FREE Training Sponsored by the Wilmington Police Department

I N T I M I C I D E
(Intimate Partner Homicide)
Date: September 8, 2015
Time: 8:00 am 4:00 pm
Location
Wilmington Police Department
Headquarters
615 Bess Street
Wilmington, North Carolina 28405
To register: Contact Kim Breeden at
(910)343-3644 or
email request to attend to:
kim.breeden@wilmingtonnc.gov
Course includes:
Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate Partner Homicide
Intimicide Characteristics
Intimicide and Firearms
Much more

Presented by: Dr. Laura Pettler, Forensic Criminologist

Vice President of American Investigative Society of Cold Cases
Leading World Experts in Crime Scene Staging

FREE Training Sponsored by the Wilmington Police Department

I N T I M I C I D E
(Intimate Partner Homicide)
Course Description:
Intimicide (intimate partner homicide) is the killing of a former, current, or temporary intimate partner or
a member of the intimate partners familial or social circle by another former, current, or temporary
intimate partner. Intimicide includes the murders of former or current boyfriends, girlfriends or temporary
sexual partners; husbands, wives, same sex domestic partners, and the friends and family of intimate
partner violence victims who are murdered because they provided shelter and/or support for intimate
partner violence victims. Intimicide is closed-room murder, or murder that takes place with only the
victim and offender present. Intimicide includes the murders between individuals who just met and
became sexually intimate, like for example two people who met at a bar, left together, and then one
partner kills the other partner during the encounter. Intimicide also includes individuals who were dating
only briefly at the time of the murder of one by another, or intimate partners who were originally
strangers, but entered into a regular sex-only intimate relationship or an extra-marital affair. The
dynamics, or patterns of activity that range in force in intensity, of intimicide are different than other
types of murder. The key component into understanding the ins and outs of intimicide investigation is to
victimology or the analytical study of the victim. This course introduces critical concepts that aid
investigators in investigating the ever-challenging intimate partner homicide. Attendees will complete the
course with a deeper understanding of intimicide dynamics, offender characteristics, and with new
investigative strategies.
Our courses are approved for continuing education in some states and eligible for continuing education in
other states when certificate of attendance is submitted by the attendee. Our courses are also American
Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) approved for continuing education credit and are
approved for certification and renewal applications by the International Association for Identification (IAI).

Course Topics Include Overview of:

Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate Partner Violence and Risk Factors Indicating Lethality

Intimate Partner Homicide

Intimicide Characteristics

The Power-Anger Conceptual Continuum

Intimicide Dynamics

Power

Anger

Intimicide Homicidal Pattern

Intimicide and Firearms

Criminal Profiling and Its Value for Predicting

Risk and Preventing Lethality in Intimicide

Intimicide Offender Characteristics

Victim-Centered Death Investigation Methodology: From 911 to the Court Room

Victimology Theory and Practice

The Victim-Offender Relationship

FREE Training Sponsored by the Wilmington Police Department

I N T I M I C I D E
(Intimate Partner Homicide)

Assessing Victim Risk

Suspectology
Statement Analysis
Wound Pattern Analysis
Crime Scene Reconstruction and Dr. Pettler's Invention, "The Kaleidoscope
Demonstration

CRIME SOLVER
Dr. Laura Pettler is a forensic criminologist, which means Laura marries the physical evidence, such as
bloodstain evidence with behavioral evidence like information revealed in victimology, suspectology, and
statement analysis to identify, analyze, and evaluate a murder. Laura is the Vice President of the American
Investigative Society of Cold Cases and is one of the world's leading experts in crime scene staging and
especially how it connects to intimate partner homicide and unsolved murder cases. In fact, it was Laura's
work on the 1986 cold case homicide of Harold Gentry that led to the arrest of Betty Lafon Neumar, The Black
Widow Granny. Until Laura discovered that this then 76-year-old grandmother had five dead husbands and a
dead son, this woman had flown under the radar for more than 50 years. Although Neumar died before she
stood trial, Laura uncovered convincing information illustrious of Neumar's involvement in at least one of her
husbands' deaths.
Laura's work was also instrumental in the case of New York v. Mosley. This cold case was thought to be a
"botched robbery", but upon complete evaluation, Laura opined the deaths of the victims in this case were
resultant of an unplanned, frenzied attack by someone they knew. Two men were charged in the case that did
not match up with the evidence, specifically the DNA evidence. The trial started, but was abruptly halted
when the DNA found at the scene matched Michael Mosley. The two men originally charged were let go and
Laura testified for the Prosecution in their case against now convicted murderer, Michael Mosley.
In 2014, Laura founded social media based The Crime Scene Staging Awareness Initiative towards heightening
awareness of the American epidemic of crime scene staging especially as it related to incorrectly ruled deaths,
its connection to intimate partner violence, and to the American Cold Case Epidemic