Water-Related Death Investigation (PDF)

Kevin Erskine graduated from Hocking College in 1982 with an associate's degree in natural resources law enforcement. He also obtained mountain rescue, search and rescue, and EMT certifications. He began his career with the Ohio State Park Police in 1986 and developed the only State of Ohio dive team in 1998. In 2000, he codeveloped the Children's Ice Drowning Prevention Workshop, which teaches children self-rescue techniques in the event of an ice accident. He designed a multiagency training scenario for an airplane crash in Lake Erie. Within months of the training scenario, an actual plane crash occurred within a quarter mile of the training site. In 2005, he developed the Master Water Death Investigator curriculum for the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy (OPOTA). He is an OPOTA-certified Master Criminal Investigator who has earned numerous life-saving awards for rescues of drowning victims in the waters of Lake Erie. He was recognized as "Citizen of the Year" by the Cleveland Fire Department in 2006 for the rescue of an active drowning victim within his jurisdictional waters. He has attended police diver symposiums in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; West Point; and Indianapolis. In 2011, he retired after 25 years of service to the State of Ohio. He currently serves as the training coordinator for Hope Christian Church First Responder Team in Avon, Ohio, where he lives with his wife and two sons.