From L-R: Det. Julissa Trapp, Ofc. Jeff Babauta, Sgt. Matthew Vartanian, Det. Andrew Houghton
Join Law&Crime”s Dan Abrams as he uncovers how the nation’s top detectives cracked down and solved some of the most elusive crimes.
Brilliant detective work has fascinated, educated and entertained people for ages. Yet, the people who perform this amazing detective work on a daily basis are rarely recognized outside their locality. To change that, leading legal and true crime network Law&Crime will present its third annual America’s Greatest Detective Award at Crime Con 2025, a title awarded annually to recognize the most complex investigative work done by teams or individuals working in or adjacent to law enforcement.
For the third year in a row, Law&Crime’s team has carefully selected three nominees from across a wide range of investigative professions. Now we’re inviting our audience members to vote on who they think best deserves the title of America’s Greatest Detective.
This year’s nominees include: Sgt. Julissa Trapp (Anaheim, California, Police Department) for work on the case of serial killer Steven Dean Gordon and accomplice Franc Cano; Ofc. Jeffrey Babauta (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) for his 2-½ year sting operation into the world of underground alligator poaching; and Sgt. Matthew Vartanian and Det. Andrew Houghton (Elgin, Illinois, Police Department) for their resolution of the 42-year-old cold case of Karen Schepers, through which they launched the innovative cold case podcast series Somebody Knows Something.
Law&Crime’s Dan Abrams will host the America’s Greatest Detective panel at Crime Con, as well as present the winner at the 2025 CLUE Awards on Sept. 8, 2025.
From the three nominees, America’s Greatest Detective will be named based on the adjudication of a specially nominated panel composed of Law&Crime executives, partners and law enforcement experts.
Julissa Trapp
Homicide Detective Julissa Trapp has been a police officer since 1998. During her tenure with the Anaheim Police Department, Det. Trapp has served in various capacities, including assignments in DARE and as a School Resource Officer. Additionally, Trapp is trained as a hostage negotiator and in 2002, she became a detective in the family protection detail. Prior to becoming a Homicide detective, Trapp also worked assignments in Sex Crimes and Gangs.
Since joining Homicide as one of only a few women to have worked in the unit in 2010, Trapp has worked to close several high-profile murder investigations, including two serial killer cases and a 40-year-old cold case from the 1980s.
In 2014, Trapp notably broke the case of serial killer Steven Dean Gordon. What started as an investigation into the death of one young woman found in a recycling plant ultimately uncovered Gordon’s involvement in four additional homicides and a lengthy history of predatory behavior alongside his accomplice, Franc Cano. Though a complicated series of digital and GPS evidence tied Gordon and Cano to the scene where several of his victims initially went missing, it was an impressive 13-hour interrogation that ultimately led to a confession and, later, conviction. With no name, no crime scene and no body with which to investigate, Trapp was also able to positively identify Gordon’s unknown 5th victim as 19-year-old Sable Pickett, bringing both her name and answers around her disappearance to light.
A three-time recipient of the Department’s “Detective of the Year,” Trapp has also been awarded the Lifesaving Award, the Meritorious Service Award, the Distinguished Service Award and the Joseph T. Molloy Career Achievement Award. Additionally, she was recognized by the Orange County Register as one of “Orange County’s Most Influential” people in 2014, and in 2020 by Congressman Lou Correa as a Congressional Woman of the Year.
Detective Trapp grew up and continues to live in the City of Anaheim.
Trapp states that she’s “A very firm believer that cases will pick you, that somehow the right case lands with the right detective.” The case of Gordon & Cano might have picked her, but it was her tenacity as an investigator and master interrogation skills that brought all the pieces together for a resolution.
Jeff Babauta
Officer Jeff Babauta retired from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in 2019, after 35 years of outstanding service protecting Florida’s natural resources. He began his career in 1984 with the Division of Freshwater Fisheries as a Lab Technician, transferred in 1987 to the Division of Wildlife as a Wildlife technician, and in 1994 joined the Division of Law Enforcement as a patrol officer in Manatee County.
