Preparing to travel across America for the first national “From the Scene of the Crime” teaching tour, Cold Case Investigative Research Institute (CCIRI) will be visiting several actual crime scenes with experts and students.

Attorney Holly Hughes joins the national tour “From the Scene of the Crime”

One of the experts who works closely with CCIRI founder, Sheryl McCollum, Attorney Holly Hughes, joins the show to talk about the upcoming tour and give listeners information about the stops and what is expected along the way.

Holly Hughes served as a Senior Assistant District Attorney with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office in Atlanta, GA where she prosecuted high-profile cases, and currently is in private practice in Atlanta. She’s a well-known fixture on HLN and CNN appearing with Nancy Grace, Don Lemon, and other news networks as a legal analyst.

Hughes uses her legal expertise as a teaching tool for students involved in the ever-expanding network of volunteers at CCIRI and was an instructor at the recent CUE Center for Missing Persons national conference.

Cold Case Investigative Research Institute is a partnership of several public, private and for-profit universities that gives students real-world training designed to lead to careers in law enforcement.

“They’re getting real cases, real files, real autopsy photos,” said Duanne Thompson, acting chairman of Argosy University-Atlanta’s criminal justice program. “Now, they see how ‘48 Hours’ and ‘CSI’ really work, that they’re not realistic. It’s not that easy.”

While the program doesn’t offer either college credit or pay, it give students a leg up on landing internships and, eventually, full-time jobs, said Sheryl McCollum, the research institute’s director. She said some students have been hired by the experts they worked with during the program. (Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle)

Listeners will hear how this national tour will impact the cases the students and experts plan to work on as they visit various locations along their route, including the high-profile case of still missing mother Susan Powell.

CCIRI national teaching tour, From the Scene of the Crime

Shattered Lives: Attorney Holly Hughes and Sheryl McCollum, “From the Scene of the Crime”