⚖️ Board Certified Criminal & Forensic Investigator
Expert Witness Consulting • Homicide & Death Analysis • Criminal, Civil & Insurance Investigations
We’re a boutique, board-certified investigative firm specializing in criminal defense, post-conviction review, and complex forensic casework. Our focus is uncovering truth in cases involving homicide, racketeering, organized crime, financial crimes, and wrongful convictions — the cases where experience, precision, and credibility matter most.
At sleuthIQ | powered by Zelaya PI, we conduct strategic, evidence-driven investigations built to hold up in court. From forensic death and serious bodily injury analysis to gang intelligence, RICO analysis, and fraud detection, our work is grounded in verifiable fact and courtroom-tested methodology.
We handle both private retainers and court-appointed cases, ensuring access to elite investigative services regardless of income. Payment plans and financing are available upon request.
Our investigators bring decades of field-tested experience backed by advanced training in criminal intelligence, forensic analysis, and expert witness testimony.
We don’t just review discovery. We reconstruct it, challenge it, and expose what others overlook.
Board Certified. Court Ready. Relentless
Our
Services
We don’t hide behind buzzwords. We solve cases.
At sleuthIQ, we bring board-certified skill and real-world experience to every investigation — from racketeering and gang defense to post-conviction reviews, financial fraud, and forensic death investigations. Our clients include defense attorneys, government agencies, and individuals in the fight of their lives.
Whether you’re under indictment, appealing a conviction, or exposing corruption, we cut through the noise and get to the truth. Every case starts with a free consultation — no strings, no fluff — just a conversation to see if we’re the right team to go to war with you.
Every scene tells a story — but only if it’s read correctly. We conduct full-spectrum death investigations focused on scene integrity, forensic accuracy, and sequence of events. Our reviews dissect autopsy findings, injury patterns, blood dynamics, and timeline inconsistencies to reveal whether the original conclusion was justified or premature. Whether assisting a defense attorney, family, or civil plaintiff, our approach is built on certified death investigation training and real-world scene experience. Focus Areas: Scene reconstruction, injury interpretation, blood pattern analysis, timeline validation, and secondary cause-of-death review.
Homicide & Suspicious Death Investigations
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Sexual Assault & Abuse Review
Sex crimes investigations often hinge on subjective credibility and flawed evidence handling. We independently assess the totality of case materials — forensic exams, witness interviews, timelines, and chain-of-custody documentation — to determine where investigative bias or procedural breakdowns may have occurred. Our reviews bring balance to emotionally charged cases by identifying investigative gaps and highlighting overlooked or conflicting evidence. Focus Areas: Forensic review, case chronology, investigative bias analysis, credibility assessment, and defense-victim case parity review.
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White-collar crime demands more than accounting — it requires pattern recognition, human motive analysis, and data-backed reconstruction of deceit. We investigate organized fraud, embezzlement, internal theft, insurance manipulation, and cyber-assisted financial crimes. Our team traces transactions, reconstructs paper trails, and analyzes internal control failures to identify responsible parties or reveal reasonable doubt. Focus Areas: Organized fraud, corporate embezzlement, insurance crime, digital financial tracing, and expert witness support.
Financial & Corporate Crime Investigations
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Organized Crime/ RICO/ DTO Analysis
With firsthand gang intelligence and correctional operations experience, SleuthIQ delivers unmatched insight into organized crime and drug trafficking organizations. We provide comprehensive assessments of hierarchy, communication patterns, alliance structures, and predicate acts — identifying the difference between alleged associations and proven enterprise activity. Our reports meet Daubert standards and can be used for prosecution, defense, or federal-level intelligence review. Focus Areas: RICO predicate analysis, gang communications, DTO hierarchy mapping, inter-gang alliances, and organized crime expert testimony.
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Justice doesn’t end with a verdict. We reinvestigate closed or adjudicated cases to uncover new evidence, identify investigative misconduct, or reanalyze forensic findings using modern standards. Each review starts with a ground-up examination of discovery, witness reliability, and forensic method integrity. Our work has contributed to post-conviction appeals, clemency petitions, and innocence-based reinvestigations. Focus Areas: Discovery audit, witness credibility reassessment, forensic re-evaluation, and new evidence development.
