Embedded Law Enforcement Professionals in Iraq

Part III

Hunting Down Terrorist Bombers

Retired FBI Agent Greg Snider has a spent the last year and half hunting for one of the most dangerous predators on earth—men who use bombs to kill others. Greg, imbedded with our military units in Iraq, sifted through the debris of the latest bombing sites, searching for elusive clues. He and his teammates searched for evidence that might lead military and law enforcement to identify these bomb makers and track the manufactures who provided the parts of these deadly weapons.

In this last of a three-part interview, Greg will tell us about his experiences in this search for these killers. Key to the success of this mission—to bring terrorists into Iraqi court as criminals—is the collection and presentation of evidence. This sound simple, but in Iraq the journey through that country’s judicial system is politically and culturally challenging. Who are these terrorists and how do we stop them? Greg Snider will tell us about the last eighteen months he and others worked to find an answer.

MARK: During our last interview, Greg, you told us about arriving in Iraq and some experiences and challenges in investigating these cases. Many of our readers are mystery readers and writers, looking for unique characters that seem to bring the story alive. Those that create a special place in our minds. Tell us more about some of the interesting people you met while overseas.

GREG:  I believe that I mentioned several individuals who contributed greatly to our success in Iraq during our earlier interview.  I’ll recap a few of them as follows: 

First there is Captain, now Major, Perez-Rivera, aka; “Captain PR.”  His individual efforts and self-sacrifices went far beyond the call of duty.  As I said before, he received his higher education at the seminary.  Quite a dichotomy from being a war fighter wouldn’t you say?  He slept about four hours every other night.  He read hundreds of e-mails every day and the amazing part was his ability to sort out those that pertained to our Area of Operation (AO) and the names of those who posed the greatest threat to our unit.  He briefed our colonel daily advising him on who posed the greatest threat for that day and week.  He is the person responsible for establishing the targeting of bad Iraqis in our AO.

My job was to establish a working relationship with him in order to prove what I could bring to the fight.  Upon my arrival it was obvious that he was the busiest soldier in the army.  His time was valuable. I had my work cut out getting him to listen and accept my value to the unit.  This proved to be a daunting task and a test of my patience.  As Mark knows, I don’t like sitting around.

I found that I could pose small bits of information to PR because he had only small bits of time to listen.  I would sit and watch him, trying to determine when his brain might be in neutral so that he would hear what little bits of information I could pass on.  I got his attention after the colonel assigned me to review all the “release packets”—detainees on the list to be released. This task did not sit well with the soldiers.  I searched computer data bases to find “evidence” that could be used to dissuade the attorneys from releasing certain individuals.  This was absolutely one of the most frustrating tasks.

Almost all the detainees were gathered up with “army intelligence,” information not releasable to the Iraqis due to its sensitive nature or the techniques used to gather it.  I quickly learned that the colonel did not want anyone released.  Within the first couple days, I learned that one of the individuals was linked to a Jordan bombing.  That set the tone for getting Captain PR’s ear when the timing was right.  He had a reason to believe I could be of value.  This suspect was detained further. However, over the coming months, many detainees were released due to “lack of evidence.”  Evidence was my mission, a brand new concept to the army.

It should be noted that Captain PR was almost singlehandedly responsible for the 101^st Airborne’s distinction of capturing the greatest number of bad Iraqis in this conflict—175 enemy combatants during a twelve month period.

He also holds another distinction.  Together we were the first unit in the army to acquire Iraqi Warrants for Arrest, nine in our first attempt.  We had evidence.  I was able to train a team of our soldiers to gather evidence at capture sites and attack sites.  These soldiers became enthused with their new tasking.  We formed a good team.

(L-R) Bill King, Leon Schenck, Major Kelby Brake, and Greg

Another individual I mentioned was LEP Leon Schenck.  Along with being a very funny man and a retired FBI agent, he earned distinction through his work at the detention facility in Baghdad.  It became apparent to him that releasing thousands of bad Iraqis due to lack of evidence was not a good idea.  However, due to “bleeding hearts” around the world and the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA), this became routine based upon directives from above. LEP Schenck discovered that many of the detainees did not have fingerprints, DNA or photographs on file, contrary to what the army believed.

