The woman behind South Lake Tahoe police composite drawings

Connecting with victims and witnesses after a crime is not just the job of law enforcement, its also the job of composite sketch artists.

Imagine talking to a child who just witnessed a horrific crime, a woman who has just been raped, or a man who beaten up as another man murdered, and needing them to remember the face of the perpetrator.

Leona Allen grew up in South Lake Tahoe, graduated from CSU Humboldt, returned to South Lake Tahoe and started a career, and family. Many know her from her years in the dispatch center at the SLTPD, a reserve officer, or from her leadership years with the Lake Tahoe Fire Academy. She is also now a Lake Valley Fire Protection District board member and their rep on the JPA. But very few know Leona as a composite sketch artist.

She has never considered herself to be an artist and never had training to be one, but her talents are called on a few times a year and have not only led to arrests of criminals, but closures for the victims.

As a dispatcher, Leona had to attend training every two years, and she chose hers to be in the field of composite sketch artists. After just one class which covered the basics, she loved it. The second class taught her how to draw different cultures and races and how to protect the sketch in a court of law. By the third class, Leona was learning the color composite. Future classes taught age advancing, how to recreate a face when dealing with a skeleton.

Once she became certified, Leona has worked not only with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, but also the FBI, Alpine and El Dorado Counties, and the Santa Cruz Police Department.

She loves sketching for the victims and witnesses, and doesn't charge for her services unless its to reimburse her for hotel and travel expenses when taken out of town.

"This is my way of giving back to the victims," said Leona.

She explains that it isn't about drawing, but about interviewing. She'll start off the session with a box of tissue next to the person who is recalling what they've seen. She said she can sometimes pull out memories and details that the police cannot. For the next three to four hours (or even up to six), Leona gets them to remember. With each detail uncovered, Leona sketches away on her pad.

Once the session is done, Leona writes a narrative as she learns a lot during the interview, a time where trust is built. After that she'll have them close their eyes, take them through the experience, connect to their memories and get a picture in their head. They then look at the sketch she has completed. Sometimes she hits it on the nail, other times they have to make some adjustments to hair, eyes, nose or lips.

She says she doesn't want to know any about the crime after completing the sketch so her mind can be open should she be called to testify. She said this protects the integrity of the sketch.

"It is not about drawing, it's about the interview," said Leona. "It's more about getting people to remember than an artist's skill."

She said one of the more bizarre cases was when she worked on was with a woman from the Central Valley who pictured a crime in her dreams, including the victim who was carjacked having a heart issue. The woman pictured the man's body being dumped on the way to Lake Tahoe.

It was an actual crime, and the victim's family came to Lake Tahoe to look for him. Leona was contacted and drew a suspect from the woman's dreams. Two drawings came out of that interview in ten minutes, hours less than expected, and a suspect was identified. As is her policy, she doesn't know how it ended.

Leona likes to draw landscapes, flowers, and you can find her on the trail with a sketch pad full of noses, lips and eyes. One day she'd like to draw her grandbabies, but will wait until she is not drawing the "bad guys."

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