience working in major metropolitan medical examiner offices. She has expertise in victim identification, mass fatality response, bone trauma analyses and scene recoveries involving skeletal, mummified, decomposed and fresh decedents. She is a leader in forensic science organizations, having served for six years on the board of directors for the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and as President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She has conducted trainings for law enforcement across her state, and across the country, and she is qualified as an expert in both state and federal courts.
1:00 p.m. –5:00 p.m. Frank Di Modica
Approaches to Clandestine Burial Investigation
• principles of skeletal and buried body scene investigations
• briefing and personnel requirements
• search options
• changes in landscape/terrain
• defining the scene
• locating a clandestine gravesite
• marking, diagramming, photography and collection of evidence and human tissues
• procedures for reliable burial excavation
• case examples
Frank Di Modica, Phoenix Police Department (ret)
Frank Di Modica is a certified AZ Post and ABMDI instructor with 25 years of law enforcement and 13 years of corporate security experience. He worked as a field-training officer, a night detective, in the crimes against children unit, and in homicide during his time as a detective. He participated in the federal government response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, both as a scene recovery specialist, and in the morgue assisting with anthropological examinations. He has taught law enforcement across the country, on a variety of topics including surface skeleton recoveries, approaches to clandestine burial investigations, investigation of child crimes, homicide scene investigations, processing illicit drug laboratories, and mass fatality scene investigations.
Friday, December 8, 2023
8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Mike Murphy
· The Exam and Coroner Investigation of Child Deaths and Homicides
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Rick Baker
· Homicide and Death Investigator Resiliency
Rick Baker is President of Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Officers Association. Retired Lieutenant from Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Cookeville, Tennessee. Rick has spent time lecturing and teaching officers, court clerks, and elected officials. He has lectured and taught at numerous national and state conferences. Throughout his 27-year law enforcement career, Rick has supervised Corrections, Patrol, Training, SWAT, as well as, provided specialized training to other agencies. Rick has been called on as an expert witness in several court cases. Rick received his Bachelor of Science from Lee University and his Masters in Criminal Justice Management from Columbus University. Rick holds numerous training, instructor and specialized certifications. He has been the coordinator for the Academy, teaching various subjects such as, tactics, firearms, driving, pit box -in, defensive tactics, FTO, Instructor Development, Ethics and Leadership. Rick is currently the National Training Director for the Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute.
