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“It’s kind of a natural response to push away the memory of something that’s happened to you, and I was just trying to get through the reporting process as quickly as I could because I was uncomfortable, I was physically injured, I wanted to go home,” she recalls. “And the nurse that I was speaking with, my time actually felt like it went faster with her. But I was with her for hours and she was asking about things on my body, ‘What did you smell?,’ ‘What did you taste?,’ ‘What did you touch?,’ and that really brought back a lot of memories for me.”

In November 2014, University of Minnesota junior Abby Honold met Daniel Drill-Mellum through a mutual friend at a tailgate party. Daniel was a fraternity member and had completed prestigious internships at the offices Senator Al Franken and Governor Mark Dayton. After a short conversation, Abby agreed to make a quick trip across the street to Daniel's apartment to grab more alcohol. Once they were inside, he suddenly turned violent. For approximately 40 minutes, Daniel held Abby captive in his apartment and raped her twice.

After Abby managed to escape, she immediately called 911, went to the hospital for an exam, and filed a police report. According to a warrant, Daniel had left Abby's body covered in lacerations, bitten her breasts, and shoved his fingers into her mouth, making her choke and gag.

The Certified FETI program is amazing and definitely made it into my list of favorites (the last one was dark web human trafficking investigations, so be proud). I truly believe everyone I attempt to help will benefit from the program and considerations presented. I hope you take a great sense of personal and professional satisfaction in championing the craft.

Certified FETI is not only a technique used for interviewing people, it is a global perspective on how individuals experience trauma throughout the course of an investigation, and a realization that the information we collect is most valuable when it is genuine and uninfluenced by outside factors.

This needs to be mandated in all human/social/public service professions. Cadre of Instructors were amazing!

- Forensic Interviewer

I serve as the Director of Vanderbilt University’s Project Safe Center for Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response, and I was thrilled to be able to bring Certified FETI to Vanderbilt University.  The Certified FETI team was so personable and professional (and well worth the cost).  They truly kept our participants engaged for the two full days of training, and I’ve only heard positive feedback from my friends and colleagues who completed the Basic Level Certification here on the Vanderbilt campus.  We are excited about the transformative potential of FETI.  We believe this will lead to better interviews and reports, and, importantly, better survivor and witness experiences.  I wholeheartedly believe that FETI is a crucial part of any campus or community effort to sincerely address and prevent sexual assault.  Certified FETI training is one of those rare learning opportunities where you leave feeling as if every minute spent was useful, interesting, and enjoyable, and better yet – we left equipped with tools that could immediately be put into effect to do our jobs more effectively, whether we are law enforcement, victim advocates, Title IX investigators, EEO investigators, SANE nurses, student conduct professionals, or others who interface with those accused of and those impacted by crimes of sexual violence.