IMF Team
Intermountain Forensics encompasses a wide range of industry experience. Meet a few members of our team.
Karra J. Porter
CEO/Co-Founder
Karra Porter is the co-founder and CEO of Intermountain Forensics. Karra is an attorney in Salt Lake City, devoting most of her practice to DNA law, civil rights, and appeals. She was named Utah Lawyer of the Year in 2018 and is consistently selected as among Utah’s Legal Elite and a Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer. Karra has been an invited speaker at more than 100 conferences, including at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Association for Justice, the Utah State Bar, and others. Karra’s grandfather was murdered by unknown assailants in 1963, and she has a longstanding passion for helping families and communities find answers. She is proud to volunteer her services to IMF and the Cold Case Coalition.
Danny Hellwig
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Danny is a seasoned forensic scientist with over 20 years of experience in both public and private crime forensic DNA laboratories. With an M.S. in Forensic Science, he has served in various capacities including DNA analyst, technical leader, and executive management. Danny has provided training to hundreds of forensic DNA scientists, labs, and conferences on a variety of topics.
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With a black belt certification in Lean/Six Sigma process improvement and extensive experience in quality and operational leadership, he provides executive oversight, develops and maintains laboratory partnerships, offers case consultation, and directs future laboratory development.
Alison Wilde
Director Emeritus of FIGG
Alison is a Genealogy Case Manager for special projects, such as our work on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre identifications. Alison specializes in relationship probabilities, investigative lead assessment, and mass graves investigations. She is frequently contacted for mentoring and consultation on these items, as well as her knowledge of Kintelligence and traditional genealogy research strategies. Alison was the former Director of Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy at IMF and is currently part of the genetic genealogy team at DNA Labs International.
Andrea McCarthy
Co-Director of FIGG
Andrea serves as both the Executive Director of the Cold Case Coalition as well as the Co-Director of FIGG for Intermountain Forensics. She comes from a business background and previously owned and operated a Media Agency that specialized in serving small businesses and non-profits. She is a graduate of the FG4LE Advanced Internship program under Redgrave Research Forensic Services, a Team Leader / Senior Genetic Genealogist at the Cold Case Coalition as well as the co-founder of Red Earth Genetic Genealogy. Andrea is an active member of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Task Force and on the board of LoveWell Collective, a non-profit that focuses on equipping local communities to engage in healthy conversations and service despite our differences.
Elizabeth Marshall
Co-Director of FIGG
Elizabeth “Liz” serves as the Co-Director of FIGG for Intermountain Forensics. She has over 36 years of genealogical experience and 6 years of experience as an investigative genealogist. Liz is a graduate of the Forensic Genealogy Training for Law Enforcement program and is a member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG). Liz is an active member of the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Task Force. She has been a volunteer for Search Angels, an intern with Redgrave Forensic Services and is currently a Team Leader/Senior Genetic Genealogist for the Cold Case Coalition as well as the co-founder of Red Earth Genetic Genealogy. When not working on cold cases, Liz is an accountant with the Oklahoma Police Pension and has worked for the State of Oklahoma for 36 years.