I must take this opportunity to point out that the army has attorneys and—as all law enforcement comes to know—attorneys are not always on our side.  To clarify, the overwhelming majority of army lawyers are fresh out of law school and owes their time to the army to pay for their education.  That being said, here is LEP Schenck’s story:

 LEP Schenk, being a forward thinker, contacted the FBI and requested supplies to fingerprint some 30,000 Iraqi detainees.  He learned the FBI not only offered to provide these materials, but the bureau sent some 20 agents to help collect this data.  Supplies arrived shortly and about six weeks later agents come to take fingerprints, DNA and photographs.

I need to digress a bit to make what happens next make sense.  When LEP Schenck first arrived at his new assignment at the Baghdad Detention Facility, he continued to refer to those incarcerated individuals as “prisoners.”  He was corrected by the JAG Officers on many occasions and directed to call these prisoners “detainees.”  A “prisoner” is a person captured during war, and since this conflict is not a “war” they are “detainees”.  LEP Schenck questioned this because he pointed out that many “detainees” had been in custody of the army for over five years.  He subsequently learned to refer to those in custody as “detainees.”

Returning to my story about fingerprinting the “detainees”, about a day and a half into the project of FBI agents taking fingerprints, photographs and DNA, a JAG officer showed up and said the FBI could not continue taking photographs of the “detainees” because the Geneva Convention precluded pictures taken of “prisoners.”  The FBI insisted that “we are the FBI and we’ll do what we want.”  LEP Schenck walks into the dispute and tries to reason that those in custody were “detainees”, not “prisoners,” as JAG officers repeatedly make clear on numerous occasions.  As such, these “detainees” are not subject to the Geneva Convention.

The FBI halted their efforts when they were not able to resolve this issue. It was referred to the Pentagon.  A week and a half later, the FBI agents got the green light to continue with their photo recognition pictures.  (More on this practice later as it pertains to soldiers’ morale.)

Two other individuals I briefly spoke about earlier were Officer in Charge Major Kelby Brake and our interpreter, Sammy Wassim.  I believe I detailed their contribution and my appreciation for their friendship, knowledge and professionalism in my previous interview.

Embedded Law Enforcement Professionals in Iraq

Part II

Hunting Down Terrorist Bombers

Retired FBI Agent Greg Snider has a spent the last year and half hunting for one of the most dangerous predators on earth—men who use bombs to kill others. Greg, embedded with our military units in Iraq, sifted through the debris of the latest bombing sites, searching for elusive clues. He and his teammates searched for evidence that might lead military and law enforcement to identify these bomb makers and track the manufactures that provided the parts for these deadly weapons.

In this second of three articles, Greg will tell us about his experiences searching for these killers.

MARK:  What was your first assignment, Greg?

GREG:  My first assignment was with the 101^st Airborne north of Baghdad.  This is where I worked with Captain PR.  Thanks to PR’s exceptional work this unit holds the distinction of capturing over 175 targeted individuals in a 12 month period, the most of any unit ever in Iraq.  I arrived at this unit about half way through their tour.  Once I could get a few minutes each day with PR, he began to understand what I brought to the fight.  Together we obtained the first nine U.S. Army generated Iraqi warrants.  By the way, PR only slept about 4 hours every other night.  He is one dedicated man.

Greg, left, with now-Major "Captain PR" Perez-Rivera

MARK: How closely did you work with the military? Where were you housed? Where did you work?

GREG:  I worked directly with military command staff.  The army is a 24/7 operation.  At first I worked seven days a week about 14 hours a day.  I was the only LEP (Law Enforcement Professional) assigned to my unit.  I was assigned to the commander and served at his discretion.  My job was to advise him relative to the rule of law and gain his confidence in the use of physical evidence and its importance in targeting.

All of my time in Iraq was spent in the vicinity of Baghdad.  When I was assigned to a maneuver unit I worked south and north of Baghdad proper. I was housed with soldiers on a small base or a forward operating post.

