In the job of investigating death, the investigator may use the resources of several different sciences to help determine many aspects of the death and subsequent  investigation. It is sometimes necessary to bring in expertise from outside an agency. The field of forensic science is so broad today no agency will have every form of specialty…

This first hand true account of one of the most horrific  murders in Canadian history gives us an insight rarely gained into the mind of a murderer  and the forensics and documentation that goes into the prosecution of a murder of this caliber.  Dan Zupanksy was a prime witness in this case because of his…

What is a Medicolegal Death Investigator? The role of the medicolegal death investigator is to investigate any death that falls under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner or coroner, including all suspicious, violent, unexplained and unexpected deaths. The medicolegal death investigator is responsible for the dead person, whereas the local law enforcement jurisdiction is responsible…

  The stress of 911 call-takers Mark Bond Thursday, January 15, 2015   In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended that police departments have a single number for the public to call when they need police services. In 1968, Haleyville, Alabama, became the first city in the United…

The determination of the cause of death from exposure to extreme temperatures is a diagnosis of exclusion. Because both clinical and autopsy findings are nonspecific, a thorough investigation of the background and scene, evaluation of temporally relevant environmental conditions, and assessment of the victim’s underlying state of health with appropriate laboratory studies, which frequently include…

Because blood behaves according to certain scientific principles, trained bloodstain pattern analysts can examine the blood evidence left behind and draw conclusions as to how the blood may have been shed. From what may appear to be a random distribution of bloodstains at a crime scene, analysts can categorize the stains by gathering information from…

Forensic anthropology is the analysis of skeletal, badly decomposed, or otherwise unidentified human remains, and  is important in both legal and humanitarian contexts. Forensic anthropologists apply standard scientific techniques developed in physical anthropology to analyze human remains, and to aid in the detection of crime. In addition to assisting in locating and recovering human skeletal remains, forensic anthropologists…

Ethical behavior goes beyond simply knowing the difference between right and wrong; it is doing what is right. The purpose of promoting ethical investigation practices is to establish and promote clearly defined standards of conduct for investigators. These standards assist in protecting the investigator and the public. While some practices may be legal, the investigator…

The question in this series is whether law enforcement ignored certain facts because it did not fit a pre-textual narrative or were simply instructed to look the other way resulting in  known facts and evidence never being considered. All this goes into the question of cocaine, killing, and coverup. This Episode In this episode I…