By Wanda J. Demarzo, The Miami Herald
MIAMI, Fla. -- When the police are left stumped by a series of crimes, cops sometimes call on Leslie D’Ambrosia for assistance.
One of two certified criminal profilers in the state (and 55 internationally), she can examine the detritus of a crime scene and offer theories on the age, race and build of a criminal as well as his or her intelligence - information about thought processes, intelligence, sexual habits, mode of transportation and whether they read the newspaper.
Recently, D’Ambrosia was named statewide program coordinator of the profiling division.
“My curiosity has always been peaked by criminality,” D’Ambrosia said. “I always wanted to be a psychologist, a forensic psychologist, and work in law enforcement.”
This month, D’Ambrosia and fellow profiler Special Agent Tom Davis, also a certified profiler and member of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship formed in 1990 by graduates and Fellows of the FBI’s Police Fellowship Program, created a profile that led police to Henry Lee Jones.
Police arrested Jones last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and charged him with the killing of a couple in Tennessee. Investigators believe Jones is responsible for at least three murders and is a key suspect in dozens more throughout the Southeastern seaboard.
D’Ambrosia has been involved in dozens of cases: A few of them include Gainesville, Fla., murders, a fire-fixated serial murderer in Miami, the reinvestigation of the murder of Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy Patrick Behan, and the Jerry Frank Townsend case.
After DNA exonerated Townsend of a rape and murder in Broward, Miami homicide detectives requested that D’Ambrosia review the case and make an assessment as to his guilt.
D’Ambrosia told Miami investigators she found “several inconsistencies between the Townsend confession and the crime scene.”
Criminal investigative analysis has rarely directly solved a case, D’Ambrosia said. And, she is quick to point out, it’s not supposed to.
“It’s just one more thing we profilers can do to help the detective resolve the case,” D’Ambrosia said. “Also, it’s not as ‘sexy’ as it is sometimes portrayed.”
D’Ambrosia said her work entails a lot of tedious assessment and analysis of reports, documents and photographs.
The job has her traveling far and wide.
“Every crime scene is a book, and it’s written in spatial language,” D’Ambrosia said. “Working on the Gainesville student murders was an excellent experience for me. A real learning experience.”
D’Ambrosia was one of several investigators assigned to the case. DNA analysis was relatively new at the time. D’Ambrosia said the investigation allowed different computer software programs to be developed and utilized to analyze and search information: The information the agency amassed was voluminous.
“All this was cutting-edge at the time,” D’Ambrosia said. “It has since served as a model of what and what not to do in major task force or serial investigations.”
When first investigating a crime scene, D’Ambrosia looks at several things. She looks at the particular method the killer used. Did the killer use restraints or not? Was the victim’s body and face covered? Does the scene look staged, arranged to try and throw investigators off track?
Another thing to consider: Is the crime scene ramshackled and if so, was it because the offender lost control of a 90-pound female, which suggests the suspect may be of slight build.
“The suspect always displays behavior in his or her crime scenes,” D’Ambrosia said. “We all have certain ways we do business: It can be as simple as the way a victim is positioned. They may position certain items in a particular way. That may be something in their makeup that they cannot stop doing, even when they know it will lead us to them.”
Her journey to becoming one of the top profilers in the country started in a “low-profile” job.
D’Ambrosia worked guarding U.S. government territories for the Canal Protection Division in the Canal Zone Panama while going to college. She then worked as a clerk in the Tallahassee police department.
In 1983, after graduating from Florida State University with a degree in psychology, D’Ambrosia joined the Plantation police department.
D’Ambrosia spent her first year cruising the streets in a marked unit. Shortly thereafter, she moved into the detective squad where she remained until joining the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 1987 as a Special Agent.
“I joined FDLE because they handled more complex jurisdictional-type cases,” D’Ambrosia said.
It wasn’t long before D’Ambrosia’s tough investigative skills were noted by veterans.