My final assignment, after being outside the wire, was to the forensic laboratory where our evidence was processed.  My job was to be the liaison between our LEPs in the field and the laboratory where the analysis was conducted.  I worked for another extremely capable soldier, Maj. Kelby Brake.  She is 'smart as a whip' and quickly learned about the labs forensic capabilities, analysis and procedures.  She had no other knowledge of forensics prior to this assignment.  This in-theatre evidence analysis laboratory was eventually named the Joint Expeditionary Forensic Facility (JEFF), or “CSI Baghdad” as we were fondly referred to by others.  Our capabilities were fingerprint, ballistics and tool marks analysis, and DNA. 

This concept of using evidence in war time is unprecedented and will continue from here on out.  A lot of my job there was to triage the evidence, usually by phone before it arrived at our facility or when it came in the door.  What can we do with a particular item that might give us the identity of the perpetrator?  Ballistic analysis of a bullet was problematic in that if an Iraqi police officer or an Iraqi Army person was killed, Iraqi belief is that the body could not be defiled by extracting the bullet and the body was buried within 24 hours.  I spent a lot of time convincing the U.S. Army soldiers, Iraqi police, and Iraqi army personnel to collect the bullet casings from the crime scene.  Casings can be directly linked to one particular firearm, in many cases easier than analyzing the fragments of a bullet.

My assignment with JEFF was on Victory Base just across from Saddam’s Al Faw Palace where he spent much of his time while in power. 

MARK:  How were you alerted to each call? Were you on call? On patrol? Were you armed?

GREG:  As mentioned above I was armed at all times.  On base we had a horn or siren to alert us to incoming rockets or physical attack.  On a daily basis we operated by targeting a particular individual and going out looking for that person.  If there was a specific purpose I would go outside the wire with the soldiers to advise on the collection of evidence.  A routine patrol with no known objective was a 'no go for me.'  They would take me if I want, but I chose to limit my risk taking.

MARK: When you responded to a bombing, how did that work? Did you create a crime scene? Tag and bag evidence? How did this all work?

GREG:  The military DOD units (bomb experts) would usually beat me to the blast site.  They would make sure that all the explosives were made safe (they loved to blow them up).  Another major concern was a secondary blast designed to takeout the first responders.  My job was to make sure that all items that contained physical evidence be photographed, collected, tagged and bagged and sent to the lab for analysis.  I helped train many U.S. soldiers to secure the crime scene and collect evidence.  Later, while working at the lab, I conducted informative tours of the laboratory explaining and demonstrating examples of positive results when evidence was collected properly and protected from contamination. 

MARK: What were you looking for?

GREG:  Anything that might contain physical evidence like fingerprints or DNA.  If it was a small arms attack or a sniper shooting we collected bullets and casings when possible.  If we were capturing someone in a residence we would conduct a search of the entire house.  We would collect documents, computers, propaganda, electronic media, cameras, film, pictures, just about anything that we would in the states.  Anything that might give us a lead as to whom this individual associated with and that might lead us to the next bad guy.  In many cases we found illegal weaponry or bomb-making components.

MARK:  Did you encounter any resistance on these calls? What happened?

2 P.M. sandstorm causing red sky

GREG:  My unit was lucky on the missions I went out on.  We did not encounter any hostile acts other than small arms fire on two occasions.  In both of these instances we were not able to determine who was firing at us.  My guess is that they fired a few rounds at our vehicles and then ran.  There is no way they could take head on the might of our soldiers.

MARK: How closely did you work with civilian personnel, Iraqi military and local law enforcement?

GREG:  While at the JEFF, one of my duties was to conduct tours.  One day a request came in to do a tour for an Iraqi judge.  The major, another LEP, and I conducted that tour. The judge brought an interpreter.  This went over so well that he came back with other judges.  That led to Iraqi generals and Iraqi commanders.  This led to Iraqi police.  Once this got started there were six months where three out of five tours were for Iraqis.  I did not work directly with Iraqi civilians other than the Iraqi interpreters hired by our army. 