Over the next 25 years in law enforcement, Babauta earned widespread community recognition for his work, including Manatee County’s Officer of the Year (1999), Outdoorsman of the Year from a local civic group (2001), and a commendation medal from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (2002). Babauta was also awarded the FWC Lifetime Achievement Award (2018) for his dedication and outstanding service to the protection and preservation of Florida’s fish & wildlife resources over the course of his career.
In 2015, Babauta took on his most demanding assignment yet — a position for a long-term undercover sting operation into the black market world of alligator trafficking. For two and a half years, he assumed the full-time undercover identity of a gator farmer named “Curtis Blackledge” in order to infiltrate one of Florida’s most entrenched commercial wildlife crime networks. As proprietor of Sunshine Alligator Farm, Babauta’s alias, Blackledge, has a front-row seat to the illicit activities of the gator trappers, dealers and farmers with whom he was tasked with building relationships. Meanwhile, the real Babauta worked tirelessly to investigate the inner workings of this same world in order to end the trafficking from within.
The result was Operation Alligator Thief, the FWC’s first case prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The investigation led by Babauta culminated in the arrest of 14 suspects and uncovered the unlawful collection and sale of over 10,000 alligators. Babauta’s undercover work not only ruptured these illegal alligator trafficking activities, but it also shed light on the economic pressures, environmental changes and cultural complexities contributing to such wildlife crimes in the region to begin with.
Citing his dedication to protecting our natural resources for future generations, Babauta was willing to risk it all – including his own sense of self – to tackle illegal alligator trafficking. But that doesn’t mean that becoming Curtis Blackledge didn’t threaten to leave a permanent mark on him as an investigator.
“When you play a role, it becomes natural” says Babauta, “One of the things that really helped me, even between going from the farm to home when I got the opportunity to go home, was I literally did this – every time I hit the county line I would flash my hand in front of my face and I’d say, ‘Jeff Babauta, Jeff Babauta’ to bring me back to the world that is Jeff and vice versa.”
Sgt. Matthew Vartanian and Det. Andrew Houghton
Sgt. Matthew Vartanian joined the Elgin, Illinois, Police Department in 2008, after falling in love with a career in law enforcement through an internship in nearby Geneva. Following many years of working in special investigations, gathering intelligence on gang-related crimes, Vartanian moved into a new role with the cold case unit in May of 2024. Since then, Vartanian has been promoted to sergeant of the patrol division in June 2025. In his new role, Vartanian will continue to offer his dedication and expertise to the Elgin community in crisis and tactical response, criminal apprehension, evidence collection and more.
Det. Andrew Houghton has been a police officer in Illinois since 2007 and has been with the Elgin Police Department since 2012. Det. Houghton previously worked as a patrol officer and an evidence technician before becoming a detective in 2013. He also served as an affiliate investigator with both the Illinois Attorney General’s Office & The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces from 2014 through 2024, where he specialized in crimes against children and internet-related crimes. He has been a member of the Kane County Major Crimes Task Force, which assists area agencies with major crimes since 2021, and was assigned as the first full-time detective for the Elgin Police Department’s cold case unit in May 2024.
In October 2024, Vartanian and his partner, Houghton, reopened the case of Karen Schepers, a 23-year-old resident of Elgin who went missing after a night out with coworkers in April of 1983. After launching a podcast in order to generate vital tips from the community, Vartanian and Houghton were able to successfully locate Schepers’ car and remains in the Fox River in March, providing a major break in a case that has haunted Elgin for 42 years.
Vartanian’s podcast with Houghton, Somebody Knows Something, serves as an exceptional model for trailblazing investigative work by allowing the public to listen along – and offer crucial, never-before-heard information – in real time. With a new addition to the team, Detective Chris Hall, the podcast will continue to seek out new leads on additional cold cases in Season 2.
To quote Vartanian on the duo’s inspiration behind the initiative: “We’re cops, we’re not podcasters; we have no experience in this at all. Then we took a step back and thought objectively and open-mindedly and realized this could be a really powerful tool for us as law enforcement to generate public interest again and get these cases back out there.”
