Case Study: The Bike Path Serial Rapist
Bob Morton
For 25 years Altemio Sanchez terrorized women in the Buffalo, New York area.  Known as the Bike Path Rapist, Sanchez murdered at least 3 women and raped another 25 from 1981-2006 near or along Buffalo’s jogging and bike paths.  This presentation will explore the collaborative effort of investigators from the 5 different jurisdictions that Sanchez’s crimes spanned, as well as the innovative techniques that were used to bring him to justice and exonerate a man who had been falsely accused of Sanchez’s crimes.  

See the link below for more information about this case.
Dateline NBC: On the Trail of the Bike Path Rapist

Case Study: Was the Killer Insane?  The Case Study of a Domestic Violence Murder

Messina Madson and Robert Quirk

On May 12, 2008 Brent Stephens beat his wife Denise Stephens to death with a metal baseball bat in the hallway of her office.  Denise had taken steps to protect herself.  She had filed for a protective order, set up cameras, and Brent was even on probation.  After his deadly assault on Denise, her killer sat on a highway overpass and claimed that "the voices" told him to do it.  At trial the killer would claim he was insane.   This workshop will examine this domestic violence homicide in detail and will follow the steps that Denise took to keep herself and her family safe and why Brent was still able to murder her.

See this link for more information on the case.

Dallas Morning News Story

Case Study: Melanie Goodwin

Greg Fraid and Andrea Handley

This workshop will detail the investigation and prosecution of the murder of Melanie Goodwin.  Melanie was a UNT co-ed and was last seen on September 27, 2007, at a Quick Trip convenience store in Denton Texas speaking to an unknown man.  Her burned body was discovered hours later in a ravine in Carrollton, Texas.  The subsequent investigation proved that Ernesto Reyes had strangled, sexually assaulted, and with the assistance of a friend, set fire to this young co-ed.  Utilizing videotape from local businesses, phone records and a team approach to the investigation, investigators were able to track the Reyes' movement from his initial encounter with Ms. Goodwin in Denton to the burning of her body in Carrollton.  Prosecutors used that technology, and the testimony of the “friend” Reyes now claimed was the real murderer, to convict him of capital murder.  This case study will also address the issues that prosecutors faced in extraditing the killer to Mexico where he had fled after the murder.

See these links for additional information on this case.

Primetime News Story

Dallas Morning News Story

Case Study: Monte Johnson, a Woman's Worse Nightmare

Carmen White

This workshop will discuss a serial rapist who victimized women over a number of years.  The presenter, who successfully prosecuted this criminal, will discuss the criminal investigation of cold cases sexual assaults, the impact of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) on these cases, the media in relation to this serial rapist, and the toll on the physical and emotional health of the victims throughout the entire process.

Case Study: Viki Lozano (Part 1 & 2)
Cary Piel and Susan Calvert Piel

The day after celebrating their sixteenth wedding anniversary Bobby Lozano, a detective with the Denton Police Department, shot his wife Viki in the chest as she lay in their bed.  After laying a gun cleaning kit and cleaning supplies on the bed, he went to a tanning salon and later returned to "find" his dead wife.  The medical examiner classified the manner of death as undetermined, unable to conclusively establish whether the shooting was suicide, accident or homicide.  Lozano was indicted for murder a few months after her death, but the charge was later dismissed for insufficient evidence.  Six years after Viki's death, Lozano was indicted again.  This case study will examine the investigation and trial, which focused on his infidelities, lies and financial motives to kill her, for which Lozano was convicted of murder.

See this link for additional information on this case.

Dallas Morning News Story

Dateline NBC: Behind the Badge

Case Study: The Prosecution of an International Human Trafficking Case: United States v. Maksimenko, Aronov, et al.

This workshop will explore how to investigate and prosecute a human trafficking case.  It is based on the prosecution of eight members of an international conspiracy to traffic Eastern European women to the United States for purposes of their financial and sexual exploitation.  In addition to breaking up the ring, obtaining substantial prison sentences of the ring-leaders, and relocating the victims to safety, the team of investigators and prosecutors seized and forfeited $560,000 in cash from the defendants, for return to the victims, and obtained an order requiring the trafficking ring-leaders to reimburse their victims a total of $1.5 million in stolen earnings.