Criminal Justice Director Scott Duffey connects with legends at the world’s most prestigious true crime conference. 

If there is ever a conference that brings together the biggest stars in the true-crime industry — sans the egos — CrimeCon is it. 

According to its website, CrimeCon offers events that are “equal parts education and experience,” providing wide-ranging programs that combine hands-on learning and opportunities to interact with world-renowned speakers, TV personalities, and successful podcasters. It’s bliss for true crime buffs, who get to rub elbows with megastars like Nancy Grace, Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz, and defense attorney Mark Geragos, who has represented clients like the Menendez brothers, Winona Ryder, Michael Jackson, and Nicole Richie. 

The annual three-day gathering hosts about 8,500 people, welcoming “any type of person who has any type of fascination with true crime,” says Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) Director Scott Duffey, who has attended two conferences so far: first in 2023 in Orlando and this year in Nashville. “These stars are just walking through the halls with everyone else, attending lectures, and chatting willingly with fans and colleagues. They’re completely accessible,” Duffey says.

Anyone over 18 can attend, but only invited speakers can extend invitations to colleagues. Because Duffey  is a regular podcast guest on “Surviving the Survivor,” its co-host and former network news correspondent Joel Waldman, who partners with his Holocaust-survivor mother, Karmela Waldman, invited him to attend. The show unpacks prominent cases aided by major players such as NBC’s Dennis Murphy and Dr. Ann Burgess, the forensic nurse behind Netflix’s “Mindhunter.” Since the podcast attracts over a million monthly viewers, it earned a spot at CrimeCon’s Podcast Row, accommodating at least 300 prominent true-crime podcasters. 

Duffey appears on its Friday evening segment called “Great Scott! Get your True Crime Fil,” with Joel Waldman and Fil Waters, a retired Houston homicide detective who starred in Prime’s “The Interrogator.” Waters also presented at the CJI’s 2024 Violent Crime Symposium, an annual offering that Duffey leads. 

Duffey was thrilled to be invited. But after attending two conferences, having a distinguished career with the FBI, and serving for years as a go-to source for international media, he’d now graciously accept an invitation as a guest presenter, adding, “It would be an honor to be part of a roster of such esteemed speakers.”

Duffey, as shown in the photos, has not only posed with these heavyweights but also interacted with them, gaining tips that enhance his teaching for WilmU’s Criminal Justice programs and the CJI’s True Crime Lecture Series at the DoubleTree Hotel in North Wilmington. 

“The experience benefits me personally and professionally as a trainer and faculty member,” says Duffey, who enjoyed a 22-year career as an FBI special agent working complex criminal investigations before becoming a supervisory senior resident agent. He has traveled worldwide as an adjunct instructor with the FBI, focusing on interviews and interrogations. 

Duffey has brought several CrimeCon headliners to the lecture series, including Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who will speak on Dec. 3. A forensic psychology teacher and inaugural director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at DeSales University, Dr. Ramsland has appeared in 200 crime documentaries and magazine shows. She is the executive producer of “Murder House Flip” and has consulted for numerous television programs, including “CSI,” “Bones,” and “The Alienist.”

“I’m at the conference, and Dr. Ramsland has just spoken to about 5,000 people,” says Duffey. “I ask her to come to Wilmington for 250 people, and she agrees! It’s amazing.”

He also invited S. Monique Smith, the longest-living Jane Doe in American history. “She was kidnapped as a baby and remained in captivity for 50 years,” says Duffey. “She knew growing up that something was off. She was on the back of milk cartons for years and finally escaped.”

But she was found, in part, thanks to John and Revé Walsh. In 1981, their 6-year-old son Adam was abducted from a Florida shopping mall and murdered. The Walshes turned to law enforcement but discovered no coordinated state- or national-level search efforts. In response, they established the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children in Florida as a national resource for other families with missing children. In 1982, Congress passed the Missing Children’s Act, allowing the FBI to add missing children’s information to its national crime information center database. Two years later, former President Ronald Reagan started the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which converged with the Adam Walsh Outreach Center. 

“Monique has an amazing spirit, and I just fell in love with her as a lecturer,” says Duffey. “I went up to her, pleaded my case, and now she’s telling her story in Wilmington on Nov. 12.” 

Why Attend?

