Joanna Collins is not afraid of the unknown. Instead, she is intrigued by it.
It’s an instinct many cannot relate to — nor can they relate to the intensity of her work. But for Collins, curiosity is what makes her thrive.
“There’s always more to the story,” Collins said.
For 26 years, Collins has been digging to get the whole story, working for the federal government as a forensic and criminal investigator. It’s an experience that she’s leveraged into being her own boss — co-founding LINUS Investigations & Consulting with her husband and now serving as president for the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Collins understands why many people wouldn’t want to conduct the investigations she does, as she often deals with incidents of murder and sexual assault involving both adults and children.
“It’s not for everybody,” Collins said. “But I found I was very good at it. I was able to connect with the various individuals that I talked to — whether it was family members, victims, suspects in our cases. … I felt a calling to that. I felt like I could help people get through some of the worst moments of their life.”
While studying at Texas A&M University, Collins was a member of the Corps of Cadets. She calls her career “a natural progression,” influenced by her father’s career, which concluded with being first sergeant in the Air Force. She was commissioned into the Air Force Office of Special Investigations when she graduated.
“I was 22 years old, carrying a badge and a gun, conducting investigations,” Collins recalled.
For the next 12 years, she investigated anything related to the Air Force — active-duty members, dependents, contractors. She compared her role to that of a detective or federal agent.
When her second son was born, she made the choice to leave active duty to go into the Reserve. She wanted to be “a present mother,” she said. Still, she continued working for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations for another 14 years. She retired as a colonel.
LINUS Consulting Group was established in 2008 while she was working in Washington, D.C., but she began actively doing casework when she moved to San Antonio and entered the Reserve around 2010. Strangely enough, she said, she had been born here but raised in different countries and states.
In 2017, she established DBA of LINUS Investigation and Consulting, adding criminal defense investigations to the catalog of provided services.
Collins does consulting work globally, but the majority of her criminal defense investigations are in Bexar County. She takes on serious felonies — murders, sexual assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — oftentimes for people deemed indigent and unable to pay for representation.
While there is satisfaction in finding someone guilty, Collins said, the most fulfilling part of the job is proving someone’s innocence.
“There’s nothing worse than an innocent person going to jail — losing time, losing reputation, losing family, losing friends, losing opportunity, losing their life — for something that they didn’t do,” she said. “It’s better to have guilty men go free than an innocent to be imprisoned. There’s so much behind that, and that really motivates us to make sure that we’re doing the best job we can.”
In February, Collins’ one-year term as president of the American Academy of Forensic Science concluded. It was an honor, she said, to represent her discipline over the past year. She’s coordinated with professionals in the field globally, such as those in the European Association of Forensic Sciences and the Brazilian Association of Forensic Sciences.
The position was a unique experience to broaden her perspective on the differing judicial systems throughout the world.
“I’m very appreciative of the exposure to those differences,” Collins said. “It makes me appreciate the structure that we have in the United States — albeit, nothing is ever perfect.”
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