Published: September 09, 2009 10:26 pm      

The History Channel

’MonsterQuest’ to feature MSU faculty member

The History Channel’s documentary series ’MonsterQuest’ is filming an episode that features Mountain State University forensics faculty member David Weaver.

’MonsterQuest’ investigates paranormal and cryptid sightings around the world. Weaver was chosen from of 700 registered latent fingerprint examiners worldwide as a distinguished forensic investigation practitioner.

’The History Channel has invited me ’ or hired me ’ to apply my forensic art talents to a very strange circumstance,’ Weaver said. ’It started back in the 1960s with the Mothman at Point Pleasant, but what’s happening now is that witnesses from across the country are seeing a Mothman-type creature.’

For three and a half years, Weaver has served as a full-time faculty member in the Forensic Investigation program on MSU’s Beckley campus. His professional portfolio includes consultant services, forensic art and facial reconstruction, new patent fingerprint development systems, research, law enforcement training and AFIS technology.

During Weaver’s time at MSU, he has worked with a group of dedicated students to revolutionize the way fingerprints are being tracked. The group’s invention, CN-Yellow fluorescent cyanoacrylate with the lumi-dome section, caught the eyes of the crime scene investigative world as well. The ’Fuma-Dome’ product was featured this past spring on the CBS television show ’C.S.I.’

The professor says he believes the ’MonsterQuest’ producer found him through his Web site, www.executiveforensics.com, which he uses to publicize his national case review and latent fingerprint examination services.

’I’ve done hundreds of composites over the years, mostly bank robbers and rapists,’ Weaver said. ’But I have had two homicides solved from composites. Then I do the facial reconstructions on skulls, and those have been very successful. It’s very effective.

’We use a facial coding catalogue and then we have the witness pull eyes, face shape, hair and lips,’ the professor said. ’We draw these things one at a time, and it works. I teach this technique here at MSU.’

’A lot of it is science, but a lot of it is art as well,’ Michael J. Kane, M.S.F.S., Ph.D., Director of Justice Studies at MSU, said. ’It is a blending of both, and we are lucky to have Dave for that. Because honestly, if you are a scientist, you’re a scientist, and if you are an artist, you’re an artist. Very few people can come in the middle and put them together, but he’s skilled with that.’

Weaver traveled to Point Pleasant Aug. 30 and to Sacramento, Calif., this past weekend to provide composite drawings of strange sightings at each location that have been seen by multiple people.

’I’ve really enjoyed myself so far,’ Weaver said. ’The witnesses were all very sincere, and they were all very traumatized by this event. Forensically, I can’t validate any of it, because we’re minus any physical evidence. But eye-witness testimony can be effective, and in this case, I believe the witnesses were telling me their truth.

’There’s also great similarity in the witnesses’ depictions,’ he explained. ’The most recent siting was a month ago in Sacramento on the Sacramento River Bridge.’

Dr. Kane added, ’As forensic scientists, we look for that consistency. If I were interviewing five people from Beckley, they could have got together and came up with the same story. But these people are from 50 states away.

’A lot of times a sketch is all we have to go on,’ Kane added. ’So Dave is applying a known forensic application to something that is kind of unique, like ’MonsterQuest.’ I think the whole idea is pretty cool, because everybody has a Mothman story.’

Weaver next will head to La Crosse, Wis., to wrap up filming for the show. The professor says they are currently shooting 10 different episodes, and the date it will air should be announced soon.

To learn more about David Weaver’s artwork, inventions and accomplishments, visit www. flemishrealism .com or www.executiveforensics.com.

’ E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com