Embedded Law Enforcement Professionals in Iraq

Part I

Hunting Down Terrorist Bombers

Retired FBI Agent Greg Snider has spent the last year and half hunting for the most dangerous predators on earth—men using bombs to kill and terrorize. Greg, imbedded with our military units in Iraq, sifted through the debris of the latest bombing sites searching for elusive clues. He and his teammates searched for evidence that might lead military and law enforcement to identify these bomb makers and track the manufactures providing hardware and explosives to these killers.

Cold nights, scorching days, and blinding dust storms are some of the conditions Greg and his team endured in this manhunt. As they searched, they were always watching their back, wondering when they might become the hunted by those who kill indiscriminately.

Back in the states, Greg has agreed to tell us his story about the fight that is still being waged in that country and other parts of the world by our troops. No country is immune, as New Yorkers discovered again in May when a Pakistani-born man rigged an SUV with a homemade designed to explode in Times Square. Fortunately, this bomb failed.

In this three-part interview, Greg will tell us about his experiences in this search for these killers.

Danger hs never been something Greg ran away from during his career. As an FBI, he worked undercover so effectively the bureau needed to relocate him after the case finally surfaced in court. He served for many years on that agency’s SWAT, responding to call outs that he chooses not to discuss. He learned to fly, became a pilot for the bureau, and limped away from one crash only to continue flying again. He was awarded the FBI’s highest award for bravery after saving the life of another federal agent on the high seas during yet another undercover operation. I know these things about Greg, because he is my friend and partner in a number of cases. He is an unassuming gentleman who has always stayed away from the lime light. He gave this interview because we are friends.

In my book, this man is an American hero.

MARK: Thanks, Greg, for allowing us to learn a little more about what is going on overseas. It is not often we get to pull back the shades for a personal view as to what is happening in Iraq. First, tell us about how you learned about this job? I don't imagine you learned about it in the want ads. Did you know what you were going to get into?

GREG:  I first heard about this opportunity approximately nine months or so before actually learning what the real mission was all about.  It is “Saving Soldiers Lives.”  The number one killer of our Soldiers and loss limbs are due to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), bombs!

When I first heard of this program I said “No way, are you nuts.”  Going to a war zone to work with the U. S. Army, you’ve got to be kidding.

After talking to another retired FBI agent with whom I am very well acquainted, he told me that we would be advising the battle space commanders about “investigations.”  Something they knew nothing about.  We were going to be the “experts” on how to investigate those organized criminal groups, just like the drug organizations in Mexico and the U.S., responsible for supplying the bomb materials, training the bomb makers, the manufacturing of the bombs, those placing the bombs and those triggering them.  The mission was then clear, something I’ve been doing for many years as an FBI agent.

I saw a chance to make a difference.  It was now clear that the right people might be able to have an impact in this fight.  I could be an added value to the Army.  Although my heart was now in it, I also thought this is idiotic, to say the least, to go to a war zone at my age.  How would I keep up with the 20-something year old soldiers?  It would be a challenge to say the least.

I decided to follow up and contacted Military Professional Resource, Inc. (MPRI), which was acquired by L-3 Communications about 30 years ago, regarding my qualifications and their requirements.  I further learned that their idea was to take well seasoned law enforcement individuals and embed them into a military unit as an advisor.  I would in essence become one of the Commander’s resources to use at his discretion.   There was a lot of discussion about my physical condition and whether I was medically “fit for duty.”  They mailed me the forms for the medical checkups and further descriptions of what the mission was about and requirements.  A side note, I learned that about one person per class discovered some major medical issue that they did not know they had, i.e. cancer or a heart ailment.

The reasons for the medical checkups and questions about my physical conditioning were because for all intent and purpose I was going to be a soldier.  I was going to be required to carry a gun, wear a U.S. Army uniform, and carry all the same equipment to include body armor weighing about 55 pounds before you add all the ammo and other army stuff to it.  Oh, and the heat, wearing all that equipment in the heat!  Also required were a series of inoculations for everything you can imagine and some that you would rather not.

