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This week's featured member is Wesley Neville. Wes has been in the law
enforcement field since 1987. His current professional role in life is as a
Forensic Artist
with the Florence County South Carolina Sheriff's Office where has been
since 1998. But we know and love him as one of our Project EDAN artists and
as Doe Network Area Director for South Carolina.
It would be very hard to find a more cooperative and enthusiastic person
than Wesley. The number of sketches and reconstructions he has
completed for EDAN/Doe alone are too numerous to count and his skills are
astonishing. He is always ready and willing to do sketches, composites and
comparisons and for that we are very grateful.
Last summer Wesley was contracted by a Florida LEA to do a reconstruction.
He did his job as an artist and completed the reconstruction. Then he
switched hats...he went into "Doe Network Mode". He was the first to see the
face of a young girl molded from his own hands. He begin searching
immediately for a match and he found one. Several weeks went by before the
Doe Network received the green light to reveal the positive ID of Tara Exposito made by Wesley.
He admits the waiting was the hardest part but in this case it paid off
because her family can now have some resolution. Wesley went above and
beyond loyalty to the Doe Network by ensuring the group as a whole was
credited for the solve which only solidifies for us what a selfless and
caring individual he is. Wes has recently made similar discoveries from his
own work and has at least one more potential match pending.
Wesley's future plans are continue to work with the Doe Network and EDAN to
help gives faces to those without names, as well as age progressions for the
lost. He is also in negotiations to create a full clay facial reconstruction
for the Jane Doe found in Colorado in 1954 who was the subject of this weeks
Editorial. An exhumation is planned and EDAN hopes to provide a face for the
Jane Doe who has been without her identity for almost 50 years.
Wesley also has one of the most complete Forensics art pages anywhere! There
are numerous links and details for anyone interested in Forensic Art. Not
only is his site a great resource but he has a reputation for being a great
mentor to budding artists all over....including some of our own EDAN
artists!
The Doe Network was well represented by Wesley at last years IAI
(International Associated of Identification) conference. Wesley is the
active secretary for the IAI Forensic Art Certification Board and member of
the IAI Forensic Art Sub Committee. Thanks to him we received numerous
contacts from the positive PR he generated on our behalf!
The Doe Network members had long been looking for a way to show our
gratitude to Wes for his contributions and commitment to the cause, so when
we heard about the NCMEC's Ninth Annual Congressional Breakfast and National
Missing and Exploited Children's Awards honoring law enforcement officers
for recovering missing children and investigating child exploitation cases
we knew we had found what we were looking for and we will be nominating
Wesley. Here's hoping you win Wesley, you deserve nothing less!
Author: Todd Matthews
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