Conference Add-Ons

When investigators respond to a crime scene involving water, several questions are inevitable… Is this an accidental drowning? Was she homicidally drowned? Is this a strangulation staged as a suicidal drowning? Or is this a postmortem body disposal? Just as fire investigators and crash reconstructionists need training to recognize, identify, document, and investigate their respective scenes, anyone working cases involving pools or open water scenes need training on the realities of what happens to living and dead bodies in water. This includes the drowning process, how to determine truthfulness and deception during interviews, processing aquatic scenes, recovering small submerged evidence, packaging submerged bodies, processing submerged evidence for prints and DNA, and more. This interactive session provides hands-on skill practical drills that include optional in-water experiences and is valuable for law enforcement, CSI’s, aquatic first responders, prosecutors, and anyone who would work aquatic crimes against women cases.

Aquatic Crimes Against Women (ACAW) are often staged as noncriminal bathtub deaths. In this interactive workshop, the presenters will demonstrate the scene and case through the eyes of a prosecutor, judge, and jury with attendees acting as a bathtub homicide case as a patrol officer, detective, CSI, or death investigator. The presenters will also provide strategies on how to document the victim’s body, collect critical scene evidence, and report party evidence. Skills will include photographing wet/damp evidence, interviewing suspects of ACAW, identifying important injury and postmortem physiology artifacts, and applying a practical investigative framework with a bathtub case investigation form that attendees can bring to their departments. Attendees will also interact with and interview the reporting-party husband to document important circumstantial evidence. Additionally, a circumstantial evidence homicide senior state’s attorney will describe the legal pitfalls to avoid and proven ways to approach and work the scene for the most just jurisprudence outcome.

CCAW participants are invited to tour the brand-new Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support Non-Residential Center. Opened in May 2023, the center is home to the National Training Center on Crimes Against Women, the Janet Jensen Legal Justice Center & Family Law Library, The Rees-Jones Children’s Counseling Center, Women’s Trauma Counseling Center, a sensory room for occupational therapy, and all non-residential services offered by Genesis – a nationally recognized thought leader on the issue of and response to trauma caused by violence against women and children. In addition to a walking tour, your visit features discussions with Genesis leaders and experts about programming, partnerships, and solutions that address gender-based violence in Dallas.

Take a 10-minute bus ride from the Conference to the 15,000 square feet facility of New Friends New Life, a local nonprofit that provides case management, counseling, and economic empowerment to women and girls impacted by sex trafficking and exploitation.  Guests will see first-hand how NFNL is strategically addressing barriers survivors face, including launching an on-site Learning Academy for members to prepare for and take their GED tests, to the planting of the nearby Liberty Street Garden where members work to gain income and experience.  Be sure to stop by the photo booth to capture the moments as you network with other conference attendees, NFNL staff, and stakeholders over gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and drinks.