Wrongful Conviction & Post Conviction Review
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Litigation Support & Expert Witness Consultation
We support criminal, civil, and insurance defense teams by developing facts that hold up under scrutiny. Our investigators locate witnesses, audit discovery, and reconstruct events to expose inconsistencies in official reports or claimant narratives. Every finding is grounded in verifiable documentation and built to withstand cross-examination. We also provide expert witness services in multiple disciplines, including gang intelligence, organized crime, forensic death analysis, and post-conviction review. Each report, opinion, and testimony is prepared in accordance with Daubert and Frye standards to ensure admissibility and credibility in both state and federal court. Focus Areas: Criminal, civil, and insurance defense casework Witness location and interview Discovery and evidence analysis Expert witness testimony (gangs, RICO, death investigation, post-conviction) Litigation strategy and cross-examination preparation
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Traffic Homicide Reconstruction
Serious Bodily Injury Reconstruction
Meet The Team
Chief Investigator
Eric Zelaya
Board Certified Criminal Defense Investigator
Certified Insurance Fraud Investigator (CIFI)
Board Certified Forensic Death Investigator
Gang Expert Witness
Eric Zelaya is a Board Certified Criminal Defense Investigator (CCDI), Certified Insurance Fraud Investigator (CIFI), and Board Certified Forensic Death Investigator (BFDI) with over a decade of experience exposing organized crime, dismantling fraud rings, and building rock-solid defense cases.
He launched his career on the Florida DOC’s C‑Shift Gang Squad, running contraband stings and gang intel ops in max security. Since 2011, he’s worked major cases across criminal defense and insurance fraud—serving as a lead investigator in a national SIU, where he tackled staged losses, premium scams, and shell-company schemes tied to civil RICO.
Eric is a trusted gang consultant for WKMG News 6, a frequent resource for Florida defense teams, and an affiliate investigator with the Cold Case Foundation on select homicides and disappearances.
With advanced training in criminal psychology, gang and narcotics intelligence, and forensic death investigation, Eric brings street-hardened insight and forensic precision to every case—whether it’s a bogus claim or a wrongful arrest.
Case Studies
Every case tells a story — and proves what we bring to the table.
These case studies highlight how we operate under pressure, uncover what others miss, and deliver results that matter. Whether it’s fraud, criminal defense, or public corruption, our work speaks for itself.
At sleuthIQ, we don’t just take cases — we build them from the ground up, with certified expertise and relentless follow-through.
Leadership, Not Liability
In a case against a high-ranking gang member facing both murder and armed robbery charges, our team tapped into its deep knowledge of gang command structures, signaling protocols, and inter-cell communications. By meticulously analyzing cell-site data, surveillance footage, and insider testimony, we demonstrated that—despite his leadership role—our client neither ordered nor could have reasonably foreseen the fatal shooting. Armed with that gang-specific insight, defense counsel leveraged the evidence to negotiate a plea agreement, securing a term well under 15 years instead of a potential life sentence.
Corruption Runs Deep
In a complex civil investigation involving public corruption and misuse of office, sleuthIQ was retained to investigate a former county tax collector suspected of manipulating the tax lien auction process for personal gain. Our client alleged that the official had been quietly using family members and inside access to place strategic bids on properties with outstanding tax debts—properties that should have gone to fair public auction.
Drawing on our expertise in fraud detection and public records tracing, we mapped connections between bidders, flagged financial transactions tied to known associates, and reviewed internal county communication logs. The investigation revealed a coordinated pattern: bids placed through relatives, shell entities, and insider timing—exploiting privileged access to influence property acquisition outcomes.
By reconstructing the bidding history and linking it to known familial accounts and office communications, sleuthIQ exposed a deliberate scheme designed to funnel undervalued properties into the hands of the tax collector’s inner circle.
Ghost Transfer Scheme
A complex check fraud investigation involving a third-party ACH payment provider secretly diverting funds into a hidden internal account. The client—initially suspected of orchestrating the fraud—faced serious legal exposure.
sleuthIQ was brought in to trace financial patterns, audit transaction metadata, and dig into backend authorization logs. Our investigation uncovered that the ACH processor itself had quietly set up a shadow account and was skimming micro-deposits and high-volume batch transfers over time.
By identifying the internal exploit, tying it to specific employees, and mapping the transaction flow, we helped shift the investigative lens away from the client and exposed a deeper internal fraud scheme hidden beneath layers of legitimate activity.
Need Help? Contact us today.
Contact Us
3625 FL 419, Suite 210
Winter Springs, FL 32708
Monday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tuesday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
By Appointment Only
Closed