359: Katherine Schweit - Operation UNITED, Women Who Talk to the Dead

In this episode, retired agent Katherine Schweit reviews Operation UNITED, the largest coordinated exhumation of unidentified murder victims in FBI history. Detroit Police Detective Shannon Jones and FBI Special Agent Leslie Larsen spearheaded the initiative.

Operation UNITED is an acronym for Unknown Names Identified through Exhumation and DNA.

Their primary goal was to identify the nameless dead and bring closure to families who had spent decades wondering what happened to their loved ones. Their ultimate goal was to solve 200 murder cases. Jones and Larsen assembled a team led by female forensic anthropologists, scientists, and investigators who methodically unearthed Detroit’s painful past.

Katherine is the author of Women Who Talk to the Dead: The True Story of 200 Forgotten Murder Victims and the Relentless Pursuit of Justice by an FBI Agent and a Detroit Police Detective, the true story of the largest exhumation of murder victims ever undertaken by the FBI.

Part forensic procedural, part social justice narrative, this book exposes the tragic consequences when the criminal justice system fails those most vulnerable. It also celebrates the resilience and determination of the law enforcement officers who refuse to let these forgotten victims remain nameless.

Kathryn has been a guest on FBI Retired Case File Review twice before:

255: Katherine Schweit – School Shootings, Active Shooter Program

323: Understanding Deadly Force with Stop The Killing Podcast

Special Agent (Retired)

Katherine Schweit

1997 – 2017

Retired agent Katherine Schweit served in the FBI for twenty years. Her first assignment was to the Milwaukee Division, where she worked national security matters.

Following her time in Milwaukee, Katherine was promoted to FBI Headquarters and assigned to the Counter Intelligence Division’s Training Center at Quantico, working at a joint FBI/CIA facility at an undisclosed location.

She then joined the new National Security Branch executive staff and was promoted to unit chief in the Human Resource Division, developing a system to train and organize agents based on skill sets. She moved to the FBI’s Washington Field Office to create a media and outreach program before returning to FBI Headquarters. Her last assignment was as a senior executive, guiding the formation of the FBI’s active shooter initiative.

After retiring from the Bureau, Katherine opened her own consulting business, Schweit Consulting LLC, providing consulting services to businesses, schools, and others focused on improving security policies, procedures, and training.

She is the author of several books and the host of the Stop the Killing podcast. To learn more, visit her website at KatherineSchweit.com. https://www.katherineschweit.com/

This episode is dedicated to Special Agent Leslie S. Larsen, Senior Team Leader of the Detroit FBI’s Evidence Response Team (ERT).

Leslie entered on duty with the FBI in January 1999 and has held a variety of Professional Support Staff positions before becoming a Special Agent in September 2004. SA Larsen joined the ERT in January 2001 while stationed in the Milwaukee Division.

She transferred to the Detroit Division in 2005 and became the Senior Team Leader for ERT in 2008. SA Larsen is a certified Police Instructor and FBI Adjunct Facility Instructor. She routinely teaches forensics throughout the United States and internationally for the FBI.

Throughout her years with the FBI, SA Larsen has worked on various large scale forensic scenes such as the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon sites, the Detroit “Underwear Bomber”, the Boston Bombing, and hundreds of local scenes. The Detroit ERT program is one of the top 5 busiest teams in the nation.

When she is not managing ERT call outs, she works with the Behavioral Analysis Unit as an FBI Behavioral Analysis Coordinator on cold cases in Michigan. SA Larsen is also an FBI certified Investigative Genetic Genealogist and actively uses genealogy in her cold cases.

Prior to becoming an agent, SA Larsen worked on a volunteer fire department in Wisconsin and enjoyed running medical calls. She served as an FBI trained Medic as well from 2003 to 2019.