2023 Preconference

Perpetrators who use strangulation and other forms of asphyxiation to facilitate rape, violence and abuse pose a significant threat to women and often target vulnerable populations. They evade justice by exploiting the gaps in the system, and each time they avoid accountability, they escalate into confident serial criminals.

– The Strangulation Chronicles, Scott Hampton

Through three interactive case studies, this unique course will take attendees back in time to follow the journey of one serial offender who has multiple touchpoints with the legal system. At each juncture, practitioners will learn new ways to identify and navigate the critical opportunities that could have prevented the escalation of a serial killer.

Attendees will learn new strategies to overcome claims that a rape was “rough sex,” navigate accusations that a victim is the aggressor, and reframe attacks designed to target the credibility of a victim. As a result, attendees will be able to identify and overcome the ways an abuser manipulates not only victims but also the system who is responsible for holding these perpetrators accountable.

– The Strangulation Chronicles, Scott Hampton

Most training on strangulation and other types of asphyxiation have primarily focused on identifying and investigating a specific crime. This course takes the next step, providing a lens into the motives and tactics a perpetrator uses to outsmart authorities. It provides a playbook for law enforcement, advocates, prosecutors, and other practitioners to dig deeper into cases where offenders use this terrifying technique. As a result, this course will guide practitioners as they play a critical role in homicide prevention and stopping serial offenders.

Check-in, networking, etc.

Welcome, Introductions, Keynote

Criminal History of Serial Killers

Break

Framing the Issue: Missed Opportunities

Presentation of Final Crime Scene

Case File, Evidence, Investigative Tools

Lunch (on your own)

Case File Review & Discussion

Case Scenario 1: Stranger with a Side of Strategy

Case Scenario 2: The Closed Door

Break

Case Scenario 3: The Last Letter

Inside the Mind of a Perpetrator: Interviewing, Interrogations, Evidence Collection

Questions, Closing, & Evaluations

Kelsey McKay trains and consults nationally to strengthen how communities collaborate, investigate, and prosecute strangulation, sexual violence, intimate partner abuse and other power-based abuse. As a former prosecutor, she handled thousands of strangulation cases and developed protocols to implement successful ways that improve how communities respond these difficult cases.  Over the last seven years, Ms. McKay has written curriculums, developed trainings, and consulted on asphyxiation cases across the world. As a victims-rights attorney, she has represented victims and consulted with attorneys in family court, civil court, Title IX and the criminal legal system. She has served as an attorney and consultant on multiple cases where a victim of intimate partner abuse is criminally charged for killing an abuser. In February 2023 a jury acquitted her client of murder, finding that she had acted in self-defense.

Consulting Website: https://www.mckaytrainingconsulting.com

RESPOND Website: https://www.respondagainstviolence.org

Scott Hampton has been working with batterers, sex offenders, victims and children exposed to violence for over 30 years. As the Director of Ending the Violence, he provides community and jail-based educational classes to perpetrators. Dr. Hampton is also the Project Coordinator of Strafford County’s Supervised Visitation Center, a past president of the National Supervised Visitation Network, a peer reviewer for the U.S. Dept. of Justice and is a founding member of New Hampshire’s Fatality Review Committee. Dr. Hampton is frequently called upon to provide expert witness testimony in court and writes and speaks frequently on issues related to interpersonal violence having provided over 500 trainings in North America, Asia and Europe. His 2010 book, “Tolerant oppression: How Tolerance Undermines Our Quest for Equality and What We Should Do Instead” addresses the intersection of domestic violence, sexual assault, racism and other forms of oppression.

Website: http://www.endingtheviolence.us/

Mark Wynn, founder of Wynn Consulting is a twenty-one-year member of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department – Served as Lieutenant to the Domestic Violence Division and a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team for fifteen years. He has served as an advisor to the state, national and international leaders to help guide and shape law and policy and helped form the largest police domestic violence investigative unit in the United States.

Full Bio: http://www.markwynn.com/about-mark-wynn/bio/

Website: http://www.markwynn.com/

Andrea Zaferes, a medicolegal death investigator, is familiar with the handling of aquatic and asphyxiation cases from the scene to the courtroom. She trains law enforcement, medical examiners/coroners, dive teams, domestic violence and trafficking crime workers, medical personnel, and jurisprudence members to recognize, document, and investigate homicide, death, assault, and abuse cases that involve drowning and other forms of asphyxiation. Ms. Zaferes assists in analyzing and building such cases in the U.S. and abroad, and has developed standards for their investigation. She has been teaching dive teams around the world for more than 30 years to recover submerged evidence and bodies, is an author, and frequent public speaker on aquatic forensics. Ms. Zaferes is a pro bono consultant for such organizations as NCMEC and the NYS DCJS Missing Person Cold Case Review Panel, and works with Lifeguard Systems, Dutchess County Medical Examiners’ Office, and Respond Against Violence.