Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Division
17 episodes listed below
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The Washoe County Sheriff's Office proudly presents the Forensic Science Division's, Coffee With a Criminalist. This podcast aims to give the general public a platform to learn about forensic science from the actual people who do the work. Join two of our Criminalists, Bodean and Darby, as they share about forensics in Northern Nevada and feature the true crime cases that have impacted local laws, all while drinking coffee from small businesses that fuel our project and community.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A CODIS-driven case chain that links Michelle Mitchell, the Gypsy Hill Killer, and Rodney Halbauer.
This installment of Coffee With a Criminalist uses its final CODIS chapter to follow how a cigarette butt found under Michelle Mitchell's body helped reopen the case and point toward a wider pattern of violence tied to the Gypsy Hill Killer.
Plainspoken DUI procedure with enough practical detail to make it worth your time.
This episode keeps its attention on DUI procedure: warrant requests for blood, how jail release turns on sobriety and timing, and why busy weekends and drinking holidays can slow everything down.
A relaxed season finale that treats forensic work as a human practice, not a spectacle.
Coffee With a Criminalist closes its season with a conversation that keeps forensic work in view without losing sight of the people around it.
A careful forensic walk through a case shaped by CODIS, community effort, and legal fallout.
Brianna Denison's case reads as a careful study in forensic work, community effort, and patient investigation. It keeps its focus on CODIS, reference samples, and the search effort, including more than 800 samples gathered from suspects, subjects, and volunteers.
Plainspoken sermons for conviction and renewal.
Ashley Flowers and Britt Prawat revisit unsolved murders and cold cases as new evidence surfaces.
Two friends narrate true crime cases, listener stories, and archived live-tour shows.
Multi-part true crime narration, from BTK's Wichita letters to Australian cold-case disappearances.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
Coffee With a Criminalist uses Brianna Denison’s 2008 sexual assault and homicide to explain how Nevada investigators linked three cases through doorknob swabs, YSTR testing, and a later secret witness tip.
["Coffee With a Criminalist's final CODIS episode centers on Michelle Mitchell, the Gypsy Hill killings, and Nevada's retroactive DNA-collection rules.", "Steve Gresko explains that a cigarette butt from Michelle Mitchell's Reno homicide scene produced a male profile that hit California CODIS entries tied to the Gypsy Hill cases.", "That same line of DNA work helped clear Kathy Woods, triggered a review of Nevada's offender law under Adam Laxalt, and led the state to identify about 1,200 incarcerated people who owed samples.", "The episode closes with the Colorado Hammer Slayer cases and Alex Ewing, showing how a retroactive hit can connect Nevada prison DNA to a 1980s serial murder investigation."]
["Bodine and Darby open on tequila, ouzo, and whiskey, then cite a Nevada study that ranked the state 12th for \"booziest brunchers\" and logged 284 DUI fatal crashes in 2019.", "Deputy Hammond describes swerving, headlights off, red watery eyes, slurred speech, horizontal gaze nystagmus, the walk-and-turn, the one-leg stand, and lack of convergence.", "Hammond explains implied consent, DMV license revocation after refusal, felony DUI after three convictions in seven years, and COVID-era blood testing instead of breath samples.", "Criminalist David Astles explains breath-alcohol calibration, why roadside PBT results are not court evidence, why Nevada's 0.08 is an illegal per se limit, and why alcohol starts affecting driving at the first drink."]
Bodine and Darby of Coffee with a Criminalist trace forensic science from Chinese fingerprint use in 700 and drowning-versus-strangulation analysis in 1248 through DNA fingerprinting in 1985.