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Original Release Date: February 27, 2019
In episode four of our Identification season, Just Science interviews Robert Thompson, Senior Forensic Science Research Manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, about his role in the investigation of the Molalla Forest Killer. The Molalla Forest serial murders are arguably the most infamous chain of homicides in Oregon. In 1988, Dayton Leroy Rogers was convicted and imprisoned for the serial murder of seven women over the course of three months. Robert Thompson was heavily involved in the investigation and conviction of this killer. Listen along as our guest discusses the intimate details of the case and the years that followed.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
Related Resources
Guest Biography
Robert M. Thompson has been a Senior Forensic Science Research Manager with the Special Programs Office-Forensic Sciences at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) for 9 years. He has over 38 years of experience as a Forensic Scientist and Criminalist. He is certified in Criminalistics by the American Board of Criminalistics (ABC) and is a past Chairman and current member of the Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners (AFTE) Certification Program Committee. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and a Distinguished Member of AFTE. Mr. Thompson was awarded a MFS from The George Washington University in Washington, DC and a BS in Forensic Science with a Chemistry minor from the California State University in Sacramento, California. Prior to joining NIST, Mr. Thompson was a Senior Firearms and Toolmark Examiner for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Forensic Science Laboratories and as a Forensic Scientist and Criminalist in crime laboratories with the Washoe County Sheriff ’s Department (Reno, Nevada), Oregon State Police, and the GeneLex Corporation (Seattle, Washington). His court-accepted expert testimony includes Firearms/Toolmark Identification, Proximity Testing, Serology and DNA analysis, Drug Analysis, Hair and Fiber Examination, Blood Spatter Reconstruction, Shoe Print Comparison, and Crime Scene/ Shooting Reconstruction. Mr. Thompson has testified as an expert in numerous Federal and State courts and has active professional affiliations with several regional, national, and international forensic science societies. He is published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Forensic Science International, Journal for the Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners, Proceedings of SPIE – The International Society for Optical Engineering, NIST Journal of Research, Inside ATF, Measurement Science and Technology, FBI Crime Laboratory Digest, and the Proceedings of Saratov University (Russia).
The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast episode are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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