The realization that this was going to be a huge undertaking on my part at my age (59) was now ranking at the top of the list of all the major decisions I have ever made in my life.  Not to mention the fact that I was going to be taking the same risk of death as those soldiers I would be working hand-in-hand with.  I would be in the battle space face to face with an enemy who wanted to kill you.

Once I had wrapped my mind around taking on such a daunting task, probably the most perplexing issue was signing up for a one year tour of duty and leaving the family for such a long period.  Luckily my wife is as capable as she is understanding.  Of course I would miss her and my family tremendously.  After much discussion we agreed that this would be “Greg’s last big adventure.”

MARK:  What did you need to do to prepare for this tour of duty?

GREG: Besides making sure I met all the requirements presented above, I was already working out on a weekly basis, so I increased the intensity of my workouts and completed most of the medical requirements.  At first, MPRI was not calling me back.  After several inquiries I later learned that they were very concerned that I may be a problem because I have two prosthetic shoulders.  Would that one medical factor cause me not to be able to complete the one year required deployment, they asked?  I persisted with explanations of what my conditioning and weight bearing capabilities were and finally they acquiesced and accepted my application.  A good word from other LEPs (embedded Law Enforcement Professionals) who know me was probably the deciding factor.

MARK:  Although you’ve served your country with the FBI in a number of ways, you never served in the military. Did that take a little getting used to?

GREG:  Yes, I was not in our armed forces.  However, I was a firearms instructor, a SWAT agent, and a sniper for over 14 years with the FBI.  So, I was very familiar with the equipment and weaponry.  Of course there was going to be a requirement to pass an army firearms qualification course.  I was already familiar with the army’s 5 paragraph “Operations Order,” as we had a similar requirement in the FBI.  My knowledge of tactics and patrolling was already sound. 

Operation Black Widow

Part II--Operation Black Widow

Gang Expert: George Collord

Santa Rosa Police Department Detective (retired)

Gang instructor, FBI's national in-service training for field agents

Ever wanted to know what goes on behind the headlines of the major crime stories of today? Here is an opportunity to take that journey, to put faces and emotions to those who combat gang violence. This is the second part of the Operation Black Widow interview with gang expert George Collord.

Gang violence rocked the city of Santa Rosa in the late 1990s, shaking up this wine country community an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. Shootings, stabbings and fights erupted throughout the city, reflecting the level of violence in a number of California communities throughout the Golden state. Gang detectives from Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD) became exhausted trying to clamp down on this bloodshed. The fight seemed hopeless.

Then something began that evolved into one of the largest and most penetrating gang investigations in California. It began small and slowly spread until local state and federal investigators collaboratively took down one of the most powerful prison gangs to ever emerge from the large penal system in the nation. These gangsters called themselves Nuesta Familia (Our Family). This is the story of Operation Black Widow, a joint task force that penetrated the very core of this gang and shook up California gangland worse than any earthquake.

The story begins in 1997. It is a story told by one police officer who was there at the beginning and stayed to the end. It is a story of determination, danger, and personal sacrifice. It is a story of team work between law enforcement agencies throughout the State of California—local, state and federal. It is a story of a case that took five years to bring federal indictments against the leadership of the gang.

It is my pleasure to introduce my friend and former partner, George Collord, currently a gang instructor at the FBI’s Quantico training facility and a consultant to a number of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in this ever-changing war against gang violence. He has been called to provide consultation to a number of television, movie and media outlets regarding their effort to accurately portray the gang threat in California and other parts of the nation. George retired from SPRD a few years ago and continues to work with law enforcement regarding gang issues.

MARK: Give us some understanding of the breadth and width of this investigation. Ultimately, how many agencies and how many investigators became involved in this effort?

GEORGE: Including federal state and local, there were at least thirty agencies that had parts, some more integral than others. The main local agencies were Santa Rosa PD, Salinas PD, Modesto PD, Stockton PD, and San Jose PD. The Sheriff’s offices were Sonoma and Monterey. The DA’s offices were Sonoma, Santa Clara and Monterey Counties. The state agencies were California Department of Corrections, California Highway Patrol and to a lesser extent the California Department of Justice. Federally, and without them we’d have been nowhere, was the FBI.  The main core of investigators numbered about ten with a dozen or so others in support positions.

