We all, at times, need to take a step back and look at our personal lives. We are always in the mix of other people’s mess and we often neglect our own. As public servants none of us are paid what would be considered an amazing wage. However, we can take steps to live better,…
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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…
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Defining Time of Death There are several times of death. Let me repeat that—there are several times of death. Time of death seems to be a simple and straightforward term that obviously means the exact time that the victim drew his last breath. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. There are actually three different times…
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Stephanie Payne, author of The Sandbox Wars, talks about the battles that can occur when end of life planning is not completed. As Coroners, Medical Examiners, and death investigators we can be faced with families unprepared for a death of a loved one. You may also be faced with the “long lost” family member that…
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Critical Role of Managers and Administrators in a Medical Examiner/Coroner Office Paul R. Parker III, B.S., D-ABMDI Overview There is no greater honor than writing the last chapter of someone’s life story. As medicolegal death investigators, that is what we do and, for the most part, we do it well. With seemingly innumerable courses, electronic…
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Autoerotic deaths are accidental deaths that occur during solitary sexual activity in which some type of apparatus that was used to enhance the sexual stimulation of the deceased caused the unintentional death. The prevalence of auto-erotic fatalities is difficult to calculate, since a coroner often records a verdict of accident or misadventure. It is under…
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Serial killers hold the fascination of the public, whether in true crime news accounts of individuals such as Ted Bundy or fictional depictions such as the television shows Dexter and Criminal Minds or popular movies such as the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” or “Silence of the Lambs.” Serial killers seem so purely predatory and…
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[app_audio src=””]The human body burns predictably based it on its anatomical configuration of soft tissues and bones. Fire creates burn patterns to soft tissues: skin, fat, muscle, and then on select areas of the skeleton. These burn patterns convey how the body burned within its environment and if there was any traumatic injury present prior…
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The term “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS) was developed to explain those instances in which severe intracranial trauma occurred in the absence of signs of external head trauma. SBS is the severe intentional application of violent force (shaking) in one or more episodes, resulting in intracranial injuries to the child. Physical abuse of children by shaking…
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Predicting the postmortem interval of a decedent is a major task of law enforcement. Most methods implemented by death investigators rely on qualitative information (i.e. rigor mortis, livor mortis). Microbes represent 99% of somatic cells in and on a human body. No data are available on the use of these organisms to predict the time…
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