Dr. Pettler is founder and CEO of Laura Pettler & Associates Death Investigations (LPA), voted Best Victim Centered Death Investigation Specialist 2020 by CORP Today, and 2019 winner of Acquisition International’s, Scientific, Victim-Centered Death Investigation Specialist Award, naming LPA the #1 private scientific, victim-centered death investigation firm in the world. Dr. Pettler is a licensed North Carolina and South Carolina Private Investigator. She is a former South Carolina Deputy Coroner and is a former North Carolina District Attorney’s Investigator where she was the co-founder and director of North Carolina’s first and only Crime Scene Reconstruction & Behavioral Analysis Program and head of the district’s first Cold Case Task Force.
The year 2021 marks Dr. Pettler’s 20th year in homicide. Dr. Pettler holds a Bachelor of Science degree in pre-professional psychology from Geneva College, a Master of Science degree in criminal justice specializing in forensic psychology and forensic science related to homicide investigation from Youngstown State University, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in public safety specializing in criminal justice focused on crime scene staging in intimate partner homicides from Capella University. Dr. Pettler has 17 years post-graduate research, field experience, invention, and publication in bullet path and bloodstain pattern analysis and reconstruction in homicide cases. Dr. Pettler is the inventor and LPA is the manufacturer of The Kaleidoscope System Bullet & Bloodstain Reconstruction system used by law enforcement worldwide sold by 11 distributors across 30 countries.
Dr. Pettler is the author of the third dissertation in the world on crime scene staging behaviors of crime scene stagers in homicide cases. Dr. Pettler has 10 years postdoctoral research, field experience, and publication in crime scene staging dynamics in intimate partner homicide hot and cold cases. Dr. Pettler is the author of Crime Scene Staging Dynamics in Homicide Cases, the first book in the world on staged homicides and is currently writing its second edition. Dr. Pettler is the founder and director of the LPA International Forensics Institute School of Forensic Criminology, an online continuing education center focusing on unique courses typically absent from traditional continuing education catalogs for CSIs, detectives, private investigators, coroners, attorneys, and students.
One of the greatest honors of Dr. Pettler’s life is being a member of the cast that won the 2020 Emmy Award for Outstanding New Series for cold case TV show CSI Atlanta starring Karyn Green and Sheryl McCollum. Additionally, Dr. Pettler was the Forensic Criminologist in seasons 8, 9, 10, 11 of internationally syndicated Nine-Time Emmy Award winning The Dr. Oz Show and regularly appears on numerous true crime television shows on Oxygen, ID, Reelz, Starz, Spike, and other networks. And finally Dr. Pettler is the host and co-executive producer of Notorious: True Crime Stories with Laura Pettler nominated in 2017 for Best Director by the International Academy of Web Television Awards.