MARK: Can you share with us some of the statistics of this operation?

GEORGE: Are we talking about how much overtime I made or how much weight I gained eating fast food in darkened parking lots? Didn’t think so. We arrested and convicted in the neighborhood of about seventy-five gangsters in both federal and state court. Of course that doesn’t tell the whole story since there were, and continue to be, spin-off cases that have nabbed dozens of others throughout California.

MARK:  Many of our readers are mystery writers and readers. Can you paint a picture of a gangster that would be true and authentic? If you were to create a fictional character—a gang leader—on paper, what are some of the attributes and characteristics you might choose to create this character? 

GEORGE: My training/speaking partner with whom I travel the country lecturing is Daniel “Lizard” Hernandez, a veteran of savage battles both in and out of the pen. He was and is definitely gang “shot caller” material. Over the nine years that I’ve been around him I’ve come to appreciate his specific characteristics that made him a feared leader. So, I’ll use him as an example. First, he is highly intelligent and reasonably educated, even though he never made it past 8^th grade. Instead, he educated himself in prison libraries. I remember when he told me how important it was for his gang writings to contain proper syntax, Hey, I thought syntax was something the IRS collected in Vegas.

Next, he is fearless. He proved this through years of gunfights, knife fights and takeover robberies in which the next second could be your last. “Manipulative” is how I’d describe another constant characteristic in those of his ilk. He could, through writings and verbal messages, make someone a thousand miles away do his bidding—and basically thank him for the opportunity to serve the organization. Charisma drips from gang leaders.

Lizard speaks and law enforcement officers crowd around to listen, whether it’s during a lecture, or later around a beer. Gang leaders must be extremely charismatic because of the constant need to either recruit or convince others of your point of view in a world so brutal it would turn most men to pudding. Being decisive is a necessity for survival in the gang world. He who hesitates gets his wind taken by a sharpened turkey bone. And you cannot underestimate a good old sense of smell. Gang leaders can smell a set-up for miles (unless it’s a sneaky spider web being spun!). It’s the only way they have survived to get to the top. I was lucky enough to surreptitiously observe these guys in their natural habitats and would say they are as driven and competent as some of our better known CEOs in this country. It’s just that in their world, a hostile takeover is a little more serious.

MARK:  Tell us about the GUNS CD and the story behind this part of the investigation

GEORGE: Generations of United Nortenos was a music disc and brainchild of three Nuestra Familia members in The Bay. They were Gerald “Cuete” Rubalcaba, my pal Lizard Hernandez, and Robert “Huero” Gratton. The idea was to create a music CD that would appeal to young Latinos and help recruit them into the ranks of the Nortenos, the breeding ground for hate toward the soldados of the Mexican Mafia.  Gratton got out of the pen and hooked up with a rapper in Tracy, California known as Sir Dyno. They put together an illegal record label and produced the CD with 13 songs.

The lyrics were all about killing as many “scraps” (derogatory term for Surenos) as one could in a statewide war. If you were to join this war with the southerners, you’d be part of a huge army that would have your back on the streets and in the joint. It was very appealing to a lot of dysfunctional kids out there looking for a cause and a family to accept them and their violenct tendencies. Ultimately, we recruited both Lizard and Gratton as witnesses.

Homicide

Homicide Investigations

Detective Mark Mynheir

Palm Bay (Fla.) Police Department

Killers have murdered and tried to cover their sins every since Cain struck Abel and tried to hide it from God. In mystery novels, murder looms as that shadowy threshold heroes and villains must confront. Hunting down these Cains has captured the imagination of readers since man first put ink to paper. And homicide investigations have become to crime fiction what guitars have become to country music—indispensable.

What goes through the minds of those called to investigate these horrendous crimes? And how does one approach a crime scene to investigate the murder of another?


Detective Mark Mynheir visits us today from Palm Bay Police Department (PBPD), an agency located midway on Florida’s east coast. Mark is a man of many talents currently assigned as a homicide investigator with PBPD’s Criminal Investigations Unit. He also served as a member of the department’s SWAT team, with prior experience as a narcotics agent and a patrol officer.

