A 15-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, Detective Timm Angell has been on the homicide team for 5 years. “I don’t think my perspective on murder has changed at all. It’s one of the commandments, thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not kill I mean, it’s against the law, and that’s my job, to investigate it, and, if possible, put the person responsible in jail.” If there was one aspect of the job he could change Angell says “Obviously, the paperwork nobody likes the paperwork, that’s my least favorite aspect of the job.”

Angell feels lucky that he has a family that understands the demands of his work. “My wife understands that this is just a little bit more than a job. It’s not a 9-to-5 job. It requires a lot of time, whether it’s being here or time that I’m with my family, I’m thinking about the job.”

Detective Tom Froelick has been with the San Antonio Police Department for 18 years, starting his law enforcement career working the dogwatch and bike patrol units. He has made his way to the homicide department through hard work. He says, “nothing has been given to me, I feel I’ve earned everything I’ve gotten so far in life.”

Originally from the small town of Naugatuck, Connecticut, Froelick approaches his work with compassion. “Every victim that I’ve had, if their family has been reachable to some extent, I’ve met with them,” he explains. “I’ve gotten to know my murder victim’s mom and dad. I’ve gotten to know their brother’s and sisters, their husbands and girlfriends. I’ve known their kids. For me, it’s important to develop that relationship.” Detective Froelick also places a heavy importance on his own relationships with family and friends. He says his two children and wife of 14 years are “the most important things in my life, everything else is just gravy.”

A San Antonio native, Detective John Slaughter had many different jobs before becoming a police officer. “I worked as a bag boy, a pool cleaner, a Pizza Hut delivery guy. I worked construction. I worked demolition. I worked as a security guard. I was a congressional page.” What ultimately guided him toward a career in law enforcement was a criminal justice course he took in college. “I couldn’t really find myself sitting behind a desk everyday, crunching numbers but being a police officer just fit.”

When asked what it takes to make a good detective, Slaughter says, “It is not how smart you are or you know how skilled you are. It’s how relentless you are, the fact that you won’t give up, that you keep trying, you keep digging. You keep looking, and you exhaust every effort that you can to find out who did something. It’s just the fact that you won’t give up, which I think, makes you a good detective.”

Detective Stacy Sullivan, 34, has worked a San Antonio homicide detective for more than five years. In all, he’s been with the San Antonio Police Department for more than 10 years. As the youngest member of the homicide team, Sullivan says he loves his job because “every day it’s something different. You never know what is going to happen.”

Sullivan’s decision to become a member of the San Antonio Police Department was simple; he’s always wanted to be a detective. In fact police work runs in the family. “My two brothers are also in law enforcement. It’s a family thing.”

Sullivan is the father of two boys and is happily married.

With two years in the homicide department under her belt, Detective April Titus is only one of two female detectives in the homicide unit. She is “very comfortable being a woman in a male-dominated profession.” She loves being a homicide detective.

Asked how being a homicide detective has changed her life, Titus says she has become “much more aware of how fragile and precious life is.” The things she’s learned on the job have influenced the way she raises her four children. “I’m much harder on my teenagers because of what I’ve seen. It also scares me that I haven’t taught them everything I need to teach them.”