Meet Not Your Average Listener, Christine: FBI-trained Forensic Artist
On our hunt to find listeners of The Preston & Steve Show with interesting stories we met Christine, an FBI-trained forensic artist who uses human remains to help identify unknown decedents using art. She draws dead people.
“I was trained as an illustrator and fine artist at University of the Arts here in Philly and worked as a graphic designer at Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida. When their Criminal Investigations Division asked me to interview a rape victim and do a sketch, a few of the deputies remarked how the man from my sketch looked like a male model (as illustrators, we’re supposed to make things look good and appealing). I obviously needed training.
The Sheriff sent me to 3 weeks of FBI Academy’s ‘Forensic Facial Imaging’ class at Quantico, where I was trained by forensic consultants for CSI, and investigator who solved the Susan Smith case, and an investigator who worked on the Martin Luther King assassination case. I learned three techniques for identifying unknown criminal subjects and deceased persons:
1: cognitively interviewing crime victims to arrive at a composite sketch of an attacker
2: Post mortem drawing: when a corpse has at least half its face intact, I can draw from photos I take
3: Facial reconstruction from skeletal remains: I ask the investigator to ‘deflesh’ the skull (yes, it is as it sounds), and arrive at a sketch using tissue depth markers and data.
I’ve had a number of identifications so far, and still work in the area helping investigators identify the dead. I also wrote a book on dating after this training: ‘How To Tell A Prince From A Frog: Law Enforcement Techniques for Knowing Who You’re Dating’. christinekerrick.com
Christine makes dead people come alive and makes us look good!
In the commercial break she drew Kathy Romano aged 25 years… whoa.
Listen to the full interview on the Daily Podcast 10/18/17
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