Mark also has another talent. He is a gifted writer with four published novels under his belt and all with a common thread—cops as protagonists. (Check his web site at http://markmynheir.com/ for more information about him and his novels, Rolling Thunder, From the Belly of the Dragon, The Void, and his latest, The Night Watchmen).

Today, we’ll focus on Mark’s experiences as a homicide investigator.

MARK YOUNG:  Mark, thanks for joining us once again. Could you fill us in on some of the blanks in your resume we’ve missed? How long with PBPD?  What led you to a law enforcement career?  How long have you worked in CIU?

MARK MYNHEIR: Thanks for having me, Mark.  I’ve been with PBPD for almost twenty-one years.  I was with the Cocoa Beach Police Department for two years before that.  I’ve been a detective for about twelve years now, mostly working homicides and violent crimes.  I also did a three-and-a-half year stint as a narcotics agent and was on our S.W.A.T. Team for a while. 

I got into law enforcement because I was getting out of the Marine Corps and didn’t have a job.  All my Marine buddies were becoming cops, so I thought I’d give it a try.  I wasn’t that enthusiastic about it until I applied for the academy.  After that, I knew it was going to be my career.

MARK YOUNG:   Let’s focus on your latest assignment as a homicide investigator. Many of our blog readers are readers and writers of crime fiction, so we’d like to get a little insight into the mind of an investigator. Let’s start with getting the call. How are callouts assigned in your department? How are investigative teams comprised? 

MARK MYNHEIR: Unfortunately, there are only four of us in the Major Crimes Unit, so when a homicide happens, we’re all called out.  We try to rotate the responsibility of being the Lead Investigator, but it doesn’t always work that way.   People go on vacations or are at schools.  I once caught three in a row in a two week time period.  I was exhausted, to say the least. 

MARK YOUNG:   What starts to click in your mind when you start to respond to one of these calls?

MARK MYNHEIR: After the coffee (which is the important first step), I make a mental check list of what I need to do—witness statements, potential search warrants, or phone subpoenas.  I will generally have a vague idea what has happened from dispatch or the sergeant at the scene who has called.  I then whip out some phone calls to the rest of the team to get them to the scene. 

MARK YOUNG: In many departments, a dead body call is forwarded to homicide investigators from patrol based upon certain criteria—unattended death (physician was not involved in providing medical care), questionable circumstances surrounding the death, or an investigation larger than patrol might be able to handle. What are be some of the determining factors in your department that might jump a dead body call from patrol investigating and closing the case to CIU investigators stepping in?

MARK MYNHEIR: With our department, it has to be a case where the deceased has no significant medical history in which a doctor would sign the death certificate, and/or there’s obvious trauma or suspicious circumstances—like apparent suicides.  We wouldn’t investigate a Hospice situation.  

MARK YOUNG:  As you arrive at the scene, how do you prioritize what needs to be done? For example, who do you need to contact right away and who do you wait to call? How do you determine the size and scope of the crime scene? Do you have field technicians available to process the scene? How do you handle witnesses? What kind of things do you start taking a closer look at?

MARK MYNHEIR: When I arrive, I meet with the first responding officers and get briefed from there.  I like to wait until I have another detective or two on scene before I interview witnesses, so we can make a plan.  But, like many things in law enforcement, it doesn’t always work out that way.  Sometimes I have to jump in and start talking with people right away. 

We start with the initial witnesses (like the person who discovered the body and such) and work our way out.  I like to have neighborhood contacts done as soon as possible.  Sometimes we’ll call in burglary detectives or our tack team to help us if we need it.  Our Crime Scene Unit will respond, and we’ll have a sit down with them and make a plan how to approach the scene—because each one is different.  I will then try to stay out of their way after that.  They need the time to conduct a methodical search and documentation of the scene. 

The newer technology is helpful here because we all carry digital recorders, and I record every statement with witnesses at the scene, so I don’t forget or miss something, and I don’t have to take the witnesses back to the station.