JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the first time in Jacksonville, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, better known as NCIS, held a two-day training seminar on how to investigate strangulation and domestic violence cases more efficiently, and to provide people who work on these cases better tools to help victims.
This transformative training took place in a conference center at Florida Blue’s campus on Jacksonville’s Southside Thursday morning.
Approximately 150 people went to the seminar, including:
- Military service members
- Law enforcement officers
- Prosecutors
- Medical personnel
- Victim advocate groups
Joe Rogish is an NCIS Special Agent and forensic specialist in Jacksonville.
“We know more about non-fatal strangulation than we ever have before. Why? Because we are making scientific advances and medicine, and we are making scientific advances and forensics, which is what I do. When we know more, we should ask a community more out of ourselves and we have to work to be better at this,” Rogish said.
Rogish said non-fatal strangulation is a difficult crime to investigate.
“Fifty percent of the victims do not have external signs of strangulation. We don’t see any marks along the neck. If you think that is for fatal strangulation, it is much less for a victim of non-fatal strangulation,” Rogish said.
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He said training seminars like this teach how to:
- Perform exams to detect injuries that can easily be overlooked
- Interview techniques with victims — like asking questions including where they were strangled, how long and any history with the potential suspect
- Documenting evidence like taking detailed pictures and taking statements from witnesses of any age
Terri Augspurger is a program manager for forensic healthcare at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. This was her fourth time going through the training and said as the science keeps changing, they will need to keep adjusting to be more effective.
“We are doing different things in the medical community to make sure that they are getting the right diagnostic test to help the prosecution in the case or in the defense cases, but to also make sure that the patients are taken care of. That they are getting these diagnostic tests,” Augspurger said. “It is not just for their physical and mental well-being, but for investigative and prosecutorial situations.”
There are two other opportunities for this kind of training in other places in the country. One will be later on in Washington D.C. Another one will be later on this year in Hawaii.