In the early 1990s, an FDLE profiler agreed to sponsor D’Ambrosia so she could enter the department’s profiler program - the criminal investigative analysis division.
In order for an agent to be admitted into the unit, a program veteran must be a sponsor for two to five years, helping the would-be profiler get through the training.
There are required courses and recommended courses of study in investigations and psychology. The average number of courses taken upon certification is 70.
The average number of profile cases worked on the exam is 100. There are reading requirements and casework requirements.
D’Ambrosia was required to work out of the state with a sponsor and work at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico, Va.
During her field study, which took place with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide bureau, D’Ambrosia became entrenched in a case involving a serial rapist and murderer.
D’Ambrosia studied four of the crime scenes, six victims. She looked at crime-scene photos, forensic evidence, autopsy reports, the background of the victims - victimology plays an important part in any attack and can offer insight into the crimes - and offender characteristics.
After studying the information, D’Ambrosia submitted her findings to homicide detectives. She suggested the type of person they should be looking for and what type of strategy to use during questioning once they had a suspect in hand.
“In assessing this information, the possibility exists that the offender either is in jail or has been institutionalized for a long period of time,” her report stated. “The latter is not very likely since this offender was intelligent, methodical and would not suffer from a delusional type of disorder if he suffered from mental illness.”
When FDLE was assigned the reinvestigation of Behan’s 1990 murder, D’Ambrosia and a colleague sifted through boxes and boxes of reports from the original investigation. She interviewed witnesses, those still around, looked at the crime-scene photos and shoveled dirt in the backyard of Timothy Brown, convicted of slaying Behan.
She sifted through sludge dredged from a canal in Northwest Miami-Dade looking for a long-discarded gun alleged to have been used in the crime.
As D’Ambrosia looked for evidence that might lead prosecutors to a conviction in the deputy’s murder, a federal judge overturned Brown’s conviction.
D’Ambrosia found no evidence linking Brown or a former BSO detention deputy, who told undercover officers he shot Behan, to the crime.
The case remains open.
D’Ambrosia, besides being a profiler, mother and wife, is the chairwoman of the South Florida Cold Case Committee.
The Cold Case Committee took its lead from police departments like the Miami-Dade Police Department: Miami-Dade is the “original cold case squad,” D’Ambrosia said.
“We do it because there’s no advocate for the dead, except us,” D’Ambrosia said. “We have to speak for them.”
The committee meets every three or four months and is attended by detectives from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
D’Ambrosia gathers experts in all fields to assist officers bringing their cases to the table: A blood splatter expert, an FBI crime-scene investigator, a medical examiner, even a geographical profiler - an expert who uses a software program that zones in on a killer’s possible residence - from outside the state.
“When we attend the Cold Case committee meetings, we meet with local and federal detectives, experts, and try to think outside the box,” said Capt. Tony Pustizzi, the head of criminal investigations in Coral Springs. “Fresh eyes sometimes help us and with homicides, we work these cases 100 percent. We live with them for however long it takes.”
So does D’Ambrosia, who cannot discuss her open cases.
“There are two serial murder cases that stay with me. I always have them on the ‘back burner’ and do whatever I can to keep them active,” D’Ambrosia said. “One involved the elderly and children. I feel positive that eventually they will be solved.”
She is modest about her work and downplays her role: “The accolades should go to the detectives working the case, not to the profiler. Profilers are, or should be, behind-the-scenes operatives,” she said. “It is rewarding, though, when the subject is identified and arrested, and when we find out that the profile matched or that it was helpful in some small way.
“It’s also rewarding to be able to recommend to detectives that a case should focus in one direction - as opposed to the two or more directions it possibly can go - and to then see that this was the right decision.”
When asked about her proudest moment, a triumphant case, D’Ambrosia answers: “There isn’t any one case that brings the most accomplishment. No victim is ‘better’ than another, therefore, no case is better than any other.”