Arson Investigation in the Wildlands

Case Building and Practical Analysis

Wildland Arson cases are most often solved by mimicking these successful methods used daily by Homicide Detectives:

• Scene Work
• Evidence Recovery and Exploitation
• Interviews
• Analysis, and relentlessly
• Knocking on Doors

This book by two veteran arson investigators with hundreds of successful prosecutions between them re-affirms time-tested investigative techniques, using the “right” resources, and mixing in new technology and profiling techniques. There are also chapters on analysis and profiling, and case preparation for court.

Author Information

Ed Nordskog has been an arson/bomb investigator, criminal analyst/profiler, and bomb technician for more that 21 years with the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department. He has investigated more than 2,100 arson cases and handled nearly 600 hazardous device (bomb) calls. He has arrested and interviewed more than 320 people for arson, including more than 25 serial arsonists. He has been involved in 48 serial arson investigations. He has researched more than 900 cases of serial arson, and has published six books on the subjects of arsonists, serial arsonists, female arsonists, arson profiling, and incendiary devices.

Joe Konefal is a retired Supervising Bomb Technician and Arson Investigator from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE, Office of the State Fire Marshal, Arson/Bomb Unit. He investigated fires and explosions and conducted render safe operations on improvised explosive devices at more than 800 incidents in a thirty-one year career. Among those cases, Joe investigated more than 60 fatal fires of every type. He currently has forty years of experience within the arson/bomb world and is recognized internationally as an instructor on many related subjects. Joe has testified on arson and explosive cases as an expert witness on sixty-five occasions in state and federal courts.