2020 Writers' Police Academy Presents
August 6 - 9, 2020 · Raleigh, North Carolina
Registration Opens
MurderCon is a rare opportunity for writers to participate in hands-on “for law enforcement eyes only” training, using modern testing and evidence collection tools and equipment, in workshops taught by some of the world’s leading homicide investigation experts. This incredibly detailed, cutting-edge instruction has never before been available to writers, anywhere. Until now.
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Learn From the Experts
For writers of all genres to get hands-on experience in homicide investigation and forensics taught by some of the world's leading homicide investigation experts.
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Professional Grade Classes
From fingerprint examination to body decomposition and arson investigation, writers receive training in investigative techniques usually reserved only for law enforcement.
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Hosted by Sirchie
Sirchie helps Police and Public Safety officers around the world to Command Every Scene™ they encounter. Cutting edge technology and training solutions.
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4 Fabulous Days of Learning
Classes and workshops taught by world-renowned instructors. Imagine sitting in the same seats once occupied by some of the world's top homicide investigators at a world-class training facility!
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Only $460 - Writers Conference
Cutting-edge instruction never before offered to writers, anywhere. Take your writing to the highest levels with hands-on, real world experience.
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Golden Donut Short Story Contest
200 word short story for participants and non-participants alike. Submit your short story to win the exclusive Golden Donut Award.
Murder Mystery and Mayhem
Join us at WPA MurderCon 2020 for a Crime Inspired Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt and Clue Game. From the time WPA attendees enter the host hotel (maybe even before arriving) authors must pay attention, listen carefully, and observe thoroughly, clues to solve a whodunit.
Guest of Honor - David Baldacci
David Baldacci is a global #1 bestselling author, and one of the world’s favorite storytellers. His books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with over 130 million copies sold worldwide. His works have been adapted for both feature film and television. He has also published seven novels for young readers.
David is also the cofounder, along with his wife, Michelle, of the Wish You Well Foundation®, which is dedicated to supporting adult and family literacy programs in the United States.
David is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia School of Law. He lives in Virginia.
Photo credit - Guy Bell
Special Guest Speaker - Ray Krone
Ray Krone is co-founder of Witness to Innocence. Before his exoneration in 2002, Ray spent more than 10 years in Arizona prisons, including nearly three years on death row, for a murder he did not commit.
His world was turned upside down in 1991, when Kim Ancona was murdered in a Phoenix bar where Ray was an occasional customer, and he was arrested for the crime. The case against him was based largely on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of a supposedly “expert” witness, later discredited, who claimed bite marks found on the victim matched Ray’s teeth. He was sentenced to death in 1992.
Special Guest Speakers - Dr. Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell
Judy Melinek, M.D. was an assistant medical examiner in San Francisco for nine years, and today works as a forensic pathologist in Oakland and as CEO of PathologyExpert Inc. She and T.J. Mitchell met as undergraduates at Harvard, after which she studied medicine and practiced pathology at UCLA. Her training in forensics at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner is the subject of their first book, the memoir Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner.
T.J. Mitchell is a writer with an English degree from Harvard, and worked in the film industry before becoming a full-time stay-at-home dad. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner with his wife, Judy Melinek.
