How to Catch a Killer: Misdirection of Criminal Asphyxiation Deaths

Asphyxiation, including drowning, strangulation, and suffocation, is a leading cause of death across the lifespan and a preferred method among serial killers, serial predators and other offenders who fly under the radar. Without obvious signs of external trauma, homicides resulting from asphyxiation are often missed or misdiagnosed as suicides, accidents, natural deaths and often encounter legal challenges that surround the “rough sex defense.” This presentation will address dynamics of asphyxiation crimes, crime scene staging and confirmation bias, processing scenes, and interpreting “undetermined” causes of death in an autopsy. This course will also explore lesser-known types of asphyxiation crimes such as aquatic sexual sadism, inert gas poisoning, staged breath play, and more. Attendees will better understand why these cases are so often missed and gain the insight needed to catch a killer. Attendees will also learn how to investigate cases with undetermined cause and manner of deaths, and most importantly will learn how to recognize, investigate, and document asphyxiation homicides to help prevent future injustices.

Register here.

2021 Whitman County Service Provider S.T.O.P. Training

Taking place via Zoom on Wednesday December 1st , from 8:30am-5:00pm.

Our topic for this year’s training will be on Advancing Best Practices for Addressing Strangulation and Asphyxiation with a focus on domestic violence and sexual assault.

Respiration is the physiological foundation of being alive. Without respiration the heart cannot beat, the brain cannot function, and all cells will die. A solid understanding of respiration is necessary to effectively recognize, identify, document, investigate, diagnose, and when appropriate, prosecute, fatal and nonfatal, pediatric asphyxiation. Kelsey and Andrea will take you on a respiration journey from the external atmosphere, through the airways and lungs, to blood, into cells, right through to the final exhalation of respiratory byproducts. You will then use learning by discovery to apply this knowledge to different types of pediatric asphyxia involving inert gases, manual suffocation, neck compression, drowning, choking, torso compression, restraint postures, and more.

Asphyxiation abuses and homicides often lack any external signs. This lack of external evidence often misguides the criminal justice system and results in missed opportunities to identify and investigate serious cases ranging from physical abuse, sexual violence and homicide.

Part II of this presentation will take the audience through case histories of each type of asphyxiation while learning what questions to ask, evidence to document, medical records to study, and experts with whom to consult, in order to best determine the manner of asphyxiation. This presentation will provide you with practical, evidence-based investigative techniques and protocols for working fatal and nonfatal pediatric asphyxiation cases.

Kelsey McKay trains and consults nationally for communities to implement protocol in various fields including intimate partner violence, child abuse, sexual assault, the use of expert witnesses, translating trauma other complex topics. She is a former prosecutor who exclusively prosecuted strangulation related crimes for seven years. She has developed and implemented protocol for strangulation and domestic violence response and treatment. She works with law enforcement to develop protocol and implement the use of a Strangulation Supplement into the field transforming the role of first responders to be more investigative by carrying her knowledge and needs as a prosecutor into the field on every case. She is President and CEO of the non-profit organization, RESPOND Against Violence that works to develop evidence-based protocol with forward-thinking approaches.

Andrea Zaferes is a medicolegal death investigator specializing in the handling of aquatic cases from scene to courtroom. She trains law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, domestic violence workers, medical personnel, and jurisprudence members to recognize, document, and investigate aquatic homicide, death, assault, and abuse cases. She assists in analyzing and building such cases in the U.S. and abroad and has developed standards for their investigation. She is recognized in multiple jurisdictions and the U.S. Army as an expert witness in bodies-found-in-water/aquatic death investigation. For over 30 years, she has taught dive and surface teams around the world to perform water rescue and find/recover submerged evidence and bodies. She is an author and frequent public speaker on the topics of aquatic death and aquatic abuse.

REGISTRATION LINK:https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7381835608462691343

Speaker, To Breathe or Not to Breathe, That is the Question: Expanding the Role of Asphyxiation Crimes Against Children, Dallas Child Advocacy Center Lecture Series (with Andrea Zaferes), July 15 & 22, 2021

Respiration is the physiological foundation of being alive. Without respiration the heart cannot beat, the brain cannot function, and all cells will die. A solid understanding of respiration is necessary to effectively recognize, identify, document, investigate, diagnose, and when appropriate, prosecute, fatal and nonfatal, pediatric asphyxiation. Kelsey and Andrea will take you on a respiration journey from the external atmosphere, through the airways and lungs, to blood, into cells, right through to the final exhalation of respiratory byproducts. You will then use learning by discovery to apply this knowledge to different types of pediatric asphyxia involving inert gases, manual suffocation, neck compression, drowning, choking, torso compression, restraint postures, and more.

Asphyxiation abuses and homicides often lack any external signs. This lack of external evidence often misguides the criminal justice system and results in missed opportunities to identify and investigate serious cases ranging from physical abuse, sexual violence and homicide.

Part II of this presentation will take the audience through case histories of each type of asphyxiation while learning what questions to ask, evidence to document, medical records to study, and experts with whom to consult, in order to best determine the manner of asphyxiation. This presentation will provide you with practical, evidence-based investigative techniques and protocols for working fatal and nonfatal pediatric asphyxiation cases.

