Former Ohio cop now helps solve crimes with a sketch pencil, looks to assist SWFL police

More lead has come from retired lawman Walt Siegel's pencil than from the .40 caliber Glock he carried when he wore a badge.

The Ohio native and former police officer put down his badge and service weapon permanently when he retired in 2017, but he kept the sketchpad and pencil he had picked up a few years earlier when he started producing drawings of suspects in local crimes. 

"I do it because I have skill and I don't want to waste it," Siegel said. "Do they all look like the suspect? No. But there are successes. You're only as good as your witness."

His successes include work for municipal police agencies as well as for the FBI on cases from a serial bank robber to a freckle-faced burglar in Northeast Ohio.

He's hoping a recent move to Southwest Florida, and a crime suspect sketch made for Fort Myers police, will translate into interest from area police agencies.

Siegel and his wife, Kathryn, escaped the Buckeye State's frigid winters permanently this year, opting for the warmth of Southwest Florida where they had been seasonal visitors for several decades.

He started having success helping police departments in Ohio get their man, or woman, through his sketches while he was a police officer for the Shaker Heights Police Department near Cleveland. 

The sketch he provided Fort Myers police involved a suspect in a May 9 home burglary involving an assault or battery. Since the case is active Siegel couldn't discuss particulars.

The crime remains unsolved but the sketch is active, an FMPD spokesman said, and police are hopeful that they will eventually get information leading to an arrest.

Siegel has also been in touch with departments in surrounding counties and communities offering his talents.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office would only say it uses "various techniques" when it comes to crime sketches, while spokesmen for Cape Coral police and the Collier County Sheriff's Office said their agencies use computer-generated sketches.

Visitor to area

Southwest Florida has been a regular destination for the Cleveland Heights, Ohio, native, for nearly 30 years as he made an annual trek to play in the Roy Hobbs' amateur baseball tournament.

He retired from the Shaker Heights Police Department in 2017. Naples is now the Siegels' permanent home.

His law enforcement career began in the early 1980s with the Albuquerque Police Department and then Shaker Heights in 1989.

"Albuquerque is a great department," he said, "but it's a dangerous city." He said he was shot at three times in six years on the New Mexico city's force. Two co-workers were killed in the line of duty.

He began doodling cartoons of fellow officers and drawing while in Shaker Heights, encouraged by a fellow officer who saw his work. The department helped by sending him to the FBI Academy police composite course in Quantico, Virginia.

Siegel said he didn't think his skills were adequate, especially after an artist who did the sketch of the infamous D.B. Cooper skyjacker savaged some of his work.

At one point he was ready to give it up.

Karen T. Taylor, a well-known and much-sought-after portrait sculptor and facial ID specialist who did composites for then" America's Most Wanted" television series, helped him hone his efforts.

"She showed me how to draw," he said. 

His first efforts brought no results, he said, but eventually his drawings started to get hits that led to or assisted in arrests.

Having a thick skin is good, Siegel said.

"Co-workers are the worst," he said with a laugh.

Those who have worked with him, however, say Siegel is a dedicated artist who loves his work.

Police reactions

Former Shaker Heights police commander and detective bureau supervisor Mike Rowe  remembers Siegel's sketches well.

"He's a talented sketch artist," the now retired officer said. "Many of the cases we had him draw led to arrests. It's uncanny."

Rowe, now retired, said Siegel excelled in his ability to draw information out of people and then making a very accurate depiction from those details.

"His strongest ability is his interview of the witness or victim," Rowe said, with Siegel's police experience assisting him beyond what civilian sketch artists could do.

"He was able to discern fact from fiction, sometimes to show no crime had occurred. That saved us a ton of time," he said. "No civilian could do that. He was really good at his craft."

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One of those cases involved a serial burglar that had been plaguing the Shaker Heights area, Rowe said. 

"He had been kicking our teeth in," he said, with around 30 burglaries reported.

Rowe said a sketch Siegel produced lead to the capture of the burglar, in the act, after police put surveillance on a suspect the drawing suggested.

"It was spot on," he said of the sketch.

What made it even more unusual, Rowe said, was that the original drawing Siegel made included a lot of freckles, which witnesses had him reduce. The man who was eventually arrested had freckles in the amount Siegel drew originally.

"It was almost like magic sometimes." Rowe said of Siegel's sketches.

Remarkable, and instrumental, is how Gates Mills, Ohio, Police Chief Gregg Minichello describe's Siegel's work on a case involving a man who broke into a woman's house there in 2017 and bound her with duct tape, taking cash and jewelry before fleeing.

"The sketch was fantastic," he said. "It was instrumental."

Minichello said his small department got around 50 tips from the sketch.

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"When I saw the sketch and saw the person in question, it was remarkable," the chief said.

Minichello said a person saw a man in the backyard of a home in the same area who looked similar to the sketch.

"We ended up getting the guy," he said.

Looks at other sketches

The works of others from what Siegel said is the "very small fraternity" of crime sketch artists, is important to him. He looks at other works, collects their sketches, and goes on social media, seeking out constructive criticism.

"You can always learn something," he said. For example, looking at other sketch artists' work has helped him with shading techniques.

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There are companies that offer computer programs that help victims create digital sketches of suspects in crimes, Siegel said. He prefers the personal touch.

"When I do it we are face-to-face," he said. "I discuss everything. Some people even act out the crime."

He doesn't characterize the computerized programs as ineffective, just different.

"A drawing gives more latitude," he said. "A (composite) of photographic quality, may cause people to dismiss some suspects."

He also uses the FBI Facial Identification Catalog, which has hundreds of mug shots of men and women of various ethnicities, hairstyles and facial features.

Some people, in describing a possible suspect, try to be politically correct, Siegel said. Aspects such as race, facial features, possible deformities, or the effects of drug use are important to note in a description.

"People leave things out all the time. But you can't because this is a police matter," he said. "You can't hide something they may think is offensive. This is an investigation."

Still, he said, you have to go by what the person describing the suspect says. 

"They'll say 'That's who it looks like'," he said. "It points you in a direction." 

Siegel has produced about 100 crime suspect drawings in black-and-white pencil or charcoal, never in color.

"To me black-and-white has more possibilities visually than color or photo composites," he said.

"It's a tough gig," he said. They start out great, then they suck, then they come out great. Just like any art."

Immediate identification

Among the cases he has helped solve have been several where someone immediately identified a suspect, including a sketch that led to the arrest of a Cleveland-area rapist.

"The guy's wife looked at the drawing," Siegel recalled, "and said 'That's my husband'."

He said other sketches will sit for a time until after an arrest. Police will notice that the suspect they just nabbed for a different crime looks like the sketch for someone they've been looking for.

"Then it turns out to be him," he said.

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A test of a police sketch artist

When I met with police sketch artist Walt Siegel for this story he asked me to describe someone he could sketch as a test of his drawing ability.

The person I selected was not a famous movie star, politician, sports figure or even someone he might have known back in Ohio.

I figured I’d give him a real test and described someone he couldn’t have met previously … or even known about.

He put me through the same steps he does with any crime witness or victim. I took him through a visual description of my “someone” … hair, eyes, nose, mouth, dimple, piercings, everything. We even went through the FBI Facial Identification Catalog and looked at hundreds of mugs for similar styles.

When he was finished a few days later I was simply amazed at the outcome.

The person I had selected was my late daughter Cassandra.

I’ll let readers decide for yourselves but, to me, Walt’s interpretation of my description of her is nearly perfect.