Where some people see only Nikes, Birkenstocks or Manolo Blahniks, Steve Koch sees distinctive patterns that may, someday, yield a clue to a crime.

Koch, of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, is one of just 54 “certified footwear examiners” in the world.

“When I go walking around, I sometimes look at people’s shoes, OK? It’s weird,” Koch said. “I wouldn’t say I’m fascinated by it, but it’s education to me. I have to see what all the styles are that are out there. It will help me in my job.”

Koch, 43, is a native of Seneca and a die-hard Kansas State University fan – so much so that he uses purple gloves to handle evidence. He is chief of the KBI’s latent-prints section, a job that includes overseeing the analysis of crime scene fingerprints, tire tracks and footprints.

To become certified in footwear, Koch had to score 100 percent on a written and practical test offered by the International Association for Identification.

“In normal crime scene work, footwear is a specialized area,” said Stephen Greene, secretary of the group’s footwear-certification board. “It’s one of the most overlooked pieces of forensic evidence in some ways.

“People will know about wearing gloves to cover their fingerprints : but nobody thinks about their feet when they’re walking to commit the crime.”

All shapes and sizes

Koch receives about 100 footprint examination requests per year from agencies throughout the state that rely on the KBI for expertise and assistance.

Footprints can be left in all kinds of cases, from burglaries to homicides, and on all kinds of surfaces: blood, sand, dust or mud, to name a few.

In a typical case, Koch starts with an image of the initial footprint and enhances it, if possible, using computer software or chemicals.

He then obtains a known shoe sample – for example, a shoe seized from a suspect’s closet. He dusts the bottom with fingerprint powder, sticks it on a white piece of paper, rubs it in, peels off the paper, then makes a transparent copy of the print that can be laid directly on top of the footprint taken from the crime scene.

He then compares them, looking for patterns, proportion, wear and tear on the bottom of the sole, and tiny similarities such as a pebble stuck in the sole.

In some cases, the job involves delving into the workings of the shoe industry.

In the murder of Pittsburg State University student Carrie Williams in 1996, Koch found that a shoe print left near the crime scene appeared consistent with a size 12 pair of Reeboks owned by suspect Gary Kleypas. To narrow it further, he contacted Reebok and found there had been only 2,500 pairs of that particular shoe manufactured, and just 250 pairs of size 12s.

Gumshoe detective

Through the years, Koch has lent his expertise to many violent crimes in Lawrence, including the 2002 double murder of Pete Wallace and Wyona Chandlee in a burglary on Learnard Street.

“He actually came to the scene and helped us. He was there, I think, the first two days documenting shoe prints,” said Lawrence Police Sgt. Dan Ward, who at the time was the Lawrence Police Department’s primary crime scene detective.

Koch helped Lawrence Police match the footprints found in the home to footprints at a previous burglary in the neighborhood. In both cases, detectives determined that the burglar – later identified as Damien Lewis – had kicked in the door with a pair of Skechers-style boots.

When detectives interviewed Lewis, he didn’t know police had connected the two burglaries, and when he confessed to the first burglary, detectives knew they had the right suspect. He eventually confessed to the murders.

Koch said he sometimes goes to shoe stores just to look at new styles and keep up with the industry. At other times, he’d just as soon see everyone go barefoot.

“I sometimes get so tired of looking at shoes on a daily basis,” Koch said. “I can’t stand it when it rains and I see all these muddy shoe prints all over the place. It means I have to go examine them.”