Page 20 - Aug Sept 2016

Elite Investigative Journal
An Insirational Interview with Lois Gibson, pg 20-24
©2014-2016 SYT Global, Inc.
An Inspirational Interview with Lois Gibson

Interviewed by Sonya Trippett

Photo Courtesy of Lois Gibson
Name: Lois Gibson
City & State: Spring, Texas
Occupation: Forensic Artist

Company: Forensic Art Instructor at Northwestern University Center for
Public Safety and Forensic Artist at the Houston Police Department

Credentials: CFA
Professional Organizations: International Association for Identification

Sonya Trippett: What is a Forensic Artist and what are the responsibilities of this
position?

Lois Gibson: Mostly a forensic artist sketches faces from witness memory. This
entails talking or communicating to sometimes highly traumatized witnesses and
having them pick features from a catalog of those that look like the person who they

saw commit a crime. You need to give a vision to the detective of what the suspect
for whom they search looks like. Less often a forensic artist will have to create

the face from only the skull of an unidentified murder victim who is not found
until they are down to their skeletal state. Other times a forensic artist will age
progress known fugitives from photos taken when they were in custody. Those age

progression portraits as well as the sketches from witness memory can be shown in
the media and the community with the hopes the images are close enough to prompt

identification.

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