Welcome to Unique Forensics LLC
Unique Forensics LLC offers workshop, lecture, and consultation services to help you better experience, understand, and judge within the forensic comparative science process. These services are supported by backgrounds in latent print, shoe/tire print, firearm/tool mark, and fracture examinations, forensic comparative science research, teaching and learning at a variety of forensic science seminars, and active participation in national forensic science committees. After viewing the website, contactjohnv@uniqueforensics.comif interested in learning more about any of the offered services.
John R. Vanderkolk
Unique Forensics LLC
Consultant in Forensic Comparative Science
Retired in 2005 as a First Sergeant Indiana State Police Fort Wayne Regional Laboratory Manager
Retired in 2020 as a civilian Indiana State Police Fort Wayne Regional Laboratory Manager
John R. Vanderkolk received a Bachelor of Arts degree in forensic studies and psychology from Indiana University in 1979. He became an Indiana State Police trooper in 1979 and then a crime scene technician (CSI) in 1983. In 1984, he was assigned as a criminalist in the laboratory, where he was trained in the disciplines of latent print, shoe/tire print, firearm/tool mark, and fracture/physical comparative examinations. He was promoted to regional laboratory manager in 1996. He retired as a police officer in 2005, was rehired as a civilian, and retired as the manager at the Indiana State Police Laboratory in Fort Wayne in 2020. He was hired as a senior forensics advisor within the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), where he served two years. After that, he retired from full-time work and continues to teach seminars and workshops and advise on forensic comparative science concerns, such as the James Parsons Ohio Innocence Project case.