CrimeCon participants show up for various reasons. Some are simply true crime buffs ecstatic to meet the icons. Others, like Duffey, come from law enforcement. It’s the hands-on activities that get most people juiced. Participants can work on cold cases with renowned investigators, and there’s even a Cold Case Club. Its auction items are legendary, such as a private Zoom call with actor, producer, and writer Ryan Phillippe, who is involved with “The Innocence Project” and is a well-known supporter of military and veteran caregivers.

The panels are thrilling, attracting moderators such as Susan Constantine, an internationally renowned body language expert and television personality, and FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer, a law and justice contributor for NewsNation. Discussions are bold, highlighted by panelists that include families of victims of high-profile cases, as well as subjects of highly rated documentaries. One year, Kathy Kleiner Rubin spoke about surviving an attack by serial killer Ted Bundy. She was asleep at her sorority house at Florida State University when Bundy grabbed a log from a stack of firewood and entered through an unlocked door. He murdered two of her sorority sisters and then attacked Kleiner Rubin and her roommate. They only escaped because a car’s headlights shone into their room, startling Bundy. According to a 2024 article in USA Today, “Bundy bashed (Kleiner Rubin’s) head with an oak log. Her cheek ripped open, her jaw shattered in three places, and she almost bit her tongue in half. She had months of physical recovery, including multiple jaw surgeries.”

Still, she survived, unlike the dozens of women Bundy murdered in the 1960s and ’70s, and she has channeled the experience into her work as an author and motivational speaker specializing in survivor impact.

Duffey says other panelists included family members of the four University of Idaho students, Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, who were murdered. “CrimeCon invited them to share their stories and feelings with people willing to listen,” he says.

Another well-attended discussion featured Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins, whose story is told in the 2024 Netflix docuseries “American Nightmare.” In 2015, they were attacked at home, resulting in Huskins being kidnapped and Quinn, left shaken, becoming the prime suspect. The public and law enforcement viewed the incident as far-fetched, and when Huskins reappeared, the couple was accused of staging it. 

Given a platform often involving horrific experiences that humans endure, CrimeCon leaders walk a fine line. Duffey says they treat victims and their families with “the utmost respect and compassion.” On the other hand, some participants make a living from tragedy, like prosecutors, podcasters, and pundits.

“It is without a doubt a wonderful idea to bring everyone together, though I can see that it may seem exploitive from the outside,” says Duffey. “When you’re there, you experience it for what it is. The fact that everyone is accessible, from a handshake to a conversation, is the amazing part. It’s almost like everybody is one. And victims’ families feel the love and support. They want to be there. They need to share their stories.”

CrimeCon and the CJI

Duffey is humbled when fellow former agents willingly come to Wilmington to share details about famous cases, as well as the esteemed professionals he meets at CrimeCon, like Dr. Ramsland and Smith. 

“When you go up to people and ask them to do a lecture for a few hundred people in Wilmington, Delaware, and they say yes, especially for those with FBI credentials, you understand that this is forever a brotherhood and sisterhood, and they are always happy to help a colleague.”

Despite (or because) of his extensive experience and knowledge, Duffey is a lifelong student. “I have always felt that no matter how much time someone has in a particular law enforcement agency like the FBI, you are always learning,” he says. “You realize that you think you’ve seen it all, but the next day arrives, and there’s something totally new and different.”

In a sense, that’s CrimeCon’s premise: to discover. Duffey points to Geragos, who still represents the Menendez brothers because they’re seeking a retrial. “You would never be able to meet and hear Geragos talk about the case word-for-word like this anywhere else,” he says. “It might be easy to judge the Menendez brothers. They killed their parents; they should stay in jail for the rest of their lives. However, at the conference, participants have access to more detailed information. People like Geragos discuss cases you thought you knew all about and teach you to keep an open mind.”

Paraphrasing from the CrimeCon website, true crime is more than murder re-creations and courtroom showdowns. The genre is rich in real-life stories of triumph, tragedy, heartbreak, and heroism. It’s about psychology, victimology, and methodology. And it’s constantly changing.

The conference provides Duffey with a deeply enriching experience that he shares in his classrooms, lecture series, and symposiums. His exceptional communication and sales skills ensure that students and true-crime enthusiasts gain invaluable insights, making them the true beneficiaries of his knowledge and dedication.