Testimonials

  • “Kelsey's explanation of strangulation, through her many years of experience as a prosecutor, has helped me to view the circumstances of my mother's death with a more clear understanding of what may have been involved.”

    — Charles Conrad, Reporter; Virginia

  • “When you hear running hooves, you look for horses and not zebras.” Strangulation is the “Zebra” when you are looking for the horses. Ms. McKay’s training explains in plain terms how to see the “Zebras.”

    — David Durkop, DFPS Special Investigator; Texas

  • “Having survived my own Attempted Capital Murder by strangulation, her observation and instruction in what to look for in a strangulation victim is Dead On!”

    — Darrell Gibson, Detective; Travis County, Texas

  • “Our reports are drastically better and the officers now understand the dynamics of the offense and obtain the needed evidence at the crime scene, when it is available.”

    — Laurie Burks, Detective; Rockwall County, Texas

  • “With her help, we trained our nurses how to recognize, document, and care for for patients who survived both sexual assault and strangulation.”

    — Jenny Black, Forensic Nurse

  • “…after your training I realized I was only capturing a small portion of the physical symptoms of strangulation and have since included the assessment of these subtle, but significant, symptoms into my assessments.”

    — Michael T. Svoboda, RN, MSN, CPNP; Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas

  • “The first training I took in strangulation, which was provided by Kelsey to our department, really opened my eyes to the lack of information presented to and/or available to EMS in recent years.”

    — Cheryl Bakhtiari, EMS; Austin/Travis County, Texas

  • “She has taught our officers about the need to collect evidence at the scene, when the victim is able and willing to provide the value details that will help convict the abuser. Kelsey always goes above and beyond to contribute to the success of the law enforcement team.”

    — Detective K. Oldham, #4940, Austin Police Department; Austin, Texas

  • “San Diego has been a leader for years on evidence based domestic violence prosecution but Kelsey McKay’s presentation last August to a large multidisciplinary group of law enforcement patrol officers and detectives, prosecutors, dispatchers, medics, SANE nurses, and doctors from across our county helped us motivate to improve how we identify, investigate, and prosecute strangulation cases.”

    — Kurt Mechals, Deputy District Attorney; San Diego County, CA

  • “Kelsey's presentations are very practical, knowledgeable and cutting-edge on the topics of the investigation, prosecution and trial of strangulation cases.”

    — Jackie Borcherding, Assistant District Attorney

  • “Systemically, all of Travis County benefitted from her training, as demonstrated in the increasing sophistication of probable cause affidavits since Kelsey started providing this training for local law enforcement.”

    — Mark Spacht, Pretrial Services; Travis County, Texas

  • “The work of ADA McKay in the area of Strangulation was yet another dimension of our future training that we wanted to better understand and ultimately adopt.”

    — Michael Heidingsfield, Director of Police, The University of Texas Systems Police; Austin, Texas

  • “Kelsey tells it like it is!! A refreshingly honest & true-to-life presentation on a dangerous & lethal behavior. I require all my counseling staff who work with domestic violence offenders to attend this training."

    — Karen Traylor, Travis County Counseling & Education Services; Travis County, Texas

  • “I feel better prepared and more knowledgeable as I go forward with my career facilitating treatment programs and ensuring that they are an effective component in creating change.”

    — Holly Owens, Treatment Provider; Idaho

  • “Your efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for these violent crimes and preventing horrific future incidents from occurring is incredibly inspiring.”

    — Jessica L. Pearson, Investigator

  • “Even when the victim lied abou the strangulation, my testimony was enough to move the case to arraignment and closer to trial. This has everything to do with the training I received from your 7 hour class.”

    — Ray Orth, Deputy Sheriff; Kansas City

  • “Being a fairly young and new interviewer, I cannot even begin to express how much more prepared I feel to interview cases in which our children are subjected to or witness strangulation.”

    — Lilia Ramos, Forensic Interviewer

  • “This course is an eye opener and I feel all investigators need to take it so that we are all on the same page and so that we do not let these incidents go without a more thorough investigation.”

    — Lionel Betancourt, Special Investigator; Texas

  • “The way she described the use of strangulation and its purpose in a DV situation was spot on."

    — Kristie Puckett, Batterer Intervention