Kelsey McKay trains and consults nationally for communities to implement protocol in various fields including intimate partner violence, child abuse, sexual assault, the use of expert witnesses, translating trauma other complex topics. She is a former prosecutor who exclusively prosecuted strangulation related crimes for seven years. She has developed and implemented protocol for strangulation and domestic violence response and treatment. She works with law enforcement to develop protocol and implement the use of a Strangulation Supplement into the field transforming the role of first responders to be more investigative by carrying her knowledge and needs as a prosecutor into the field on every case. She is President and CEO of the non-profit organization, RESPOND Against Violence that works to develop evidence-based protocol with forward-thinking approaches.

Andrea Zaferes is a medicolegal death investigator specializing in the handling of aquatic cases from scene to courtroom. She trains law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, domestic violence workers, medical personnel, and jurisprudence members to recognize, document, and investigate aquatic homicide, death, assault, and abuse cases. She assists in analyzing and building such cases in the U.S. and abroad and has developed standards for their investigation. She is recognized in multiple jurisdictions and the U.S. Army as an expert witness in bodies-found-in-water/aquatic death investigation. For over 30 years, she has taught dive and surface teams around the world to perform water rescue and find/recover submerged evidence and bodies. She is an author and frequent public speaker on the topics of aquatic death and aquatic abuse.

REGISTRATION LINK:https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6634599809644718607

Private workshop on domestic violence.

Private workshop on domestic violence.

Private workshop on domestic violence.

Description: Violence, rape, and trauma change how a survivor communicates to the world. When a victim makes a report, there is a process by which we filter information, often resulting in critically inaccurate judgments. Survivors trust us to hear what they are saying, but their words and actions often get lost in translation. The most common and effective defense to crimes committed against women is to attack their credibility. Implanting a seed of “crazy” can destroy the credibility of even the most ideal victim. Survivors’ behavior and actions are regularly misrepresented by the defense and by the system, resulting in failed investigations and prosecutions. This workshop will be presented by a former prosecutor and a survivor who persisted together to overcome this exploited defense.

Link to Register: https://conferencecaw.org

Description: With laws formally codified in penal codes across the country, convictions are rare because barriers still exist and inhibit the effectiveness of these important laws. This workshop, presented by a former prosecutor and defense attorney and family violence judge will include tips for all practitioners in the criminal legal system including charging, common defenses, and effectively translating cases to a judge or jury. From setting bonds to picking juries and using experts, the presenters will provide practical tips to evaluate and strengthen a case and move them from probable cause to beyond a reasonable doubt.

Link to Register: https://conferencecaw.org

Description: Felony statutes recognizing the lethality and seriousness of strangulation assaults have been passed in the majority of states. Stiffer laws recognize the gravity of this form of violence and its ability to predict future homicides, both for domestic violence victims and police officers. However, the criminal justice system has failed to implement necessary protocols or training to provide police officers guidance to investigate and collect the unique evidence necessary to hold these violent offenders accountable. As a result, many cases are rejected for prosecution and law enforcement is left without guidance. Attendees will learn to overcome common challenges strangulation presents, including lack of external injury, lack of victim, and missed and misunderstood evidence.

Link to Register: https://conferencecaw.org

Details and Registration (FREE): https://www.facebook.com/events/931612364328065

California IAFN/CalSAFE membership,

Hello! The next training from the SoCal IAFN Chapter and CalSAFE is Monday May 3rd from 1300-1500. FREE to all forensic examiners and open to MDT partners(feel free to share this email). $10 for CEUs for non-SoCal chapter or CalSAFE members. The Zoom invite is below along with the description, objectives, and bios of our presenters. This lecture was offered at the IAFN conference in 2020 and it is extremely interesting and relevant as we are looking beyond strangulation. I listened to it twice during the online conference and look forward to watching it again and learning more!

This lecture will NOT be recorded.

The evaluation and CEU information will be sent out after the lecture (the recording and eval from the Unstranger Danger event will be sent out later this week)

Description: Co-occuring Criminal Asphyxiation

This presentation will discuss individuals ( adult and pediatric) who have experienced co-occurring cases of criminal asphyxiation (COCA), defined as a criminal fatal/ non-fatal assault involving more than one type of asphyxiation through case studies. It will discuss a variety of lessons learned, that have changed the way law enforcement, social services, medical, and prosecution now handle these complicated cases and how they can positively influence each other’s assessment. COCA involving fluids can result in fatal or nonfatal respiratory illness that are rarely identified as signs of criminal asphyxiation. Aquatic COCA fatal cases may not even be reported to medical examiners by hospitals as they incorrectly appear as natural deaths. If COCA assaults are staged they are often misdiagnosed as accidental or suicidal drowning. Survivors will likely have additional trauma that goes unrecognized and untreated. This presentation will explain the importance of utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to aid in the recognition and investigation of COCA and will impact the forensic community by raising awareness of the existence of these cases of fatal and nonfatal COCA that include at least one form of aquatic asphyxiation

Objectives:

1. Recognizing signs and symptoms of patients who have experienced co- occurring form s of asphyxiation involving aquatic involvement.

2. Being able to better identify when a person may have suffered asphyxiation involving fluids that may have been staged as some other type of trauma.

3.The learner will be able to enhance their assessment of asphyxiation cases by utilizing specific questions during a medical forensic examination and through the lessons learned by reviewing cases of co occurring asphyxiation