2023

The 47th Annual Educational Conference was held on April 24th-26th at the Drury Plaza Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. Out first 2 1/2 day conference in many, many years.

The conference title was "Basic to Advanced Investigative Techniques". We had 133 in attendance and nine vendors and three additional vendor sponsors. We hosted eight workshops and several more lectures.

On Day 1, we had a presentation from Marc Bennett, Sedgwick County DA, and Tim Relph, Wichita PD, on the investigation into the Letitia Davis homicide. Day 1 also included a presentation from Jeremy Chappell on Accreditation, Certification, and Standardization.

Day 2, had a presentation on Ghost Guns from Jason Thon, KBI, the investigation of the Matthew Schoshke homicide from Andy Herrera, KBI, and how to take better known prints and postmortem print identification by Jay Wessel, KBI. A presentation from Cassie Schultheis and Rumi Mamenari Delgado, Johnson County Sheriff's Office reviewed an attempted homicide case where latent prints showed up in a reversed position. Day 2 was wrapped up with a presentation from Wade Cherms, Riley County PD, on using drones for documenting crime scenes.

Day 3, started with a presentation on Bias from Holly Latham, KBI, followed by a presentation on investigative genetic genealogy by Jena Sparling and Todd Leeds, KBI. Holly Latham, KBI, also presented on Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. Wendy Hummell, Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office, gave a presentation on Vicarious Trauma and Building Resilience. Cory Latham, KBI wrapped the day with a presentation on the use of technology to advance investigations.

Workshops on Day 2 and Day 3 included several workshops on Crime Scene Imaging - Basic, Specialized, and Low Light, all taught by Chris Engle-Tjaden, KBI, and Rebecca Vincent, Johnson County Sheriff's Office. Two vendors gave workshops on the FSIS, Arrowhead Forensics, and how to detect more evidence with forensic light sources, Foster+Freeman. Kayla Nida, KBI, gave a presentation on an introduction to forensic anthropology, and Kim Gerhardt-Whiddon and Kole Perez, Washburn University, hosted a workshop on lifting latent prints from hard to light surfaces.

Thank you to all of the presenters/instructors, vendors/sponsors, and the 2022 KDIAI Board for making the 2023 Conference a huge success. Thank you to all of the attendees in make it a great KDIAI Conference - we hope to see you in 2024!

2022

The 46th Annual Educational Conference was held on April 12th-13th at the Bluemont Hotel in Manhattan, Kansas.

The conference title was "Crime Scene Preservation and Documentation". We had 105 in attendance, six vendors, and several wonderful speakers.

Lectures included a case presentation from both CSI and Attorney perspectives of the "She's a Pistol" case in Johnson County, scene preservation, photography composition, sketching and diagramming, evidence collection and packaging, and case presentations from the Riley County Attorney's Office.

Thank you to all of the presenters, vendors/sponsors, and the 2021 KDIAI Board for making it another successful conference!