Vernon J. Geberth is a retired lieutenant-commander of the New York Police Department.  As the commanding officer of the Bronx Homicide Task Force, his investigators handled more than four hundred murder investigations every year.  Geberth is recipient of over sixty awards for bravery and exceptional work during twenty-three years of service.  He has personally investigated, supervised, assessed, researched and consulted on over eight thousand homicides.

Vernon J. Geberth has master's degrees in both psychology and professional studies, is a graduate of the FBI's National Academy.  Over the past twenty-five years, he has taught over 50,000 police officers his comprehensive course in Practical Homicide Investigation.

Geberth’s book, Practical Homicide Investigation has been referred to as the "Bible of Homicide."  His subsequent works, “The Practical Homicide Investigation Checklist and Field Guide” and “Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation: Practical and Clinical Perspectives,” demonstrate his professional ability and subject matter expert command over homicide investigations.  In addition to his own works Geberth has been an editor in over forty other textbooks. He has devoted his life to the study of murder and was the first law enforcement professional to devise standard guidelines and protocols for proficient death inquiries. Currently he is president of P.H.I. Investigative Consultants, Inc., a New York-based corporation that provides state-of-the-art instruction and consultation regarding homicide investigations to police officers.

Dr. Richard H. Walton has over thirty-five years of law enforcement experience.  Richard Walton served with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department (California) for sixteen years during which time he earned his Master’s Degree in Education. In 1987 he was promoted to District Attorney Investigator with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office where he gained extensive experience and expertise in homicide, arson, white-collar crime, elder abuse, and fraud investigations. 

He received his Doctor of Education degree from the University of San Francisco in 2005, writing his academic dissertation on identification of solvability factors in cold case homicide investigation. Richard has presented on “Cold Case” homicide investigation for more than 20 years.  He has presented this topic to a number of law enforcement and forensic venues, including the FBI National Academy, The American Academy of Forensic Sciences, National Institute of Justice, Pennsylvania State Homicide Investigator’s Association and California Criminalists Institute. Richard Walton is the author of Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques.

According to the book description of Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques, it “provides effective and accessible information to those responsible for investigating and resolving previously examined - but still unsolved - cold case homicides. The book merges theory with practice through the use of case histories, photographs, illustrations, and checklists that convey essential, fundamental concepts while providing a strong, practical basis for the investigative process. It combines proven techniques from forensics, psychology, and criminal investigation, and focuses on technologies that may not have been available at the time of the crime. This guide defines the characteristics of a cold case homicide; details various investigative methods used by law enforcement agencies; explores the actual experiences of detectives in re-opening case files; and presents current technologies such as ViCAP, HITS, and TracKRS used in the identification of cases related to the re-opened case, or its perpetrator. It also highlights technological changes that contribute greatly to law enforcement's abilities to solve cold case homicides such as computerized print technology, the specificity of DNA, and the expanding data banks that enable the linkage of previously unknown suspects to the crimes they committed. Addressing methods particularly valuable to cold cases, Cold Case Homicides: Practical Investigative Techniques assists the investigator in being prepared, focused, objective - and successful in obtaining the truth.”