ToddB

Todd was born and raised in the North Central Illinois town of Mendota. His father is a retired firefighter and his mother is a retired nursing home worker/ home maker. He had two older sisters growing up, Carolyn and Veronica. On September 20, 1990 their family’s world was shattered with the sudden disappearance and presumptive murder of the middle child, Veronica, who was 21 at the time. Finally, in 2010 the family had a memorial service for Veronica and Todd planned the Veronica Blumhorst Memorial Expo for a Safer Community which exposed the community to many social service organizations.
He has been involved in various organizations ranging from religious to civil. He was a board member for the Peterstown Teens Encounter Christ program in the early 1990’s and assisted in starting up the Chrysalis program with Northern Illinois Emmaus. He enjoys religious and metaphysical studies of all faiths and is familiar with several faith backgrounds and their relation to grief. He has a strong familiarity with paranormal investigations and how such techniques can be utilized as a tool for families to find some form of resolution in their cases. With a background in the funeral industry as well, Todd is able to assist families of victims during those initial stages of planning and ensure they do not get taken advantage of in a critical time. Todd has previously worked in the mental health field for many years and has had experience in observing a wide variety of treatment modalities available to alleviate psychological trauma.
Currently, he is a full time advocate for Homicide Survivors Inc and has an emphasis on unresolved homicides (cold cases). He has been involved with Homicide Survivors on a volunteer basis since 2001 when he attended his first support group meeting. In May of 2011 he became a full time employee of HSI. He uses his personal experience to assist families of long term unsolved cases find a resolution and rebuild their lives. He understands how difficult that journey of a long term survivor can be and helps them on that journey for as little or as much as they need his assistance. He also volunteers as a crisis first responder for the Pima County Attorney’s Office and responds to crime scenes / crisis situations and assists innocent victims through the initial trauma of crime victimization. He was also the 2011 winner of the Victim Voice of Courage Award given by the Pima County Attorney. It is his belief that he cannot allow anyone who has experienced a loss similar to his go through the journey alone; helping people continues to be his living memorial to his sister’s memory.