NecroSearch Members Loan Expertise, Hearts, and Minds To Justice And Victims

From The Foreword of NO STONE UNTURNED: The True Story of the World’s Premier Forensic Investigators by Steve Jackson

The NecroSearch International logo was based on an excavated gravesite from ancient Greece

In 1988, several criminalists and other scientists sat down in a Denver-area restaurant and came up with the idea of burying pigs to study changes to the environment caused by the graves and their contents. Disturbed by what they’d witnessed of outdated techniques for locating clandestine burial sites and the recovery of the remains of murder victims, their idea was to “find a better way” through the application of a variety of scientific disciplines and good old-fashioned detective work. As their successes and reputation mounted, they became known affectionately to law enforcement agencies as “the Pig People,” a name that stuck long after they officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization, NecroSearch International.

When the idea for this book was broached in 1997, the members of NecroSearch pointed out that their involvement in their most dramatic cases often came at the end of what had been years of work by law enforcement officers. If those investigators had not gone above and beyond the call of duty, if they had not been driven to seek justice for the victims despite the emotional and physical wear and tear on them personally, there would have been no need for NecroSearch’s involvement. The victims would have remained lost to their loved ones, the killers not held accountable.

Eighteen years after Michelle Wallace’s disappearance, Roy Melanson was convicted of her murder thanks in part to the efforts of NecroSearch International, the subject of NO STONE UNTURNED

This, then, is the story of those in law enforcement and the members of NecroSearch who, when all seemed lost, or one last push was needed to tip the scales of justice, loaned their expertise, hearts, and minds to the cause.

Steve Jackson, True Crime, Crime Fiction, History, Biography, and member of NecroSearch International

Note To Readers From The Author, April 2015: NO STONE UNTURNED: The True Story of the World’s Premier Forensic Investigators was originally published in 2002. More than a dozen years later, I wanted to update the eBook and Audio Book versions to let readers know what happened to some of the cases and people discussed on these pages, as well as include additional reflections and comments. You will see these updates at the end of chapters, as well as a new epilogue.

Meanwhile, NecroSearch International has grown since 2002 with many new cases and new people added to the story including the myself. I plan to write a second volume in 2015 to detail the evolution of the group and their role in some incredible and fascinating criminal investigations.