Letecia Wessels grew up in Makwassie in the North West province. She matriculated from Wolmaransstad High School and started studying at the University of the Free State in 2003.  She obtained her B.Sc., BSc. Hons Genetics (with distinction), M.Sc. Genetics (with distinction) and Ph.D Forensic Genetics degrees from the University of the Free State.  

Conference contributions:

Annual conference of the South African Wildlife Management Association, Port Alfred, September 2008.

Poster presentation:

- Aspects of genetic diversity within and between wildebeest species (genus: Connochaetes)

Annual conference of the South African Wildlife Management Association, Black Mountain, September 2009.

Poster presentation

- First results from the application of two cross-species markers to identify hybrid wildebeest

21st Biennial congress of the South African Genetics Society (9-10 April 2010)

Paper presentation

- Cross-species microsatellite markers for the detection of hybrids in the genus Connochaetes

International Wildlife Ranching Symposium (10-13 October 2011)                                                       

Poster presentation                                                                                                                              

- Cross-species microsatellite markers for the detection of hybrids in the genus Connochaetes

1st National Forensic Services Conference (2 - 5 July 2013) Pretoria

Paper presentation

- Wildlife forensic science

2^nd National Forensic Services Conference, Pretoria, (February 2014)

Paper presentation

- Wildlife Forensic Science: Cross-species microsatellite markers for the detection of hybrids in the genus Connochaetes

3^rd National Forensic Services Conference, Pretoria, (February 2015)

Paper presentation

- Molecular forensic entomology research program at the UFS

4^th National Forensic Services Conference, Pretoria, (February 2017)

Paper presentation

- Gene expression profiling of forensically important blow fly species

6^th Annual Conference of the African Society of Forensic Medicine (ASFM), Bloemfontein, (March 2017)

Paper presentation

- Gene expression profiling of forensically important blow fly species

European Forensic DNA working group meeting, Malta (October 2023)

Poster presentation

- Investigating the feasibility of molecular techniques in augmenting insect based post-mortem interval estimation

Conservation Genetics

Forensic Genetics

FORS 3744 - DNA Forensics

FORG 6834 - Forensic DNA typing and quality assurance